More than 20 years ago, Joe Pegna and a couple of Ph.D. students at Polytechnique Montreal began working on an advanced manufacturing process to produce high-performance fibers that could be deployed in stressful environments in defense, automotive, energy, and other applications.

By 2006, they had advanced and refined the process enough to start a company called Free Form Fibers.

Today, from the home base in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Free Form Fibers markets its low-cost, high-performance ceramic fibers to a variety of high-tech customers, touting its status as the only business in the world with the technical capability to produce such materials in a cost-effective way.