Specialty Fabrics Review May 2022 - 44
[ MARKETS ] INDUSTRY IN FOCUS
The Flex Factory will
provide the equipment
manufacturers need
to produce prototypes.
Photo: Wilson College
of Textiles
A place to test
innovation
The Flex Factory will be
a hub for collaboration
and sharing ideas.
By Annemarie Mannion
A
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FACILITY INTENDED
to spur business development, innovation, entrepreneurship and
sustainability in the textile industry in North Carolina and points
beyond is tentatively set to open for testing later this year, with a grand
opening expected to take place in 2024.
The Wilson College of Textiles Flex Factory will comprise about 30,000
square feet inside the college building on Centennial Campus at North
Carolina State University in Raleigh.
The factory will include classrooms, a showroom for manufacturers, vendors
and others to display and demonstrate products, a prototyping area with cutting,
sewing and spinning equipment, body scanners, 3D printers and other hightech
equipment, and flexible spaces for collaboration and sharing ideas.
Cassandra Kwon, assistant research professor at Zeis Textiles Extension for
Economic Development (ZTE), says the factory will answer manufacturers'
needs for space where they can test new ideas, and rapidly develop prototypes
without shutting down manufacturing lines in their own facilities.
" To use a piece of machinery for just a day causes a lot of delays and
inconvenience for the manufacturers, " she says. " It's abundantly clear to me
and my colleagues that the factory is something needed to fill that gap. "
The factory will provide the equipment needed by manufacturers to
produce prototypes on-site and to produce quick iterations of them, she adds.
" Everybody wants speed to market and to be able to test things as quickly
as possible, " says Andre West, director of ZTE. " You can only do rapid
prototyping if you have all the equipment at hand. If you have to go out and
look for that equipment, the benefits of rapid prototyping go away. Here, at the
Flex Factory, a manufacturer can do prototyping and pay for it as they need it. "
44 SPECIALTY FABRICS REVIEW / May 2022
Specialty Fabrics Review May 2022
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