02-07-2025
Unlocking Efficiency in the Textile Industry
Objective hand feel determination with the TSA Tactile Sensation Analyzer and digital utilisation of the test results by the help of the cloud-based Virtual Haptic Library results in Cost Reduction and Process Optimisation .
Alexander Grüner, Global Business Development Manager, emtec Electronic GmbH
In today's fast-paced and increasingly digitalised textile industry, product development cycles must become faster, more efficient, and more sustainable—without compromising quality. Yet the traditional processes in fabric's hand feel evaluation and communication of the results along the supply chain often lead to inefficiencies, miscommunication, and escalating costs.
This is where the TSA Tactile Sensation Analyzer and the cloud-based Virtual Haptic Library from emtec Electronic offer a game-changing solution.
The Problem: Inefficiencies in Fabric Development and Communication
Product development in the textile industry is a time-consuming and costly process. Typically, brands begin with an idea and a reference sample to define target qualities like hand feel and comfort. This sample is sent to multiple suppliers who attempt to reproduce the feel, often without a clear, quantifiable understanding of what 'the right feel' means.
This trial-and-error process can span 4–5 development cycles over 20 weeks or more. For companies working with numerous mills, this quickly adds up: thousands of fabric submissions, hundreds of hours of manual testing, and courier costs alone reaching into the hundreds of thousands of euros annually. Additionally, there is no universally accepted or objective standard in the industry to evaluate the haptic properties of textiles, which leads to inconsistent quality control and communication gaps between mills, brands, and quality teams.
The Solution: Quantification and Digitalisation with TSA and the Virtual Haptic Library
The TSA provides an objective and repeatable measurement of a textile's hand feel and wearing comfort by evaluating individual haptic parameters such as:
Surface softness and smoothness
Stretch and recovery
Friction
Thermo-haptic behaviour
Thermal insulation
Compressibility and crumple resistance
These parameters are measured individually and combined through application-specific algorithms to calculate an overall hand feel score that correlates well with human perception. This ensures not only accuracy, but also cross-cultural consistency in quality standards.
Once a sample is measured, the data is instantly uploaded to the Virtual Haptic Library, a cloud-based platform where digital haptic profiles are stored and shared across the supply chain.
Real-World Impact: Time and Cost Savings at Scale
The textile industry's supply chain is complex, the quality of the garment or any other textile product depends on each of the steps that need to be taken until the finished product, like illustrated from the fibre to the sales. The costs are not limited to sampling (shipping, handling, testing, etc.); the extended duration of the process also contributes significantly to the overall expense.
Implementing the TSA and the Virtual Haptic Library dramatically reduces the need for physical sample exchanges. Suppliers can develop fabrics based on numeric, objective targets, eliminating unnecessary iterations and shipping. In many cases, the required hand feel can be achieved in just one development cycle.
To understand the financial and logistical benefits, consider a brand that collaborates with 14 mills and processes over 16,000 sample submittals annually. If each sample costs approximately $100 (including courier fees, handling, and testing), the total yearly expense reaches over $1.6 million. Labour costs for sample evaluation can add another $600,000.
Optimised Process Flow
With the TSA and cloud platform integrated, the new development workflow looks like this:
The brand defines the desired hand feel using the TSA.
The values are shared with the fabric supplier via the Virtual Haptic Library.
The supplier uses these values to develop and validate a matching fabric on-site using their own TSA device.
Once alignment is confirmed, one final sample is sent for physical verification.
The result is faster time-to-market, lower development costs, and a significant reduction in the environmental footprint due to fewer sample shipments.
Broader Benefits Across the Textile Supply Chain
Beyond product development, the TSA and Virtual Haptic Library can be used to:
Improve quality assurance by establishing digital haptic standards for batch control.
Enhance sourcing decisions through measurable and comparable haptic profiles.
Streamline complaint management by enabling objective evaluation of disputed fabric characteristics.
Accelerate market research by digitising consumer preferences into measurable targets.
Aligning with Sustainability Goals
Reducing the number of sample shipments does not only save time and money—it also supports global sustainability initiatives. Lower shipping volumes mean lower CO₂ emissions, less packaging waste, and an eco-friendlier product development cycle.
Moreover, digital tools such as the TSA and the Virtual Haptic Library empower companies to embrace the principles of Industry 4.0: integrating intelligent data, cloud platforms, and automation into every stage of the product lifecycle.
The Future of Textile Development is Objective and Digital
The Virtual Haptic Library enables brands to communicate numeric haptic specifications and mills to verify compliance for each fabric without shipping samples around the world. A user can measure a development sample or use standardised key descriptors to search the database for existing fabric matches, eliminating wasted time due to sample confusion, long shipping routes, unclear descriptions or language barriers.
The cloud-based Virtual Haptic Library
Improves the supply chain communication
Accelerates fabric development
Assures product quality
Reduces courier costs required to send development samples
Reduces the environmental footprint.
Subjective evaluation of textile hand feel has been a limiting factor in communication and process optimisation for decades. The TSA finally brings a reliable, repeatable, and digital method to overcome this hurdle. Combined with the Virtual Haptic Library, it provides a powerful infrastructure for brands and mills to collaborate more efficiently, economically, and sustainably.
