NEWARK N.Y. (WROC) — Specialty fabrics is a booming, $50 billion industry and a company in Newark is a leader in the growing industry.
News 8’s Ally Peters spoke with Gretchen Reed from V Technical Textiles about the company’s impact in our local community.
“At VTT, we design and sell metalized textiles and we manufacture items out of these materials. The reason for the metals is that they offer the textiles different properties, including shielding capabilities, conductivity, thermal and antimicrobial characteristics,” Reed said.
“We can make anything from athletic clothing to what’s called a radio frequency or RF shielded enclosure, and these are used in industries where you might have an electronic device that needs to be tested in a controlled environment so that radio frequencies, which are all around us, don’t interfere with the unit.
Reed said VTT has a large customer base, ranging from aerospace, automotive, military and defense sectors.
While the company creates a variety of products, they specialize in manufacturing radio frequency shielded enclosures.
“These compete with an old legacy technology of a metal rigid box. Some people might be familiar with the term Faraday cage, but with our materials, we can achieve the same performance as those metal boxes, while also offering our customers benefits of portability, weight reduction, all with a unit that is easily deployable and taken down, so customers don’t need to have a designated space anymore in their facility for testing,” Reed said.
“We offer five different series of these enclosures, all with different layering options, various metalized textiles, completely customizable to the needs of the customer.”
Reed said VTT is a small business that has deep connections to the community. The company is family-run and was established in Newark because the family lives there.
“We have deep roots in the community and understand the opportunities that exist here,” Reed said. “We have repurposed a previously vacant building that holds a lot of purpose to the people who live here, and in this space, now, we’re able to offer employment opportunities in a very uniquely positioned manufacturing facility that’s in the heart of the village.”
Reed says VTT offers a clean-based manufacturing facility with a low-carbon footprint, which helps improve the village and surrounding county.
“We’re not a manufacturing facility that has smokestacks or the use of chemicals, but what also makes this place so special is that the Rochester region is a very technical area, and so we’re able to partner with a lot of companies and organizations here to offer solutions and products to our very specialized product,” Reed said.
She adds this includes working with universities and schools in the area and VTT currently has a number of students working with them.
The business is also women-owned and pet-friendly. If you’re interested in working for the company or learning more, VTT has an immediate need for technicians.
“These would be people who would be working in our production area, working closely with the materials and manufacturing,” Reed said. “We also have a sales coordinator position open as well, but we’ll continue to grow and have other opportunities available so be sure to keep in touch.”
You can learn more about VTT by clicking here.
