A small college in Belmont, North Carolina, has opened a facility that it says will revolutionize the way textiles are produced.
Gaston College’s Kimbrell Fiber Innovation Center is a 39,000-square-foot facility that houses a polymer development lab, an automated extrusion line, yarn and filament processing areas, and incubation space for entrepreneurs. The facility will allow textile makers to research and develop products in one location, significantly streamlining a process that traditionally gets carried out over multiple locations.
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“This center will be a breakthrough for the textile industry because the fiber idea or concept conversion will be all under one roof…we can produce the products that we need, and it will not be made in China or Asia but in Gaston County,” said Davis Warlick, executive vice president of Parkdale Mills, which is located in Gaston County and has partnered with Gaston College’s Textile Technology Center for more than 15 years.
For more than 75 years, Gaston College’s Textile Technology Center has provided technical assistance and support to the textile industry in North Carolina and globally. The school was initially founded in 1943 as a trade school for people who wanted to work in the many textile mills across North Carolina. The Fiber Innovation Center will expand that reach and offer new educational opportunities not only to Gaston College students, but also to textile professionals through customized training programs and degree programs.
“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.”
Gaston College received federal and state government grants, as well as equipment donations from partner companies and manufacturers to make the Fiber Innovation Center a reality. The center will help develop textiles for a wide range of applications, including fashion, healthcare, automotive, military and more.
“Textiles is not your grandmother’s textile industry anymore,” Warlick told Spectrum News. “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.”
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