Our History

Albany NY was home to the majority of US paper mills of the time and three Albany businessmen--Parker Corning, Selden Marvin and James Cox--with capital of $40,000 formed the Albany Felt Company to manufacture papermaking felts, today called paper machine clothing.

In 1902 the Company moved to a larger factory and location in Albany that would be its principal home until 2011.

Albany Felt mirrored the industry's growth, expanding its facilities, broadening its product lines, and searching out new markets. By 1920 Albany Felt had a workforce of 223 employees and was the second-largest firm in the industry.

Sales had grown from $27,000 in 1896 to $2 million in 1920, and the Company continued expansion with sales agents in England, Sweden, India and Japan throughout the decade.

The post-World War II global economic boom led to exponential growth for Albany Felt Company, which expanded to three plants and annual sales of $14 million.  

In 1952 Albany built its first plant outside of the US, a 90,000-square-foot press fabric plant, in Cowansville, Quebec.  

By 1968 the Company had 17 plants in seven countries, and sales had reached $56 million. 

The following year a major step in the Company's development took place when Albany Felt Company merged with Appleton Wire Works (the largest US manufacturer of forming fabrics), as well as Nordiska Maskinfilt (the leading European clothing supplier to the Scandinavian paper industry and major exporter to other countries).  

Through these two mergers, the company became Albany International Corp. and was the first company to have the capability to service all paper machine clothing positions--forming, pressing, drying--on a global basis. 

Albany International began acquiring more companies throughout the globe, expanding its potential globally.  

In 1974 Albany International listed on the New York Stock Exchange with the symbol AIN.

In 1998 the acquisition of Techniweave in Rochester, New Hampshire allowed Albany International to enter the carbon composite market. 

In 2006 the Albany Engineered Composites (AEC) business formed through the acquisition of Texas Composites, which was then merged with Techniweave.  

In 2007 Albany’s press fabric plant in Hangzhou, China began production. This year also began an extensive multiyear transformation and restructuring to remain competitive and respond to changing markets.  

Albany divested noncore businesses, including its Filtration business, Albany Door Systems, and PrimaLoft Products.  At the same time, Albany right sized its paper machine clothing and engineered fabrics business and consolidated operations in Europe and the US, while making strategic investments in its composites business.  

By 2011 the Company had been transformed into a global advanced textiles and materials processing company with two core businesses: Machine Clothing and Engineered Composites. Albany International moved headquarters to Rochester, New Hampshire.

In 2013 AEC opened a 45,000-square-foot Research & Technology Center for technology development and rapid prototyping in Rochester.

And in 2014, in partnership with Safran, AEC opened manufacturing plants in Rochester NH and Commercy France to build components for the LEAP engine.

In 2016 Albany acquired the aerostructures composites business of Harris Corporation, with two locations in Salt Lake City, Utah. The transaction, subsequent new program wins and the growing production of LEAP components grew segment sales from $101 million in 2015 to more than $330 million in 2020.

In 2023 Albany International completed the acquisition of Heimbach GmbH, a privately-held manufacturer of paper machine clothing and technical textiles.

And in 2024 the Company developed goals to reduce Scope 1 & 2 emissions by 50% and achieve zero waste to landfill (for the Americas and Europe) by 2030 as part of its commitment to sustainability.   

Today Albany International offers effective and sustainable materials science solutions in two global businesses: 

Albany Machine Clothing 

Our Albany Machine Clothing segment is the world’s leading producer of custom-designed, consumable, fabrics and process belts essential for each section of the paper machine and for manufacturing every grade of paper. Paper machine clothing products are customized, consumable products of technologically sophisticated design that utilize polymeric materials in a complex structure. This segment also provides engineered fabric products that provide solutions for nonwovens, fiber cement and several other industrial applications. 

Albany Engineered Composites 

 AEC manufactures composite components for a variety of commercial, military and civil aircraft including the CFM LEAP engine, Lockheed F-35, Sikorsky CH-53K and Boeing 787 airliner. The AEC Research & Technology Center continues to advance the state-of-the-art of the Company’s technologies, including its unique and proprietary 3D woven composite technology.  It works closely with customers to demonstrate the application of this unique technology with the goal of proliferating the use of 3D composites across the most structurally demanding aerospace applications.