Warwick Mills shows the kind of innovative know-how common among American textile companies that have survived the fierce global competition of recent years.
The small private company in New Hampshire has climbed steadily up the economic ladder of its industry to produce specialized fabrics that weave in ceramics, metals and fiberglass. These high-value fabrics are used in products like safety gloves for industrial workers and body armor for the police and military.
Now, Warwick Mills is joining the Defense Department, universities including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and nearly 50 other companies in an ambitious $320 million project to push the American textile industry into the digital age. Key to the plan is a technical ingredient: embedding a variety of tiny semiconductors and sensors into fabrics that can see, hear, communicate, store energy, warm or cool a person or monitor the wearer’s health.
So-called "smart fabrics," along with bio-genetically manufactured drag line spider silk, will revolutionize and revitalize the once predominant American textile industry. To read more, click here.