Sustainability & Manufacturing

AVL Manufacturing Facilitites, Chico, CA. 

AVL Loom's facilities are located in the beautiful city of Chico, in Northern California's central valley at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. A few years ago we added solar panels to a portion of our building and, in addition to saving on engergy consumption, we can actually provide power back to the grid during Chico's long summer days. 

 

Although some of our manufacturing techniques have changed over the years, all of our products are hand-finished and assembled by one of our skilled craftsmen here in Chico, many of whom have been working with AVL for over 20 years. 

 

As you may notice, nowadays most all of our products (including all of our looms) are made from sustainably sourced Ash hardwood. We donate our wood shaving to local farmers who use it for composting. 

 

Cable jigs are a living piece of AVL history. Each jig represents a cable length for a specific part on an AVL loom -- and we have jigs for every AVL loom ever made since the early '70s. 

 

Custom jig for straightening heddle rod material for the K-Series loom. 

We often engineer custom tools to meet our unique manufacturing needs. By keeping most all of our manufacturing in-house, we have nearly complete control over the quality of each part and product. 

 

 

Mold for the K-Series loom dobby cover. 

Thermomolding is a new manufacturing technique that involves vacuum forming heated plastic over a preformed mold. When building the K-Series loom, we had to learn this new technique and create custom mold for each of the loom's 8 plastic covers. 

 

Food grade mineral oil is the only finish we add to the looms. It's safe for the environment, non-toxic, and can be reapplied to your loom any time!

 

We recycle and reuse all of our cardboard. We shred used cardboard to be reused as packing materials. "Reusing" is a double savings as it saves us from having to buy new packing materials and saves the processing of the cardboard into recycled cardboard. This is 12-18 dumpsters full of cardboard we save from going into the landfill each year!