FFF owns and occupies 30,000 ft² of space including laboratories, offices, workshops and production plant at 45 West Adams St. near to the Merrimack River in Lowell, we have house compressed air, 1400 Amp of 480 V and 400 Amp of 208 V. Construction of a new 5,000 square foot addition has recently been completed.
Weaving Plant
Dedicated computer controlled weaving equipment (Looms) with substantial in house modification to enable us to manufacture 3D shaped seamless tubular or flat woven fabrics with complete control and automation of the minor and major diameters and variable whilst in motion. This is a unique and patented capability of FFF. Our current fabric diameter ranges from 2" up to 52". FFF also has braiding and CAD/CAM knitting equipment. Fiber processing including wet, extruded and reforming equipment, all built in house. Roll to roll slitting.
Pre assembly
FFF owns and operates a sewing shop with various types of sewing machines. Some of these machines have been customized for special applications, including programmable JUKI AMS-210D, over edge machines which have been modified for heavy gauge over edge work.
Heavy duty 3 step zigzag machines one with an extended 30" long arm. Various cutting, stamping presses, hot air and hot press welders.
Coating and plastic injection
Custom made Ameriplas 2 stage injection molder, Custom made Multi layer extrusion coating / laminator by Davis Standard.
Assembly Plant
Various wedge weld, hot air and hot press welding, Cutting and stamping, inflation, pressure testing, paint spraying and drying equipment.
Analytical testing Lab
The facilities at FFF for performing qualitative and analytical analysis are in place. FFF has an Instron Universal Testing Instrument Model 1130 retrofitted with a modern data collection system. This instrument is routinely used for performing both breaking and tear strength tests in accordance with military specifications. FFF has twelve load cells with full scale testing ranges of 0-10, 0-100, 0-500, (9×) 0-1000, and 0-10,000 pounds which can be interfaced with a PC data collection system allowing accurate testing of fabric, thermoplastic and rigid components. The laboratory is also equipped with several Pentium based PC's, Galil multi-axis motion control boards. For data collection FFF uses an 8 channel, 16 bit, 100Khz Data Translations A to D board and data logger which utilized DTVEE software. In addition, FFF has two 32 Channel, 12 bit, Iotech ChartScan/1400's and CimScan software. Additional instrumentation includes accelerometers, thermocouples, a 10 ton Carver 6"x6"
press and a 40 ton PHI 8"x8" press both fitted with heated and cooling plates.
FFF has an apparatus for flammability testing. This setup meets the requirements of Federal Test Method Std. No. 191A and is capable of both vertical and horizontal flammability testing of various fabrics per methods # 5900, 5903, and 5903.1. FFF also have a ballistic testing chamber capable of meeting both the military specifications laid out in MIL-C-44050A, and those of the National Institute of Justice NIJ Standard 0101.03. Also, FFF has a permeability testing rig capable of precisely determining moisture and chemical agent permeability of various materials. This moisture permeability is determined using a Panametrics Moisture Monitor Series 35, while chemical permeability's are determined using a gas chromatograph equipped with both a Thermal Conductivity Detector (TCD), and a Flame Ionization Detector (FID).
Mechanical design and drafting
AutoCAD LT2000 and Top Solid (a full function 3D drawing package).
Machine Shop
FFF operates its own fully equipped machine shop. The machine shop is well equipped with computer controlled lathes, milling, shear, break, slip roll, band saws, cut off saws, drill presses, MIG and TIG, Soldering and spot welding, cutting, grinding equipment, 50 ton hydraulic press, Pipe and tubing benders, and a fully equipped welding and cutting booth. There is constant need for fixtures and custom built process equipment that necessitates the immediacy of having the manufacturing and fabricating capability available in house. FFF retains its own machine shop to avoid the time lag associated with outsourcing our fabrication needs.
