History 1956-2003
Forty Seven Years of Service

The Association of Narrow Fabrics Manufacturers first met forty 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 the first organiazational meeting they developed the following statement as their primary objective

The organization was originally managed by Charles J. Garbarini of Penn Affiliates in New York City, and the first years 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 are similiar to those of today. NFI members discussed programs to promote automobile safety seat belts. Seat Belts were then considered newfangled and not generally available in cars, roughly equivalent to how airbags are perceived today. Seat belt use is again being promoted by the industry to allow airbags manufacturers to reduce their bag inflation forces and thus improve the safety and reliability of the airbags. 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 standards business was to support the activities of the SAE Seat Belt Committee which was establishing test methods for abrasion, roping, curling and strength.

Other business included discussions of the perennial favorite: MIL-W-40088: Webbing, Textile, Woven, Nylon. This standard is still being discussed today. Other standards discussed at this first meeting included Mil-W-530, and Mil-W-5625, Mil-T-5038, some of which are still very important materials.

The Statistics Committe, among other things, determinded that light webbing was distinguished from tape by this definition: AAll 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 Insitute spent considerable time establishing the parameters for a cred/overdue accounts reporting service among its members and took a poll of the different types of webbing manufactured by members. Other subject discussed in meetings in May 1956 included industrial relations, job category standardization, freight and shipping issues, uniform terms and conditions of sale, group advertising, and an industry product directory.

Also at this meeting a list of prospective companies was developed and assignments were made to recruit these companies to be members of NFI.

Over the past 40 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 St. Paul, MN.

At the 1997 Annual Conference in Phoenix, AZ, the NFI Position Statement was approved by general membership. This statement clarifies the purpose of NFI an dits Abrasion Rod Program which is 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 Institue, 1801 County Road BW, Roseville, MN 55113, USA, (651) 222-2508, Fax: (651) 631-9334, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

In 1998, proposed changes to the Standard Specification of Synthetic Web Slings as issued by ASTM Subcommittee D20.20 and laveled Document X-20-46.

In 1999, the current abrasion rod test method, Federal Test Method 191A, Method 5309.1, commonly called the NFI Web Abrasion Test Method plans to be converted to an ASTM Commercial Test.