The AMTEX (American Textile) Partnership is a collaborative research and development program which currently has seven projects. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is involved in five of these-Computer-Aided Fabric Evaluation (CAFE), Demand-Activated Manufacturing Architecture (DAMA), Textile Resource Conservation (TReC), Rapid Cutting, and On-line Process Control for Flexible Fiber Manufacturing (OpCon). The goal of the AMTEX Partnership is to strengthen the competitiveness of the integrated U.S. textile industry-including the fiber, textile, apparel, and fabricated product sectors. AMTEX is a collaborative research and development program among the industry, the Department of Energy, the DOE laboratories, other federal agencies, and universities. AMTEX is a role model illustrating how government and industry can work together effectively to achieve greater U.S. competitiveness, while preserving the American value of free enterprise. AMTEX is founded on key principles that ensure fairness of opportunity and broad dissemination of publicly funded research to companies large and small throughout the textile industry complex.
Oak Ridge is one of several national laboratories involved with this multi-million dollar program. Argonne, Sandia, Lawrence Livermore, Lawrence Berkeley, Lockheed Idaho, Brookhaven, Los Alamos, and Pacific Northwest laboratories play major roles in each project as well. There are numerous industry partners associated with the five projects that Oak Ridge plays a role in. Some of the better known partners include Fruit of the Loom, Milliken and Co., Fieldcrest Cannon, Burlington Ind., DuPont and Co., Russell Corp., and J.C. Penney. AMTEX is expected to help create jobs, as U.S. companies increase sales and market share in both the domestic U.S. market and world wide through exports. For every 10% of the U.S. fabric and apparel market regained, 124,000 jobs will be created.
http://apc.pnl.gov:2080/AMTEXWWW/amtex.html