New World Textile Testing Laboratory has opened for business in Fall River, Mass. The company provides abrasion, flammability, colorfastness, xenon-weathering, fabric-appearance, dimensional-change and infrared-reflectance testing services; as well as military testing and Water Vapor Transmission testing, among other specialized tests.

Led by Lab Director Elizabeth Leite, New World can test nearly any textile, and tests are performed to the most up-to-date published AATCC, ASTM, Federal Standard 191A, ISO and JIS standards. It also offers textile manufacturers technical support for a range of textile-related areas.

The idea behind New World came from Edward Ricci II, CEO of Duro Textiles LLC — a technical textile and sourcing solutions provider to customers in the performance apparel, tailored clothing, home textiles and industrial/specialty industries. Ricci wanted to allow customers currently not being serviced by Duro to utilize the company’s resources, such as its internal laboratory.

“It was a logical move for Duro to spin off a lab based on its skilled resource pool,” said Stephen Bodnar, business development director, New World. “Over many years (actually decades), the laboratories at Duro have evolved from being able to evaluate simple textiles to highly technical military textiles. New World is a spin off capable of performing many of these demanding military test methods and utilizing this knowledge for high-performance commercial applications. Now customers, from mom and pop to large corporations, can utilize these resources.”

New World operates as an independent subsidiary of Duro Textiles. Its new 62,000-square-foot facility, which took close to a year to complete, was built and furnished with new and existing Duro textile equipment.