Designing and Manufacturing Advanced Medical Textiles- Lessons learned from Bally Ribbon Mills, an AFFOA Member Spotlight Webinar
January 28 @ 12:00 pm - 12:30 pm
The Medical Device industry represents a strong market sector for the US textile industry now through 2035. The demographics of population growth in the Western Hemisphere and Europe show that the number of aging adults 60+ are rapidly expanding. Growth of this demographic is greater than any other age group. Specifically, the growth of this population is dramatically increasing the need for medical care of that population. Cardiovascular, orthopedic, and wearable devices to manage chronic conditions and needs of an aging population while aging ‘in place’ is creating strong long-term demand for textile materials.
Bally Ribbon Mills has been operating in the Medical Device Market since the 1970’s. As the market landscape changes with the times, we have been faced with many challenges and market demands. Many of these challenges are unique to medical markets. However, much of what Bally Ribbon Mills does permeates throughout our whole organization, by necessity.
During this webinar, Ted Fetterman of Bally Ribbon Mills will share insights into their market approach, journey, and lessons learned along the way.
About the Speaker:
Ted Fetterman
Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Bally Ribbon Mills
Ted Fetterman is Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Bally Ribbon Mills (BRM) located in Bally, PA, USA. Bally Ribbon Mills (BRM) is a manufacturer of woven, narrow fabrics that range from simple webbings such as those used in seat belts & safety equipment to high-tech 3D thermoset composite materials that are used in the Aerospace industry (several of our product rests on Mars). Ted has been with Bally Ribbon Mills (BRM) for 31 years. Although he possesses a B.A. in Economics from Bucknell University, he has great interest and work experience in several Engineering disciplines. Ted is responsible for all front office sales operations as well as R&D and Engineering. Part of Ted’s responsibility is new product innovations. He has been responsible for bringing to market E-WEBBINGS® which are smart textiles constructed of structural narrow fabrics that contain embedded conductive elements which enable the transmission of data, sensations, and power. Ted has spent the last several years promoting E-WEBBINGS® into various industries and identifying both barriers and opportunities relative to Smart Textiles. In addition to managing BRM’s medical market strategy, Ted is leading current new developments in narrow fabrics for NASA’s Artemis program as well as LEO commercial space applications. Ted is married with young adult children. He enjoys hunting, fishing, gardening, carpentry, cooking, and musical performance.