Drexel University has been designated as a key collaborator on a 10-year Department of War initiative, led by North Carolina State University, aimed at modernizing textile manufacturing in the United States to support the defense industry. The FutureTEX award – which includes $36 million in its first year and has a ceiling of $480 million over a decade –brings together industry, government, university and nonprofit partners to advance manufacturing technologies of textiles for military and domestic applications. FutureTEX will champion workforce development, and modernization of facilities and equipment to increase U.S. competitiveness.
The goal of the initiative is to enable American manufacturers to capitalize on digital infrastructure and other emerging technologies to make the domestic supply network more robust as part of the defense industrial base.
“Drexel embraces new models of innovation that eliminate borders between traditional disciplines,” said Genevieve Dion, director of Drexel’s Center for Functional Fabrics and a professor in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. “FutureTEX brings together a collaborative group dedicated to securing the future of textiles across the U.S. supply chain. We are excited to help lead this crucial effort.”
In addition to Drexel and NC State, FutureTEX core partners include Gaston College, Georgia Tech, Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center (ISAIC) and the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
The FutureTEX ecosystem will help manufacturers adopt advanced technologies and techniques that will enable them to innovate with new materials and processes and improve manufacturing capability across the industry. Currently, less than three percent of textiles worn and used in the U.S. are manufactured domestically, according to industry estimates.
“FutureTEX is focused on creating a cutting-edge national ecosystem for defense textiles that simply doesn’t exist today," said David Hinks, chief strategic partnerships officer of FutureTEX and the Prakash Chand Kochhar Dean of NC State's Wilson College of Textiles. “This will involve commercializing applied research to help American textile manufacturing meet the needs of both the warfighter and the domestic textile industry.”
The new institute will be headquartered at the Gaston College’s Kimbrell Campus in Belmont, N.C., with nodes in Philadelphia; Raleigh; Lowell, Massachusetts; and Atlanta. The Philadelphia node, which will support FutureTEX partners throughout Pennsylvania, will be hosted at Drexel’s Center for Functional Fabrics, which houses a 10,000 square-foot manufacturing space established with support from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development. The Center has supported federal advanced manufacturing efforts for more than 10 years.
Since its establishment more than a decade ago, the Center for Functional Fabrics has conducted research that is foundational for advanced textile manufacturing. Its focus areas include developing new methods for modeling and simulating textile behavior, incorporating new materials and developing techniques for rapid advanced manufacturing.
As a node of FutureTEX, the Center will collaborate with industry partners in advanced manufacturing of high-performance textiles to build the next generation of digital modeling and design tools, including incorporating AI-driven design platforms and digital twin technology. The Center for Functional Fabrics team at Drexel draws on the expertise of researchers from across the university, including Dario Salvucci, PhD, and Ali Shokoufandeh, PhD, from the Nick Howley College of Engineering and Computing’s School of Computer and Information Sciences for the creation of digital tools and Clare Milner, PhD, from the College of Nursing and Health Professions, in the development of a passive-energy “Exoskin” technology to enhance movement and help to prevent injuries during physical activity.
The Center’s team is also developing reference resources that will support partners across the FutureTEX network, including a repository of materials and manufacturing processes and a knowledge map of current advanced textile capabilities.
“Drexel is uniquely suited to support this national initiative because of its longstanding connection to the needs of the country and our deep expertise in textile innovation, digital design, advanced manufacturing and materials science,” said Aleister Saunders, PhD, Drexel’s executive vice provost for Research & Innovation. “And because of our longstanding support for federal advanced manufacturing initiatives, our interdisciplinary team of researchers affiliated with the Center for Functional Fabrics have an unparalleled understanding of the capabilities, needs and potential of U.S. manufacturers.”
The initiative is currently recruiting industry partners to be part of the project and has already received more than 200 letters of support from industry organizations, according to FutureTEX leadership.
For more information, contact the Center for Functional Fabrics: functionalfabrics@drexel.edu