TC², ExactFlat Partner on Technology for Apparel Manufacturers

ExactFlat, a provider of software for sewn product manufacturers, and apparel industry technology consultant [TC]² are collaborating on a joint technology offering. Both contributors will leverage their respective strengths and synergies to optimize processes and tools to help apparel manufacturers bring the right products to market faster and more efficiently, for an increasingly diverse market.

"The ability to create new designs that fit the full size range of a company's target market using 3D scan and fit data is a huge step forward and a real paradigm shift in the industry," said Dr. Mike Fralix, president and CEO of [TC]² . He added that "the ability to begin with a 3D scan of a model, then rapidly create a new design, and produce styles that fit a variety of body shapes and sizes based on technology from [TC]² and ExactFlat represents a tremendous business advantage in product development, market delivery, and customer satisfaction."

The SolidWorks platform hosts a global community of over 2 million users and 100's of support organizations, providing customers a strong support ecosystem. With the addition of ExactFlat, this combined platform will work with 3D design, traditional 2D patterns, body scans and more, providing tools across the traditional product development workflow - pattern design, nesting/marker making, costing, and bill of material generation. The addition of [TC]²'s unique body scanning and size fit data technology will provide the final layer to accurately emulate the traditional handoffs between the designer, pattern maker, grader, and first-cost producer.

"The apparel industry has been slow to adopt 3D due to a lack of tools designed specifically for their needs," states Steven McLendon, EVP of ExactFlat. "The technology wasn't sufficiently mature. With this collaboration, we are addressing the most critical challenges for apparel manufacturers - bringing new products to market faster, while maintaining the highest level of control over costs and quality. The result? Manufacturers will get 100 percent of the result with just 25 percent of the effort."