Textile World
Breaking News
Fiber World
Nonwovens / Technical Textiles
AIKEN, S.C. — October 14, 2026 — AGY, a manufacturer of advanced specialty glass fibers, announced that its glass fiber yarn serves as the base reinforcement for the Serge Ferrari Group Tenseo Xtrem GF 7000 composite membrane used in the newly installed roof at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The new permanent roof replaces the stadium’s previous membrane, which was destroyed by Hurricane Milton in October 2024. The replacement allowed the Tampa Bay Rays to return to Tropicana Field for the opening of the 2026 Major League Baseball season.
The roof consists of 24 translucent composite membrane panels covering approximately 45,000 square meters, or nearly 485,000 square feet. Each panel is approximately 330 feet long and weighs roughly 5,000 pounds (2,268 kilograms).
Serge Ferrari Group’s Tenseo Xtrem GF 7000 is a high-performance architectural membrane constructed from woven glass fiber fabric coated with polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE. The membrane is then sealed with Serge Ferrari’s Pro Shield Max fluorinated ethylene propylene, or FEP, surface treatment.
AGY’s specialty glass fiber yarn forms the structural foundation of the woven fabric, providing the strength, dimensional stability and durability required for large-scale permanent tensile structures.
“We are proud that AGY glass fiber yarn was selected as the base reinforcement for the Tenseo Xtrem GF 7000 membrane used in this landmark project,” said Patrick Hunter, Chief Commercial Officer and President of AGY. “The Tropicana Field roof demonstrates how advanced glass fiber yarns enable composite systems that must perform reliably under demanding structural, environmental and weather conditions.”
The project required an unusually compressed engineering, manufacturing and installation schedule. A permanent roof of this size could normally take several years to complete, but the final membrane panel was secured in November 2025, ahead of schedule. Final stretching and sealing work continued into early December, allowing interior stadium renovations to advance in preparation for the Rays’ return.
The membrane material was manufactured at Serge Ferrari Group’s facility in Germany and shipped to Enclos Tensile Structures for fabrication and assembly.
During production, Serge Ferrari wove the glass fiber yarn into fabric, applied the PTFE coating and sealed the material with its specialized FEP surface treatment. The finished surface provides waterproofing, durability and long-term aesthetic performance, while allowing rainwater to naturally remove dirt from the roof over time.
Although the new roof appears visually similar to the original, its engineering has been modernized to address stronger winds, severe storms and updated safety requirements. The completed membrane roof has an expected service life exceeding 20 years and is designed to improve the stadium’s resilience while reducing long-term
