Students Develop Industry-Caliber Products, Processes for Senior Design<\/h3> The North Face project is just one of 13 completed by teams of Wilson College seniors with partners in medical textiles, the military and more. <\/p>
Dive deeper into the Senior Design program and meet the other <\/span>teams. <\/span> This year, The North Face tasked Jacqueline Ashford-Lavy, Brandon Postema-Drolet and Chris Watts with developing a new weave design for its ripstop fabric. You\u2019ll spot the textile in its tents, backpacks and even some outerwear products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new design needed to incorporate a weave pattern that would draw a shopper\u2019s attention, and, as the name suggests, the ripstop fabric also needed to be highly durable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To accomplish this, the group first conducted research to choose the right yarn. Next, they developed five potential weave designs to send to a mill for prototyping. <\/p>\n\n\n\nA few samples of potential weave designs that The North Face team developed. Ultimately, they settled on the parallelogram design (far right). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cCombining all the aspects of fabric creation was a little challenging at first,\u201d Postema-Drolet, a TT student, says. \u201cWe had to learn how to calculate different fabric weights and what we wanted our average weight to come out to be and how that would affect our strength values.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In order to prove that the new fabric met the same durability standards, the team had to test abrasion (fraying), tensile strength, tear resistance and other factors. Existing ripstop fabrics were tested in exactly the same way as the prototypes in order to provide \u201cbenchmarks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nJacqueline Ashford-Lavy prepares a ripstop textile sample for testing. The group tested all samples for durability and strength to meet The North Face’s standards.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn addition to textile science and design, the team\u2019s project served as a crash course in sourcing and supply chains. They were forced to move production from a mill two hours away from Raleigh to one in another country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCOVID and supply chain issues had a heavy effect on us,\u201d Ashford-Lavy, a TT student, says. \u201cOur deadlines got pushed back because of that. Materials kept changing, our sourcing and suppliers kept changing. And all of that resulted from how long it takes to get things to ship and the capabilities of other people that we rely on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
Covington says it\u2019s this sort experience working with suppliers from around the world that applied directly from his Senior Design project to his current role as a trim developer for The North Face. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou rely on other people for a lot of your job, and so much of it is just communicating and communicating well enough that you actually can actually meet your deadlines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
Chris Watts tests a ripstop sample in the Senior Design lab.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nFor TE student Chris Watts, the most rewarding part of the capstone was experiencing the product development process from beginning to end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe did what most research and development teams do,\u201d Watts says. \u201cWe looked at what’s on the market. We made something and tested it against what’s on the market currently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ultimately, the three graduating seniors more than accomplished their goal, developing a ripstop prototype design that was stronger than the control fabric that they compared against. Their project won alumnus John Calvert\u2019s (B.S. TT, \u201971) annual \u201cMost Innovative\u201d award at the Senior Design poster session in April. <\/p>\n\n\n\nJacqueline Ashford-Lavy presents the teams project to faculty and industry judges in the James B. Hunt Library. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nDig Deeper Into Senior Design<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Learn more about the each team’s project and final product in their own words by expanding the booklet below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n