Despite large technological innovations and upskilling of workers in other industries, the workforce of the sewn products, apparel, and textile industry has in many respects remained the same over the past 10-20 years. One possible reason for this is due to the uniqueness of working with fabric (which often requires a human touch to manipulate)...
It’s been almost two years since we wrote about the work that Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) is doing to develop functional fiber computing solutions that will likely be the basis for moving us into Industry 5.0. Seems like we don’t even have Industry 4.0 under our belts, but technology does move fast these days! We spoke with the...
As the COVID-19 crisis began to exacerbate in the US, Cambridge, MA based Advanced Functional Fabrics of America, Inc. (“AFFOA”), a Manufacturing USA Innovation Institute, quickly mobilized to respond, specifically by securing a domestic supply of 45,000 N95 respirators which it will be distributing to local hospitals this week.
AFFOA’s response to...
Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday announced a new initiative and over $10 million in funding to support manufacturers’ efforts to pivot production operations to produce personal protective equipment and other critical devices, such as ventilators, sanitizers, and thermometers.
The Manufacturing Emergency Response Team (M-ERT) is being launched alongside...
Massachusetts’ Baker-Polito Administration has announced two new grants totaling $5.2 million from the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2) to support the development of new advanced manufacturing technologies across the state. The grants awarded include $3.8 million to fund a new integrated-photonics training facility that...
