How to produce a sports Brace in our factory?
WorldBrace is a full-service and high-quality sports brace manufacturer. We’re known for sourcing the best quality of material and manufacturing excellent pieces of sports braces that precisely match our customer design details. Sports brace manufacturing is very experience-demanding, but our dynamic team of long-standing skilled employees, which is combined with our twenty-year manufacturing experience, will ensure every process is executed correctly
There are many stages of productions in sports brace. In this article, we will show you step by step how a sports brace is born.
Table of Contents
Sourcing raw material
We believe our products can only reach their full potential with the best raw material available on the market, and it had s always been a top priority for us. Hence, we have a network of trusted suppliers who has worked with us for the last several years.
One of our main material is neoprene, which is widely used in sports equipment such as gloves, waders, wetsuits and knee and elbow pads. Standard Thicknesses: 1/8″, 1/4″, 3/8″, 1/2″, 3 /4″, 1″ and 2″. We use 1″ neoprene material. The color of neoprene color is usually black or beige.
Because neoprene is directly exposed to the skin in the final product, we strictly require our supplier to provide a test report to prove that the neoprene is free of harmful chemical substances.
Neoprene slicing
The thickness of brace products is usually around 1.5mm. Our slicing machine will slice the neoprene sheet from a thickness of 25.4mm to a thickness of 1.5mm. Many small-scale manufacturers don’t have a slicing machine, but we slice the material at our own factory to have better control over the supply chain and the delivery time of the product. The final material is usually rolled into a circle.
Composite & lamination
Lamination is the process of gluing neoprene with many different kinds of fabrics together for various applications. We use water-based adhesives instead of conventional solvent-based glues, because, water-based adhesives do not release harmful volatile organic compounds in the process while still offering the same bonding strength.
Based on the requirement of the client, laminated neoprene can be composed of two or three layers:
2 layers: Fabric + Neoprene sheet
3 layers: Fabric + Neoprene sheet + Fabric
Common composite fabrics are nylon and polyester. If you want to print the color or pattern on the surface of the product, it will be printed on the fabric before compounding.
Embossed & Perforated
“Embossed” refers to embossing the surface of the Neoprene with a different pattern of mould so that the surface presents a different pattern. Benefits of the process include an increase in the surface strength of the neoprene fabric, improvement in aesthetics, and special functionalities. In addition, Embossed Neoprene is commonly used to make products that require increased surface strength or anti-slip effects.
“Perforated” refers to the use of different shapes of moulds to perforate the neoprene fabric to create holes of various shapes and sizes to increase breathability, reduce weight and enhance the design. “Perforated Neoprene” is commonly used to make products that require increased breathability or improved appearance.
Pattern Making
Pattern Making is mainly aimed at making samples. This step can be omitted in production after the final sample is confirmed.
WorldBrace has a team of talented designers who bring the concept into reality. Pattern making is a highly skilled technique that calls for technical ability as well as a good interpretation of the product’s design and function. With the use of computer software, we can achieve more sophisticated designs. We currently use the latest computer-aided software to make and grade patterns. This reduces the time to make and grade patterns in comparison to manual pattern making, making fast-prototyping a possibility even with the most complex design.
Tailoring & Cutting
Cutting is the process to cut out the fabric pieces from specified neoprene fabric for making brace products. Regardless of the size of your design, WorldBrace is well equipped to meet your requirement. We’re equipped to cut any width neoprene fabric. Our modular cutting tables are maintained regularly to ensure high-precision and low-waste cutting. All of our cutting equipment are computer-controlled, which eliminates variation in the dimensions of the fabric pieces. For larger quantities of products, we also have automated cutting equipment, which can be automatically cut as long as the program is entered.
Printing
WorldBrace can perform different kinds of printing based on your design. There are several printing techniques, and each of them is suitable for a certain product. We will select the right printing technique after understanding the customer’s requirements. Two of the most-used techniques are screen printing or hot stamping.
Sewing
Sewing is the most critical process of any sports brace production. We maintain a team of experienced tailors for the manufacturing of premium quality sports braces. Combined with the latest generation of sewing machines, you can expect strong and effective stitching of your products.
We have adopted the assembly line manufacturing process that ensures the swift and efficient production of sports braces. We follow high-quality control checks at the time of production and at the end of production. The two processes are also known as In-line and end line quality inspection respectively. In-line quality inspection means inspecting at the time of production, so that any defect occurring may be located at the earlier stage which also keeps the defects rate at minimal. And end line quality inspection is done at end of our sewing to address quality issues post-production.
Finishing Quality Control
Finishing quality control is an important process as it improves the appearance of the sports braces and makes them appealing for the end-user. We have a dedicated team that works for the entire finishing process. The finishing department works in the following sequence:
1. Thread Sucking:
Thread sucking is an important step in finishing, it involves cutting off unwanted threads and the cutting of extra loop lengths. All hanging threads are cut with a hand trimmer. By the end of this section, the product is free from major irregularities like the protruding and left-over threads.
2. Quality Inspection:
“Quality is the fulfillment of the specified requirements for a product or service”. Our product crosses the multi-level quality checkpoints before reaching the buyer to ensure that there is no fault. Our quality control team performs the visual examination to ensure that the product is free from any fabric faults, size measurement faults, zipper, matching of color and stripe faults, ironing faults, etc.
3. Final Audit:
The final inspection process is a final quality audit in sports supports manufacturing, known as “Final Audit”. The final audit is a judgment that certifies a lot is shippable or not from the buyer(customer) end as per buyer quality standard. The final inspection result shows the whole factory’s quality performance. It may occur before or after the packed in poly bags and cartons.
Packing and Dispatch
This is the final process in the production of sports brace products, which prepares the finished merchandise for delivery to the customer. It is an important part of the manufacturing process. We pack each of your products in a clear bag (preferably bio-degradable) and all go inside a carton. WorldBrace has its standard packing. In case any custom packing instruction is there for your brand, we can do that too. We can help you design the outer packaging of your product.
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