Fifty Four Years of Service

The Association of Narrow Fabrics Manufacturers first met fifty four years ago on January 26-27, 1956 at the Hotel Statler in New York City to establish the Narrow Fabrics Institute.  The following were elected as the first officers of the organization:

NFI was officially incorporated on January 31, 1956 in the state of New York.  Following are the charter companies and their representatives who participated in the first meeting:

At this first meeting they developed the following primary objective:

The organization was originally managed by Charles J. Garbarini of Penn Affiliates in New York City, and the first year's budget was set at $10,500.  The members asked Chairman Neff to contact Sturges Manufacturing, Bo-Buck Mills, Fiber Manufacturing Co., Hudson Narrow Fabric Mill and Statesville Narrow Fabrics Co. and solicit their membership in the Institute.

The concerns in 1956 were centered around automobile safety seat belts, not generally available in cars at the time, with discussions about programs to promote automobile safety seat belt usage.   The group also began to establish standards (including standard sizes) for seat belt webbing to be used in cars.

The first meeting of the Standards and Technical Committee was held at the Drake Hotel in Chicago on May 24, 1956. The most urgent business was to support the activities of the SAE Seat Belt Committee which was establishing test methods for abrasion, roping, curling and strength.

The Statistics Committee, among other things, determined that light webbing was distinguished from tape by this definition: All woven, non-elastic narrow fabric having a unit weight in excess of 2.4 pounds per 100 yards per inch of width is to be considered as webbing.

The Institute spent considerable time establishing parameters for a credit/overdue accounts reporting service among its members and polled members as to the types of webbing they manufactured.  Other subjects discussed in meetings in 1956 included industrial relations, job category standardization, freight and shipping issues, uniform terms and conditions of sale, group advertising, and an industry product directory.

In 1986, NFI merged into the Industrial Fabrics Association International, becoming a Special Interest Group (division) of IFAI. 

Over the past 50+ years, NFI has devoted a great deal of time to improving technical specifications for webbings and tapes. This work is documented in the minutes and historical files of the Narrow Fabrics Institute, now archived at the Industrial Fabrics Association International office in Roseville, MN.

At the 1997 Annual Conference in Phoenix, AZ, the NFI Position Statement was approved by general membership.  This statement clarified the purpose of NFI and its Abrasion Rod Program as follows:

It is the purpose of the Narrow Fabrics Institute to assure all associations and industry groups that the NFI will continue to be a reliable and dependable source of the standard abrasion rods specified in the subject abrasion tests.  The standard abrasion rods will continue to be supplied by The Narrow Fabrics Institute, 1801 County Road B West, Roseville, MN 55113, USA; Telephone: +1 651 222 2508; Fax: +1 651 631 9334; or E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

In 1999, abrasion rod test method Federal Test Method 191A, Method 5309.1, commonly called the NFI Web Abrasion Test Method, was converted to ASTM D6770 (Abrasion Resistance of Textile Webbing).  Fed Standard 191A was subsequently inactivated.