3TEX & ATAK Develop Next-Generation Composite Combat Vehicles.

Business Editors/High Tech & Aerospace and Defense Writers

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK AREA, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 30, 2001

3TEX, Inc. (www.3TEX.com), a world leader in designing and developing revolutionary 3D fabrics and composites, announced today it has signed a long-term strategic alliance with ATAK, Inc. (American Technology Applications Knowledge, Inc.)

ATAK is recognized internationally as an industry leading developer of cutting-edge structural/ballistic advanced composite materials for commercial and military land, sea, and air applications. "ATAK is known around the world for defining the state-of-the-art in the design of lightweight, thick laminate, composite structures, cutting-edge advanced composite material technologies, product quality, and customer satisfaction," said Brad Lienhart 3TEX CEO. "We are extremely pleased to have reached this important milestone. ATAK is an ideal partner as we expand 3TEX technology into new and revolutionary industry applications."

ATAK and 3TEX have formed a Strategic Business Venture (SBV) combining ATAK's unmatched material technology and composite military vehicle design expertise together with the patented 3D Weaving preform technology developed by 3TEX. The result is a unique composite material system designated ATAK MAT-5, for the construction of highly survivable, lightweight, low cost, composite military vehicle hull structures, exhibiting unparalleled structural, ballistic, and damage tolerant (high multi-hit) performance. ATAK-MAT-5 construction can achieve weight reductions in excess of 40% compared to existing welded metal construction. The Engineering Technical Data Package (ETDP) will be offered by ATAK under the moniker "Travel Light and Fight Heavy" (TLFH). TLFH composite construction will significantly enhance vehicle mission capability and battlefield sustainability compared to conventional welded metal vehicles; and may also be manufactured by customers who wish to become TLFH licensees.

This newly formed SBV will operate under the ATAK banner and is the exclusive source for composite military vehicle hull technology utilizing 3TEX 3WEAVE(TM) fiber architectures. These new composite vehicle designs offer complete vehicle family design flexibility (i.e. modularity) by eliminating the design constraints and costs associated with tooling and layup labor.

"The result is a highly repeatable, extremely high quality, low cost, composite vehicle hull, utilizing automated fabrication techniques," said D. Erich Weerth, Founder and CEO of ATAK, Inc. "We are very excited about our relationship with 3TEX. Together we will be able to offer the lightest weight, most highly survivable combat vehicle technology available today, and far into the future, at quality and cost levels never before thought possible".

About 3TEX, Inc. - Based in the Research Triangle Park Area, NC, 3TEX is a world leader in designing and developing revolutionary 3-D fabrics and composites. A spin-off from N.C. State University, 3TEX has design, product development, and production facilities in Cary and Rutherfordton, N.C. With strategic alliances in place with technology centers and Universities around the world, and more than half a dozen revolutionary design patents approved or pending, 3TEX is developing next generation materials that are stronger than steel and lighter than aluminum. 3TEX was recently featured in Research Triangle Park Metro Magazine and was listed as one of the "High-Tech" 100 manufacturing companies to watch.

ATAK, Inc. - Located in San Jose, California, the capitol of "High-Tech" Silicon Valley, American Technology Applications Knowledge (ATAK) Incorporated, is celebrating its first decade of service to international markets in the application of advanced fiber reinforced, polymer matrix, composite materials for defense and commercial applications. Members of their technical staff are recognized worldwide for developing leading edge armor, structural/ballistic, composite materials and advanced structures technology with a special emphasis on lightweight composite armored military vehicles. As a direct result of their unique, sophisticated, computational methods developed in-house for designing lightweight thick composite laminates, ATAK has acquired an exceptional reputation for solving problems that have little or no precedent within industry; hence their company motto: "Attacking Tomorrow's Problems Today!" In addition to their domestic alliances, ATAK's globalization strategy has successfully embraced the Pacific Rim as well as the entire European continent.