Recommendations/Endorsements
Endorsed by Edexcel for use with their GCSE in Design and Technology: Textiles Technology
Recommended by AQA in their resources list for both their GCSE and GCE D&T Textiles specifications
Testimonials
"The DVD will enhance knowledge and understanding of CAD/CAM and will bring home the importance of not only having the tools but knowing how to use them in the very competitive textile market place."
D&T Practice, Issue 3, 2008
This new offering from Pumpkin TV complements the other DVDs in the range, which are Testing Textiles, Dyeing and Printing and Manufacturing Textiles.
As we have come to expect from the series, the content is clear and concise. It concentrates on the four following areas of CAD/CAM:
- Embroidery
- Knitting
- Digital Printing
- Laser Technology
Each section has a case study featuring current CAD/CAM technology, how it is used to design and create products and the key issues related to designing with new technology.
In each manufacturing area that is previewed, you get an insight into both the design processes and also the associated manufacturing techniques that are used.
As with all Pumpkin TV teacher resources, you are provided with a supporting script so you can follow the content, a set of teachers’ notes and activities for students. The supporting notes have scope for the classroom practitioner to develop additional support materials.
The new CAD/CAM Textiles Manufacturing video provides teachers with an up-to-date snapshot of what CAD/CAM is used for in the textiles industry. It also provides information to enable your classes to see how the emerging technology will affect textile and fashion designers of the future.
Review in Just4Textiles, Teacher News
Textile students are expected to have a working knowledge of CAD/CAM. To a lesser or greater extent most will be aware of the possibilities CAD/CAM can bring to textiles and some may be using computers in their textile practice.
At whatever level students have experienced CAD/CAM they need to appreciate its place both in the classroom as an industrial practice and in the global market place. This thirty minute DVD presenting clear information on four areas of CAD/CAM in the textiles industry will help them to do that. The four areas presented include: Digital Printing, Laser Technology, Computer aided Knitting, Computer aided embroidery.
Digital Printing is discussed as screen vs digital printing with clear imagery and dialogue to draw comparisons. To illustrate this, a small company focusing on the development of digital printing is featured. Fabrics, fibres and pre-printing processes are described enabling more understanding for students of fabric and fibre considerations.
Creative possibilities for design are explained in terms of image manipulation, pattern repeats and colour ways for print designs.
Laser technology features the designer Janet Stoyel who explains the possibilities of cutting fabric with lasers. The designer explains how patterns are adapted to make the laser cuts work. Commercial considerations of time, quality and cost are illustrated through amendments to a client’s commission. It is good to see a designer in her own workshop, a setting which students will be able to relate to.
The Glenbrae factory shows computer integrated knitwear manufacture. It is explained by Stoll that over the last twenty-five years knitting machines have become fully computerised with very little current production by mechanical means. This helps students to understand the labour changes and social impact of CAD/CAM. The brief film footage of past knitwear production illustrates the previous labour intensive processes.
Computer aided Embroidery features the company Price and Buckland. Working to a specification, evaluating a sampling process whether physical or virtual gets over the message of the massive reduction in speed and cost through computer integration systems. It is emphasised that as well as having previously expected skills of embroidery it is now essential for workers to have computer competence and skills.
The DVD provides many links to understanding the global market place and will serve to open up discussion around these important and relevant issues. It will enhance knowledge and understanding of CAD/CAM and will bring home the importance of not only having the tools but knowing how to use them in the very competitive textile market place.
Helena Jedlinska,
Review in Issue 3, 2008 D&T Practice, Design and Technology Association
