materials

SPINTEX

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Spintex artificially spins the highest performance silk fibres available, through a spider inspired process. 1000x more energy efficient than synthetic plastic fibres, we use no hazardous chemicals with water our only by-product.

These fibres are finding use in sustainable fashion textiles, but due to their high-performance will also address issues in other markets for advanced technical textiles, including lightweight composites for aerospace and automotive industries, and biocompatible medical textiles.

Founded in 2018 as a spinout from the University of Oxford, by co-founders Alex Greenhalgh, Martin Frydrych and Fritz Vollrath, Spintex has consistently been pushing the boundaries of our bioinspired spinning and silk materials to provide much needed solution in sustainable and technical textiles.

Technology

Textiles are a part of almost every facet of modern life, from the clothes we wear to the fibres that make up next-generation materials. Unfortunately this ubiquity comes at an increasingly high environmental toll, with current manufacturing processes using large quantities of petrochemicals, heat energy and unsustainably sourced raw materials. 

Nature offers great inspiration for new textile possibilities, with none more impressive than the spider. This humble creature, by combining only two compounds, water and protein, makes a solution that can be spun into high-performance textile fibres, at room temperature, without toxic chemicals and with water the only by-product.

Spintex nominated for the Ray of Hope Prize 2020

June 16, 2021 - The Biomimicry Institute is proud to announce the 2021 Ray of Hope Prize® award recipient is Spintex Engineering. Spintex is a University of Oxford spinout company that manufactures biodegradable textile fibres for use in fashion and high-performance material applications. As the 2021 Ray of Hope Prize recipient, Spintex has been awarded $100,000 in support of their groundbreaking work.

Company Mimics Spiders to Create Lustrous Faux Silk That is 1,000x More Energy Efficient.

By mimicking how a spider spins silk at room temperature, an Oxford University venture has created a high performance, biodegradable textile that is 1,000 times more efficient than current methods for making man-made fabrics, which emit tons of carbon.

By Good News Network -Jun 26, 2021

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ECOVATIVE

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Using mycelium - the vegetative part of the fungus - Ecovative has developed a number of innovations, including an environmentally friendly alternative to expanded polystyrene, used by Dell, for example, to pack its computers and protect them from impact.

Myco Foam is 100% biodegradable and returns to the earth as nutrients. Its manufacture is not dependent on oil, unlike conventional polystyrene. Swedish kit furniture giant Ikea has announced its desire to replace its polystyrene packaging with this material.

Other possible uses include: wood/mushroom interlocking for the construction of indoor furniture without formaldehyde (a harmful product found in some furniture); kits for growing your own mycelium at home; and teddy bears with mushrooms!

Board of the Biomim'Galerie : https://flic.kr/p/UqZZFy

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MYCOWORKS

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Fungi have an underground vegetative part, forming a fairly dense filamentous network, the mycelium.

The American start-up MycoWorks, founded in 2013, considers mushrooms as a material. In October 2016, it developed a process for making "leather" from mushrooms. This method of production is not very polluting, but above all it offers an alternative to the use of animal skins.

To produce it, you need to grow mycelium in a mould with a substrate and organic waste as food. The mycelium will gradually become denser and take the shape of the mould. To obtain the final result, the product is dried and then put in an oven to eliminate all the micro-organisms.

This environmentally friendly, biodegradable, low carbon footprint leather is promising, especially since the production obtained from mycelium is obviously much faster (and less deadly 🙂 than that with a cow (for example). For the same size, production takes a few weeks with mushrooms versus 3 years with an animal.

March 2021: Hermès unveiled its new Victoria bag, made of canvas, calf leather and Sylvania, a mycelium leather alter developed with the Fine Mycelium technology produced by MycoWorks!

Post LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mycoworks_finemycelium-collaboration-hermes-activity-6776198444341186561-7A6E

Press release : https://www.mycoworks.com/introducing-sylvania-by-hermes

Board of the Biomim'Galerie : https://flic.kr/p/UjmbGD

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ETH ZURICH

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Nature inspired display material

Have you ever wished your mobile phone display was unbreakable? Researchers from ETH Zurich imitate materials from nature to create transparent materials with high fracture resistance.

Here is a short video :

Contact:

Mr Tommaso Magrini

Student / Doctorate Programme at D-MATL

Address

ETH Zürich

Tommaso Magrini

Complex Materials

HCI G 530

Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 1-5/10

8093 Zürich

Switzerland

  • +41 44 633 66 94
  • (Alt.) +41 78 667 67 12
  • 0000-0002-6075-7625

ALPHANOV

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ALPHANOV is the New Aquitaine Technology Resource Centre specialising in optics and photonics.

We have been developing surface functionalization processes based on the fabrication of bio-inspired nanostructures by laser machining and texturing for several years. We are able to modify the surfaces of various materials (metals, plastics, glasses, crystals) to modify their optical reflectivity properties (from black to a holographic effect), bio-contamination, wettability or to improve their tribological performance.

Technological support :

From setting up collaborative projects to technological support for company creation, ALPhANOV assists you in your industrial projects.

Thanks to close relationships with research laboratories (LOMA, CELIA, LP2N, IMS, Trèfle, XLIM ...) and local photonic companies, ALPhANOV is involved throughout the innovation process:

  • Setting up collaborative projects: search for academic or industrial partners, consortium organisation, financial engineering.
  • Industrialization : ALPhANOV provides its partners with engineering skills to help them in the design and production phases of industrial products.
  • Starting a business : ALPhANOV provides entrepreneurs with a professional and technological environment in which to share ideas and solutions, validate concepts and develop prototypes.

ALPhANOV works in perfect synergy with other regional and national industrial development support actors:

  • the ALPHA - Route des Lasers & des Hyperfréquences competitiveness cluster;
  • Aquitaine's technology parks, which provide strategic support for business creation, in particular Bordeaux Unitec;
  • the SEML Route des Lasers capable of meeting the real estate needs specific to the sector;
  • Aquitaine Science Transfert is responsible for technology transfer between laboratories and industry;
  • the ministry of research ;
  • Bpifrance;
  • the Regional Council of New Aquitaine and all the local authorities involved in the financing of industrial projects.

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AMSILK, the spider silk

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AMSilk produces and distributes increasing volumes of high-quality silk biopolymers for use in textile products, medical devices and cosmetics.
One of the most amazing and revolutionary bio-inspired innovation. Now available with a wide range of applications : footwear, apparel, technical textiles, fashion, automotive, aviation ...
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