A new facility in Gaston County could help spin the future of the U.S. textile industry.
The Kimbrell Fiber Innovation Center, on the campus of Gaston College in Belmont, is being hailed as the first of its kind in the country.
The center includes an extrusion lab, yarn and filament processing areas and a place for entrepreneurs.
What You Need To Know
Leaders say the Kimbrell Fiber Innovation Center will be a gamechanger for the textile industry
The new facility is located on the Gaston College campus in Belmont
The Innovation Center aims to bring together industry and research
The 39,000-square-foot facility will allow textile companies to research and develop products under one roof, streamlining a process that typically spans multiple locations and even continents.
“This is a transformational project for Gaston College and for the future of the textile industry,” said John Hauser, president of Gaston College, in a press release. “The Fiber Innovation Center represents a commitment to sustainable progress, workforce readiness and regional economic development.”
Parkdale Mills is a textile manufacturer headquartered in Gaston County, operating yarn and textile facilities across the Southeast and western hemisphere. The company has partnered for over 15 years with Gaston College’s Textile Technology Center, a hub for training and prototype development.
The new innovation center, neighboring the technology center, enhances their partnership by offering advanced capabilities on site.
“This particular center allows us to fast-track our development and commercialize it,” said Cheryl Smyre, vice president of the Advanced Materials Division at Parkdale Mills. “Having the ability to start from polymer development to extrusion, to yarn processing, and then fabric construction all under one roof — this is unlike any other place available in the United States.”
Executive Vice President of Parkdale Mills Davis Warlick said the center is a beacon of innovation for textiles in America.
“Textiles is not your grandmother’s textile industry anymore,” Warlick said. “It’s evolved. The Fiber Innovation Center will allow the next generation of polymer and fiber technology to be developed here on this site, fibers, fabrics that could be used in the aerospace, cars, automotive, military, all of that great technology can be developed here, all under one roof, which I think will be a game changer for the entire industry.”
N.C. state legislators funded millions toward making the innovation center a reality.
“It’s not just state investment, it’s industry investment as well,” said Stephen Sharp, vice president of fiber innovation and facilities development at Gaston College. “All the equipment is either donated by the manufacturer, a donation from one of our partners, or a grant from the federal or state government. They put that [equipment] in here with the idea of developing the economy, new processes and new technologies that create new businesses that create jobs.”
Textile Technology Center executive director Jasmine Cox-Wade said these investments show the industry’s trust in what the college and center are doing to advance the industry.
“From our product development, our third-party testing, our education in training, we’ve proven our track record,” Cox-Wade said. “It’s just an extension of the work we’ve already done.”
“We’ve been here since 1943, initially as a trade school for people who were going to work in textile mills. We actually have some employees on staff that received their trade degree from this center before it was a part of Gaston College. That’s really been the heartbeat of what we do here and now it’s just grown as the industry has innovated, and so has our program offerings,” Cox-Wade said.
Leaders said the Kimbrell Fiber Innovation Center is designed to support everyone in textile innovation, including startups and global leaders.
Source: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/