A college in Belmont, North Carolina, has launched a facility it says will transform textile production. Gaston College’s Kimbrell Fiber Innovation Center is a 39,000-square-foot hub featuring a polymer development lab, automated extrusion line, yarn and filament processing areas, and incubation space for entrepreneurs. The center enables textile makers to conduct research and product development in one place, eliminating the need to spread processes across multiple sites.
“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, a long-time partner of Gaston College’s Textile Technology Center.
Gaston College’s Textile Technology Center has supported North Carolina’s textile industry for over 75 years, offering technical assistance globally. Originally founded in 1943 as a trade school to train workers for the state’s mills, the institution continues to expand its scope. The Fiber Innovation Center will extend that legacy by offering new opportunities to students and professionals, including degree programs and customized training.
John Hauser, President of Gaston College, emphasized: “This is a transformational project for Gaston College and for the future of the textile industry. The Fiber Innovation Center represents a commitment to sustainable progress, workforce readiness and regional economic development.”
The facility, funded through federal and state grants along with equipment donations from partner companies, will drive innovations across diverse sectors such as fashion, healthcare, automotive, aerospace, and defense.
“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.”