Advanced Functional Fabrics of America opens headquarters steps from MIT campus
These are not your grandmother’s fibers and textiles. These are tomorrow’s functional fabrics — designed and prototyped in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and manufactured across a network of U.S. partners. This is the vision of the new headquarters for the Manufacturing USA institute called Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) that opened Monday at 12 Emily Street, steps away from the MIT campus. AFFOA headquarters represents a significant MIT investment in advanced manufacturing innovation. This facility includes a Fabric Discovery Center that provides end-to-end prototyping from fiber design to system integration of new textile-based products, and will be used for education and workforce development in the Cambridge and greater Boston community. AFFOA headquarters also includes startup incubation space for companies spun out from MIT and other partners who are innovating advanced fabrics and fibers for applications ranging from apparel and consumer electronics to automotive and medical devices. MIT was a founding member of the AFFOA team...