Ann: Development Agreement for FR Nylon/Cotton Fabrics, page-102

I’ve sought and received clarification from the company on the recently announced development agreement with Pine Belt processing.

Previously, the company had confirmed that the initiative to apply FR to standard uniforms was a competitive process, but the number and identity of the competitors wasn't disclosed. Dr Brookins said that he believed that Alexium’s FR solution had both a weight and laundering advantage.  In a post early last month I speculated about two possible competitors and more recently had identified another.

It was unclear to me from last week’s announcement whether the upcoming uniform limited user evaluation was only testing Alexium/Pine Belt Processing FR treated uniforms or if this wear trial would also be evaluating the performance of other companies’ prototype FR treated uniforms.

It was reassuring to learn that, although other competitive options were evaluated by the US military, Alexium’s FR treatment was the only option that passed the key metrics. Hence there are no other competitive options still being considered for this particular program – i.e. FR treatment of existing standard issue NyCo specification military uniforms used by the US armed forces.

Other than needing to perform to standard in the wear trial, it seems the only hurdle remaining for this program is the military go-ahead.