Manufacturing-Based Revolution

The Pennsylvania Fabric Discovery Center (PA FDC) will help advance AFFOA's mission to enable a manufacturing-based revolution-enhancing traditional fibers, yarns, and textiles into highly sophisticated integrated systems and networked devices. This revolution will enable the existing textile industry ecosystem to transform into an Intellectual Property-differentiated, value-added, high-tech industry.

Textile Advanced Manufacturing R&D Facilities

The PA FDC will provide a vehicle for universities, private companies, equipment vendors, the investment community, and federal, state, and local government to support and invest in Pennsylvania and the tri-state region's advanced textile manufacturing ecosystem. The PA FDC will provide the cutting-edge research and development textile prototyping facilities for the four AFFOA Manufacturing Thrusts-Computer Aided Design of Integrated Textiles(CAD-IT), Fiber and Yarn Devices(FYD), Textiles Systems Assemblies(TSA) and System integration (SI). The facility will include space to support small to mid-size start-up incubation and activities related to education and workforce development. The PA FDC plans to provide access-protected ITAR-restricted areas for R&D and pilot production.