Malden Goes Digital - Malden Mills

Using state-of-the-art CAD systems, fleece maven Malden Mills has computerized the entire print development process.

Malden Mills -- a pioneer in the development of Polarfleece [R], and Polartec [R], high-tech branded fleece fabrics that have created a $3 billion consumer market -- is now blazing new trails in the use of computer-aided design (CAD). The innovative textile firm has embraced digital design and completely automated the print development process from concept to finished fabric.

While Polarfleece typically brings to mind solid color sport and leisure garments the fabric has evolved into a wide range of printed products, including infants apparel toys dog bedding and home accessories. Today, Malden not only produces its own line of printed fabrics but also develops custom designs for the "who's who" of branded outdoor inspired apparel including Patag-onia, Lands End and L.L. Bean.

To handle the demands of so many customers, Malden has an extensive CAD studio at its Lawrence, MA, headquarters. Describing the setup, Sally Ann LeBlanc manager of the CAD department, notes that the firm has five Vision systems from NedGraphics arid one U4ia system from Lectra Systems. In addition, some of the designers work with Adobe Photoshop, and the research and development department has a Sophis system for technical fabric design.

Realizing that it would need to be innovative in both manufacturing and product design to survive as a U.S.-based mill, Maiden started building a top-notch team of textile researchers and developers more than a quarter century ago. Since then, the company has been able to take advantage of the high-tech expertise found at nearby Boston, MA, universities as well as the trained labor force left behind as other regional mills have shut down or relocated to states with lower wage rates and less stringent environmental laws.

Over the years, Maiden has progressed with technology and overcome the perceptions that high quality artwork cannot be created using CAD systems. "In the beginning, there were definitely compromises on special effects like watercolor looks," explains Amnon Gabay, Maiden's print house manager. "Now it is rare not to be able to achieve the quality we need on the computer."

Moreover, Gabay says, Malden's process has improved in parallel with technical advances at New Bedford, MA-based Rothtec Engraving Corp., the engraving company that produces Maiden's screens.

"We have 75 CAD systems and nine laser engravers in five locations," points out Fred Roth, CEO of Rothtec. "We went from 20 artists painting by hand and five darkroom operators to 11 computer artists and one darkroom operator at our New England location. [Yet] we're doing two and one-half times the work."

Working digitally, as Rothtec does with Malden, is becoming the norm rather than the exception, Roth says. And Malden has been able to negotiate a significant reduction in the cost of engraving screens as a result. "Moreover, Maiden's designers are doing all of the artwork, so they are totally responsible for the interpretation of the designs," he adds.

Blending the Traditional with the New

Malden's design process, which starts nearly two years ahead of the retail shipping season, begins fairly typically with shopping trips to the major fabric shows, such as Premiere Vision in Pads, France. "Color development is first," notes LeBlanc. "Our customers look to us for color direction."

While the textile firm's choices generally reflect trends in the sports industry, two major groups are created each season -- core/classic and directional -- which cover a wide range of customer needs. "We have a vast library of colors for our fabrics, so we can quickly find a starting point for development," LeBlanc says, adding that the design department also utilizes a spectrophotometer to measure color samples.

Print designs are color coordinated to work with the solid colors for a season. Artwork and samples culled from trend research are scanned into the CAD computers and manipulated according to a seasons design direction. "We try to create all artwork as production ready," LeBlanc explains, meaning that the images are color separated and created in repeats.

By contrast, many CAD departments do not take the time initially to create perfect separations or repeats because there is an overwhelming demand for images. For Malden, however, the advantages of creating images with the entire design-to-production workflow in mind greatly outweigh the benefits of creating many images that will later require further editing. For example, this approach allows the firm to quickly move from concept to production while having the ability to make modifications to designs.

A Closer Look at the Process

Here's how the process works: Gabay's print house department reviews designs twice weekly. At these meetings, the images are carefully analyzed in order to spot any potential production problems. Of critical concern is the amount of detail, for example the number of fine lines in a design, because it is difficult to reproduce intricate images on Polarfleece and Polartec, which are high-nap fabrics.

By creating patterns digitally, Malden has been able to greatly expand the type of prints used on the fabrics and improve the overall quality of the designs. And because all of the designs are stored in the CAD system, necessary changes identified through the review meetings can be made quickly.

"I definitely feel more free to request changes than in the past," Gabay says. "And it takes a very short time to make changes that will result in much better quality down the line. [For example,] in the past we always had to build in a great deal of trapping, but today the accuracy of engraving has improved so that we only need a minimum amount of trap. The designs look much sharper," he continues.

(Trapping is the area where two colors in a design overlap. It is used to prevent the ground color from showing through when the print registration is not perfect.)

"We are able to get some really interesting looks that were previously unachievable," notes LeBlanc. "By experimenting with the digital files, we can try different things to see what works best."

It's also possible to send the design files to customers electronically, greatly speeding the approval process. Files are checked for image quality, size and layout (but not necessarily color). Once customer approval has been given, screens are engraved and a strike-off is produced. As a comparison, Gabay relays: "Before we had CAD, we would have to come up with a production plan that allowed at least 90 days to get prints engraved and produced. Now the planning calendar is down to 30 days."

"There are still U.S. companies out there that are paying for hand-painted stripes and plaids, [not to mention] more complicated prints and textures," says Geoffrey Taylor, vice president of sales, computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) systems, at NedGraphics. "There is this belief that you need to have actual painted artwork to accept a design. In most cases, this simply is not the case any longer."

From CAD to the Internet

When Malden launched its Web site, http://www.polartec.com, LeBlanc was called upon to create images for the site's online retail store. In the normal design process, images are created with production in mind, so they are flat representations of the colors to be used in printing. For the Web, the images needed to look more like final products, so texturing was used to simulate the fleece look.

"For products like shearlings, we usually apply some texturing in the design software so the customers can get a better idea of the final product. Our [wholesale] customers, on the other hand, are used to looking at clean CAD images," says LeBlanc, who notes that Web customers have been happy with the close correlation between the images they view on the screen and the actual fabric they receive. They also have the option to order a set of swatches if necessary.

By using existing images and manipulating them in-house--rather than taking a photograph of each fabric -- Malden saves a great deal of time and money. Additionally, the realistic-looking fabric images can be used in booklets for the sales force. LeBlanc uses both NedGraphics' Vision and Lectra's U4ia software for this task. The print designs and related colorways are laid out in formatted templates, which have eliminated the tedious and time-consuming job of cutting fabric swatches and gluing them to cards.

Malden's all-digital print workflow has allowed Maiden to achieve better results by working smarter, not harder. In fact, the most popular buzzword among the designers is "re-purposing," a phrase used to describe the use of images created for one function, such as print production, in other areas, such as Web sites and sales collateral.

Alison Hardy is a consultant specializing in the use of computers for fashion and fabric design. Her company, Fabri CAD, is based in Chelmsford, MA, and is known for providing in formation on the growing apparel and textile CAD business.

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