Myant, the global leader in textile computing, created the Digital Textile Exchange (DTX) to empower innovators to translate their ideas into textile products manufactured at scale. The DTX is a digital manufacturing platform that connects the network of stakeholders in the advanced textile innovation value-chain to enable unprecedented levels of efficiency, quality and consistency. By connecting existing manufacturers, inventors, startups, and academia with knitting machines and textile producers all working under a new universal set of standards, DTX will streamline the process of going from idea to mass-scale production for advanced textiles, and reignite the culture of making and innovation that has been dwindling in the textile world for decades.
How DTX Works
Recognizing these challenges, Myant created DTX as a digital textile manufacturing nexus in order to democratize access for manufacturers, innovators, start-ups and existing manufacturers. DTX offers a number of key features that lower barriers to scalable innovation:
- Connecting Supply to Demand: DTX dynamically maps the demand for advanced textile manufacturing (i.e. production orders) with available production capacity across a global network of knitting machines. By way of example, consider how a global-apparel manufacturer will now be able to centrally and flexibly manage production, optimize for localized manufacturing, and dynamically respond to evolving volume demands by tapping into a deeper pool of textile production partners. On the flip side, DTX will allow a textile producer with idle knitting machines to maximize output and value by tapping into a deeper pool of available jobs. They could potentially even take on orders that exceed their own production capacity and re-sell portions of an order back on the exchange in order to maintain relationships with a key partner. This type of flexibility for textile producers translates to lower overall risk greater return on their investment in knitting machinery.
- Enforcing Universal Standards: Knitting machines registered on the DTX will also need to comply with a new universal set of quality, materials, labor and environmental sustainability standards, thus ensuring that a product produced on a knitting machine in one country is the same as the same product produced on a different knitting machine in a different country. The standards to be set forth by DTX aim to bring all stakeholders into alignment with the specific regulatory requirements, engineering restrictions and systems integration demands for textiles in each specific industry (e.g. medical, automotive/aerospace, consumer goods, home/office furnishings, etc.). For example, since textile computing applications require knitting with conductive yarns that are not common in conventional textile manufacturing, DTX will define process standards relating to yarn extrusion, covering, coding, testing and validation to ensure that innovators can design against a standard that textile producers can actually support at scale.
- Training for New Processes & Standards: To support the proliferation of these new standards and to prepare a new generation of workers for a new type of work, Myant and the DTX will be working with academic institutions across the world to build academic nodes that support the development of talent for the textile computing industry. Textile manufacturing has evolved tremendously in the last few decades, but the existing and future workforces may not possess the appropriate skill-set to remain relevant as Textile Computing becomes the norm for the textile manufacturing world. The development of talent would come in the form of joint curriculum development, hands-on training on DTX-connected knitting machines, and more, similar to the model in place between Myant and Toronto’s Ryerson University. More academic nodes across the globe are in the process of being established.
Contact us to find out how your academic institution can connect with the DTX.
In Partnership with STOLL
The first knitting machine partners on the Digital Textile Exchange will be Stoll, the German 3D robotic knitting machinery manufacturer. Building upon a relationship that started in December 2017, Myant now has an exclusive global partnership for textile computing applications with Stoll. Stoll’s knitrobotic capability represents a major breakthrough for the textile computing industry, allowing integration of microelectronics and other features into textiles during the knitting process in a fashion similar to the way pick-and-place machines do in microelectronic fabrication. The Stoll knitelligence line of machines includes many other features that are critical to textile computing including a cloud management software where proprietary processes, designs, and other IP will be protected, as well as remote training and production management. Stoll’s knitting machines will be the first to be connected to DTX, opening up a new realm of possibilities for its customers.
Contact us if you are a knitting machine manufacturer who wants to explore the idea of getting your machines connected to the Digital Textile Exchange.
A Global Network of Advanced Textile Manufacturing Clusters
As a first step towards building a global network of advanced textile manufacturing clusters, Myant is growing its own manufacturing capacity by opening up a new facility to house 1,000 state-of-the-art Stoll knitting machines to support the projected demand for their own textile computing products launching in 2020 and beyond. These machines will be connected to DTX, enabling Myant to minimize idle time and maximize their return on investment.
This flagship textile manufacturing cluster will serve as a model for the eventual creation of other similar clusters across the globe, all joined through DTX and operating with the same standards, laying the foundation for a transformation in the textile manufacturing world.
Contact us to inquire about setting up a cluster in your region.