Fiberforge wins new contract to produce 20,000 composite backpack frames

Tag : Unidirectional Fabric


Fiberforge Corporation announced that it has started production ofa new military backpack frame sheet for Mystery Ranch, LLC. MysteryRanch is a leading producer of high performance survival packs,assault packs and ultra-light packs used by military and lawenforcement agencies worldwide.

Prior to using Fiberforge, Mystery Ranch was fabricating the framesheet from polyethylene plastic, fabric and aluminum. Thepolyethylene provided structure and flexibility, while the aluminum‘stays’, which were inserted into fabric sleeves,provided stiffness. The part, while functional, was heavy and waslabor intensive to produce. The Fiberforge part, made withunidirectional glass fiber-reinforced thermoplastic, is 43% lighterthat the part it replaced, and is made as a single stamped partwith ribs formed into it for stiffness. Fiberforge produces thepart in just 70 seconds; versus the 10-12 minute production time ittook Mystery Ranch to make the original frame sheet.

Dana Gleason, founder and president of Mystery Ranch, says,“We are extremely happy with the Fiberforge parts. Not onlyare they significantly lighter weight and more functional for ourcustomers, but they are actually more cost competitive and havesaved us significant labor expense.”

Fiberforge is producing the frame adjusters out of Glass/PET-PU(Polyethylene Terephthalate blended with Polyurethane) in 70seconds per part. Mystery Ranch originally ordered 10,000 parts;but, the backpack frame sheets have been so well received in themarket place that Mystery Ranch has increased their order to over20,000 units and are using them in more of their pack models.

“The Mystery Ranch backpack frame sheets represent a verypractical use of advanced thermoplastic composites, and take fulladvantage of the cost benefits of the Fiberforge process,”says Tina Ogburn, Operations Manager of Fiberforge Corporation.“We are excited to be in full production and to be able tooffer all the benefits of the Fiberforge technology to MysteryRanch.”

Mystery Ranch, headquartered in Bozeman, Montana, has beendesigning backpacks for over 35 years for military and lawenforcement agencies worldwide. Mystery Ranch is dedicated tomaking the highest quality, most durable backpacks in the world.

Fiberforge is a technology company commercializingbreakthrough-manufacturing methods for the production oflightweight advanced thermoplastic composite parts at lower costand in high volumes. Fiberforge’s proprietary RelayStation—protected with multiple patents and tradesecrets—produces parts with high fiber alignment, high fiberfraction, and long fiber length at high speed with minimal scrap.Fiberforge’s technology and its tailored blanks are protectedby US patents #6,607,626, 6,939,423 and 7,235,149.