NASA’s “path to Mars goes through Bally.” Bally Ribbon Mills, to be exact.
That’s what NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said Friday during a tour of the fourth generation family-owned textile mill.
In business since 1923, Bally Ribbon Mills has developed a woven composite material that can withstand the conditions of deep space travel and re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere. The company has contracted with NASA to weave the compression pads that will be used on the Orion spacecraft when it eventually carries astronauts to Mars.
The company is using an innovative 3D weaving process to create a thermal protection system that, according to company and NASA officials, has tested well so far at NASA’s testing facility in Ames, Calif. Woven with quartz and carbon fibers, the material will protect the Orion on its re-entry, at speeds of up to 36,000 miles per hour and withstanding heat of about 4,000 degrees. The next test flight for Orion is planned for 2018.
“We cannot get to Mars without the type of materials that are being developed here,” Bolden said. “We cannot get there without the compression pads that are going between Orion – the crew module and the service module which provides power and propulsion for periods of time astronauts are going to have to be in the vehicle going from here to an asteroid that is in lunar orbit or to Mars,” Bolden said.
Bally Ribbon Mills President Ray Harries explained that the company had been doing some work for the Air Force and Lockheed Martin, and that is how NASA found out about some of the work being done with 3D weaving.
“The folks out at the Ames research center who do a lot of our work with high temperature materials and trying to make sure we have material that can withstand reentry temperatures when you come back from deep space heard about it, talked to the Air Force and that brought them here to Bally Ribbon,” Bolden added.
Friday’s visit was the first such visit to Bally Ribbon Mills by any NASA representative. Bally Ribbon Mills has worked on smaller projects for NASA in the past, including materials for the lining of space suits and materials that have been included in the manufacture of parachutes for the Space Shuttle.
Bolden was escorted through the plant by Harries – seeing the variety of production from military honor ribbons to the production of material for safety harnesses to 3D weaving. Bolden said it was an important visit because much of the work NASA does is with small business.
“This is an example of what is the heart and soul of everything NASA does. We have big contractors that do big projects like Lockheed Martin and Boeing,” Bolden said. “But when you get down to the fine points, the components, they are generally done by an American small business. So I wanted to come out and see a small business that has been engaged with us, that had a track record of performance but was also involved in the future.”
Bolden said he was “mesmerized” by the long heritage of Bally Ribbon Mills with NASA projects he learned about on the tour.
“I had never heard of Bally Ribbon to be quite honest. After today – every time I look at a vehicle we have I will know you all are there,” he said.
The tour ended at the loom that is creating the Orion product. The compression pads being produced by Bally Ribbon Mills will be woven to a thickness of 2.1 inches.
“This textile is better than anything they have right now as far as a thermal protection,” Harries said. “This is for deep space travel. What they have now works at low altitude. But for the velocity coming back from deep space they need something better and this is the something better.”
Bally Ribbon Mills has 270 employees. Manufacturing manager Jim Gehris has worked at Bally Ribbon Mills for 37 years. He said he was excited to see Bolden and the other NASA officials in the plant.
“I’m absolutely glad to have them here with us – it’s important to have that type of customer come in to see what we’re doing,” said Gehris. “This type of weaving is a whole new ballgame.”
Bolden added that it is American small businesses that makes possible everything NASA does.
“Our bread and butter and our lifeblood is small business in America. We don’t mass produce. So we need niche companies who do unique things that can satisfy a need that we have,” Bolden added. “One of the reasons that NASA is doing business with small business so much is because they do the kinds of very unique things that we need.”
According to Harries, Bally Ribbon Mills started out making hat bands. The work expanded through a relationship with DuPont, as that company began inventing new fabrics like polyester, nylon and Kevlar. He added that after working in the parachute industry, the company began producing more tapes and webbings. Now, the company is involved in the design, development and manufacture of highly specialized engineered woven webbings, tapes and specialty fabrics for aerospace, defense, medical, safety, automotive, commercial and industrial applications, according to the company’s website.