I. Current Issues and Impact Analysis

In the production of thick fabric edge trimming, Changzhou Dayou Textile Co., Ltd. faces typical problems such as slow trimming speed, incomplete trimming, and fabric entanglement, which have brought multiple adverse effects to the company’s operations.

The customer’s original single-blade, outdated edge-trimming device has relatively low production efficiency. Under the current trimming process conditions, the cutting speed for thick fabrics is only about 40% of that for regular fabrics, and the output per shift falls short of half the designed capacity, forcing longer order delivery cycles and making it difficult to fulfill some urgent orders on time, thereby damaging the company’s market reputation. Furthermore, material waste has increased significantly. Once issues like continuous trimming or fabric entanglement occur, manual intervention is required to clear the tangled fabric and reposition the cutting location, with each handling taking approximately 15 to 30 minutes. Meanwhile, the raw material cost of thick fabrics is generally higher than that of ordinary fabrics, directly driving up overall production costs. Lastly, finished product quality fluctuates considerably. After repeated adjustments during cutting, the fabric edges often develop frayed or uneven defects, failing to meet downstream customers’ requirements for width accuracy and edge smoothness, leading to a higher proportion of non-conforming products, increased risks of returns and exchanges, and further intensifying operational pressures.

II. Analysis of Root Causes

The shear selection for the edge-trimming device was inappropriate. The customer’s previously used outdated edge-trimming equipment employed standard high-speed steel blades with relatively low hardness; when cutting thick fabrics, the blade edges wore down rapidly, becoming dulled within less than three days, resulting in significantly increased cutting resistance. This not only slowed down the cutting speed but also easily caused fibers to be pulled and incompletely severed. In addition, the gap settings of some blades were improperly configured: since thick fabrics have thicker fibers and greater thickness, if the gap is too narrow, it can squeeze the fabric, whereas if the gap is too wide, effective cutting becomes difficult. Both scenarios can lead to fabric entanglement or incomplete cuts.

III. Targeted Solutions

1. Equipment Upgrade and Retrofit

The customer’s original outdated edge-trimming device will be dismantled and replaced with an automated edge-trimming system. Unlike the single-blade design, this new device employs two rotating circular blades—one above and one below—that perform continuous shearing, offering stable operation and high cutting precision, suitable for trimming various thick-fabric products. Its cutting speed can reach 2–3 times that of the old device, significantly boosting trimming efficiency. Moreover, the device is equipped with custom-made hard-alloy blades that boast a long normal service life, and it supports stepless adjustment of the blade gap, allowing quick adaptation to the actual thickness and fiber type of the thick fabric being processed, thus structurally preventing squeezing or incomplete cutting caused by improper gap settings and resolving existing edge-trimming defects at the equipment level. Additionally, the device incorporates automatic edge-tracking technology, ensuring neat cuts along fabric edges or material margins and reducing fabric waste.

2. Standardized Operator Training and Management

Specialized training will be organized for the customer’s operators involved in thick-fabric edge-trimming processes, covering topics such as equipment parameter adjustment methods, blade inspection and replacement procedures, and emergency troubleshooting techniques, ensuring that every operator masters the operational standards for trimming thick fabrics. A process inspection system will also be established, requiring operators to check the equipment’s operating status every two hours and make timely adjustments upon detecting any issues, thereby preventing minor malfunctions from escalating into large-scale fabric entanglement or incomplete cutting problems.

IV. Verification of Problem-Resolution Implementation Effects

Through the implementation of the aforementioned solutions, the following results have been achieved:

• Edge-trimming speed has increased by more than 150%, with actual shift capacity rising from less than 9,000 meters (20 m/min) to over 20,000 meters (50 m/min), meeting the efficiency requirements for order delivery.

• The incidence of continuous trimming and fabric entanglement has dropped from the original 22% to below 3%, reducing the time spent on manual troubleshooting and lowering operator workload.

• The first-pass pass rate for edge trimming has improved to over 98%, with finished edges smooth and width deviations meeting customer requirements, thereby reducing non-conforming products and return/exchange incidents, and enhancing customer satisfaction.