GLENWOOD SPRINGS, CO ‚– Fiberforge Corporation announced today that it has started production of a new military backpack frame sheet for Mystery Ranch, LLC. Mystery Ranch is a leading producer of high performance survival packs, assault packs and ultra-light packs used by military and law enforcement agencies worldwide.
Prior to using Fiberforge, Mystery Ranch was fabricating the frame sheet from polyethylene plastic, fabric and aluminum. The polyethylene provided structure and flexibility, while the aluminum ‚‘stays‚’, which were inserted into fabric sleeves, provided stiffness. The part, while functional, was heavy and was labor intensive to produce. The Fiberforge part, made with unidirectional glass fiber-reinforced thermoplastic, is 43% lighter that the part it replaced, and is made as a single stamped part with ribs formed into it for stiffness. Fiberforge produces the part in just 70 seconds; versus the 10-12 minute production time it took Mystery Ranch to make the original frame sheet.
Fiberforge is producing the frame adjusters out of Glass/PET-PU (Polyethylene Terephthalate blended with Polyurethane) in 70 seconds per part. Mystery Ranch originally ordered 10,000 parts; but, the backpack frame sheets have been so well received in the market place that Mystery Ranch has increased their order to over 20,000 units and are using them in more of their pack models.
::Design World::
Filed Under: Materials • advanced