Some of you may remember the days when embroidery machines had no thread trimmers and a limited jump stitch capability. The embroiderer relied on the skill of the digitiser to create the design in such a way that the machine limitations were not an issue.

For the last few years embroidery software companies have been investing a huge amount of time simplifying and automating the digitising process. The result is we now have the ability to create embroidery designs very quickly, but for some designs going back to the basic principles of digitising and spending an extra few minutes on your computer as well as using some of the powerful production tools in ApS-Ethos software, may save you a huge amount of time in production far more than increasing the speed of your embroidery machine.

One of the best ways of increasing production is shortening the sewing time. This can be achieved by removing un-necessary thread trims and colour changes.

Here is a design that currently takes 20 minutes to run on a machine stitching at 1200 spm. By redigitising or editing this using the Ethos embroidery software we have managed to reduce the sewing time by 7.5 minutes by removing thread trims and colour changes. If you have a production run of 60 shirts on a 4 head machine the time saved just on this one job would be just over 1 hour and 52 minutes.

Step 1. We will sew the blue diamonds first, this way we can run underneath the green to get to each of the blue diamonds without trimming. Then change to running stitch to go from the diamonds to the vertical blue lines, it's quicker for the machine to sew the few extra stitches than it is to slow down, stop, trim and then start again. All the blue lines can be connected along the top underneath where the yellow will be stitched.

Step 2. Now we need to create the green step stitch at the top of the shield. Holes may be left automatically using either the step shape cut away or the branching tool. Then we run down to the lower green and create the vertical lines, again connecting these along the top

Step 3. Now we can do the yellow border and then the step stitch shape on top.

Step 4. The final step is to embroider the black, we will do the black first using the branching tool, this automatically joins up the outlines and stitches them in the most efficient way possible. When the lettering is created you need to exit adjacent to the next letter to avoid thread trims. Improving your existing designs Here are a few of the tools available in the ApSEthos software that enable you to reduce the run time of a design.

STEP CUT AWAY

Remove unwanted blocks of stitching by using the step shape cut away tool. Simply select the fill stitch and the castle then right click and select Step Shape Cut away. You can see the blue step stitch underneath the castle has been removed.

This has reduced the stitch count by 500 stitches.

MAKE EMBROIDERY OBJECT

The make embroidery object tool will take a design that has already been digitised and order it in such a way that all the jump stitches and thread trims are removed and it stitches in the most efficient way possible. You can use this tool to improve designs that have already been digitised.

Load in your embroidery file. If it wasn't created in the ApS-Ethos software, then you can use the convert to outlines tool to create the outlines. Now select the objects you want to join and go to the Outlines menu and make embroidery object. (before) (after)

Monogramming

If your customer has sent you a series of names that need embroidering, you can save a significant amount of time by using the namedrop function. If you get your customer to supply the names in a digital form then you can copy and paste these into Ethos and the names will be automatically generated. As well as saving time on the generation of these names, it also removes any chance of typing errors.

The commitment to increase the number of software developers working on the ApS-Ethos suite of software guarantees that it remains at the cutting edge of embroidery software. Coupled with the experienced support team available to assist and train on future products the ApS-Ethos software is a definite advantage to any garment decoration company within the textiles industry for now and the future.

GS UK can offer your company the complete Embroidery package, including Brother Embroidery Machines, ApS-Ethos Software, a full Design Service and a complete range of Embroidery Supplies.

For more information please contact our Sales team on 0115 8448000, email sales@gs-uk.com or visit our website a www.gs-uk.com

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