By Jason Starkey
Curious about the difference between an industrial, commercial or home embroidery machine? Learn the basics of each to get a better feel for which type may suit you and your business.
What are Industrial and Commercial embroidery machines?
The Commercial or Industrial embroidery machine has been built for production and continual use. By continual we mean it is ran for long periods of time, day after day. In the current embroidery industry, commercial or industrial embroidery machines are most commonly multi-needle machines. These needles are used to change between colors quickly and easily to increase production and decrease the time it takes to embroider products. The commercial or industrial machines differ from home embroidery machines mainly in the construction. At one time they were most commonly single needle machines but the industry is seeing more multi-needle home machines as technology develops. Examples of industrial and commercial embroidery machines would be SWF, Tajima, Barudan and ZSK.
What are Home embroidery machines?
Most home or hobby based machines are made up of plastic components which don’t stand up to the heat and demand of production long term. Generally, home embroidery machines also have a limited embroidery area and are also limited to few accessories compared to industrial machines. Problems and breakdowns may also be catastrophic and may make no sense to repair on home model machines. However, home machines are inexpensive compared to commercial machines and can be purchased from most small sewing machine distributors or even shopping centers. Some examples of Home embroidery machines are brands like Janome, Brother and Bernina. SWF does offer a crossover model between home and commercial deemed the MA-series which includes the MAN-12.
This article was originally posted on swfemb.com that Stitch It International runs and owns. It has been re-purposed and added to our most up-to-date blog here.