Have you ever wondered why the number keypad of your push button telephone seldom fails or how

the keys on the keyboard of your computer are so reliable? How come a washbasin tap bought in
Germany can fit the pipes of your bathroom in New Delhi. Why does a tyre of any company fit the rim
of your car? Why does a 6mm nut made by any company fit a 6mm bolt made by another company?
The answer to all the above questions is STANDARDS. But, do we have such standards in the apparel
industry? Mukesh Gupta, Director, Cleantech, with over 20 years of work experience in the apparel
industry and a regular contributor to StitchWorld, has a close look....
Standards in the Sewing Industry
In the late nineteenth century, with railways expanding quite fast globally, a forward-thinking group of engineers
and scientists got together to lay down standards for railway materials and construction to address the problem
of frequent accidents. Their work led to standardisation of the steel used in railway construction, ultimately
improving railroad safety for the public.

On 26 April 1901, the first meeting of the Engineering Standards Committee took place in the United Kingdom,
which reduced the number of gauges of tramway rails from 75 to 5, saving costs due to standardisation of about
1 million GBP thus leading to the worlds first standards organisation.

There was a need to indicate to buyers that goods were up to standard; this led to the introduction of the British
Standard Mark later known as the Kitemark. When this mark was affixed to a product, the consumer was
assured that the product met the conditions laid down by the standard, much like the ISI mark in our country.

By 1920 the standards message spread from United Kingdom to the entire world. But World War II left the
industrialised world very low on resources. The most important post-war aim of all nations was to boost exports.
To do this, goods needed to be internationally acceptable. Other nations shared this aim and in 1946 the
International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) was set up.
International standards have had much success since 1946. Agreed sizes and shapes of items such as audio-
cassettes, freight containers and credit cards have helped to encourage international exchange and co-
operation.

Standards is a voluntary system, a unique and diversified federation that includes industry, standards developing
organisations, trade associations, professional and technical societies, governments, labour and consumer
groups, who work together towards developing acceptable standards worldwide. Today, ISO, ASTM, BS & IEEE
address the standardisation needs of the global marketplace.

Objective of Standards
To set up standards of quality, performance and dimensions, to prepare and promote the general adoption of a
specification and to alter or amend these standards as and when required.

To register marks of all descriptions and to approve their fixing to a product or service.

How are Standards Developed?
Standards are developed according to the following principles:
Consensus: The views of all interested groups are taken into account: manufacturers, vendors and
users, consumer groups, testing laboratories, governments, engineering professions and research
organisations.
Industry-wide: Global solutions to satisfy industries and customers worldwide.
Voluntary:International standardisation is market-driven and therefore based on voluntary involvement
of all interests in the market-place.
The need for a standard expressed by an interested sector is communicated to a national member body, which
proposes the new work item to the Standard making organisation. Once the need for an International Standard
has been formally recognised, the first phase involves definition of the technical scope of the future standard.
This is usually carried out in working groups which comprise technical experts from countries interested in the
subject matter. Once agreement has been reached on which technical aspects are to be covered in the standard,
a second phase, the consensus-building phase is entered, during which countries negotiate the detailed specs
within the standard. The final phase comprises the formal approval of the resulting draft International Standard,
following which the agreed text is published as an International Standard.

Most standards require periodic revision. Several factors combine to render a standard out of date: technological
evolution, new methods and materials, new quality and safety requirements. It has been established as a general
rule that all standards should be reviewed at intervals of not more than five years. On occasion, it may be
necessary to revise a standard earlier.
Standardisation Centre in China
The Chinese National Sewing Machine Standardisation Centre, with
authorisation as a National Sewing Machine Standardisation Technical
Attributive Body was formed in 1978. Taking charge of import & export
technical operation services for ISO / TC148, In 1985, it was awarded
the ISO certificate for Technical Attributive Bodies. In 2005, it was
renamed as National Sewing Machinery Standardisation Administration
with its secretariat set within China National Sewing Machine
Standardisation Centre(CNSMSC).

Its principal responsibilities include day-to-day management of
standardisation of Chinas sewing machinery industry, establishment
and enforcement of enacted or revised plans related to national
standards or industry standards, training and promotion work according
to relevant standards, enactment of relevant enterprise standards,
contact with the International Standardisation Organisation ISO / TC
148 Technical Committee for relative work, regular information &
technical exchange with relevant standardisation organisation both at
home and abroad and registration & recording work of sewing machine
product models.

China National Sewing Machine Standardisation Centre and its
Secretariat have been actively collecting relative technical standards
from the world sewing machine circles, including ANSI, FED, UL, BS, JIS
and DIN. In addition, they also refer to the ISOs
Impact of Standards
Standardisation has come into limelight as a source of strategic and competitive advantage in the ever-
expanding global economy. Companies view standards as a key to product development, quality or
environmental compliance, to compete successfully in the global marketplace. Standardisation achieves
competitiveness, quality, product certification and conformity.

The world recognises a need for globally relevant standards and conformity assessment mechanisms. Issues such
as global trade, competition, health, safety & the environment and consumer needs are becoming primary.

Standards themselves have expanded well beyond documents identifying product specifications to performance
issues including processes, systems and personnel. Technical standards for materials, products, systems and
services must be of high technical quality and market relevance.

A large number of performance parameters were stipulated and the four major technology performance indices,
common to almost all types of sewing machines are noise, vibration, continuous sewing without breakage and
actuation torque.

Performance standard of high-speed lockstitch machines
Noise should not exceed 85 Db(A).The average noise level of the 210 machines from the 70 companies was
80.85 Db(A). 89% were below 83 Db(A), while two were above the limit.

Vibration should be less than 300 m. The vibration values were markedly below the limit, with 21% below 200
m. The average value of the 210 machines was 244.7 m, proof of stringent quality control.

Continuous sewing without breakage should go up to 30 m. With CSMA claiming that its inspection requirements
were 6 times more stringent than industry standards, less than 10% failed to meet requirements.

Actuation torque should not exceed 40 N.m. Actuation torque is the fully integrated representation of machining
precision and assembly level. The machines on display had an unacceptable failure rate of over 25%, even
though the average torque value was below 0.35 N.m. The concerned companies were warned to step up their
standards and today, the quality of those machines are well within stipulated standards.
Standardisation in Chinese Sewing Machines
To dispel the notion that Chinese machines did not conform to
International Standards, China Sewing Machinery Association (CSMA)
carried out a detailed check on all high-speed lockstitch machines on
display at CISMA 2003 (totaling 210 from 70 companies). Only two
machines, less than 1%, failed the check. In 2004, CSMA organised
professional quality inspection on all high-speed overlock sewing
machines, which had been registered to attend CISMA 2004. Altogether
189 prototypes of 63 enterprises of high-speed overlock sewing
machine manufacturers were checked, at three different settings:
Sewing speed less than 5,500 spm, between 5,500 & 6,500 spm and
above 6,500 spm. Team StitchWorld puts together a few excerpts from
the study.
Performance standard of overlock sewing machines
Noise : The average noise of three kinds of inspected prototypes at maximum speed are 77.3dB (A), 80.4dB (A)
and 84.6 dB (A) respectively, which are much lower than requirement of current national industry standard of
80, 84, 86 dB(A) respectively.

Sewing performance: At specified rated sewing speed with 15m sewing length, which is three times the
industry standard, there were 180 units without thread breakage and stitch skipping out of 189 prototypes,
which account for 95% of total inspected prototypes.

Vibration: The average vibration displacement of inspected prototypes at maximum speed were 214 mm, 173
mm and 146mm respectively, much lower than the industry requirement that the displacement shouldnt be
more than 350mm.

Actuation torque: The average actuation torque of inspected prototypes is 0.28N.m, which is much lower than
0.50N.m required by industry standard. Only 6% of prototypes exceed industry standard. Torque of 61%
prototypes range from 0.10~0.30N.m.