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The $99,962 contract was just a simple basic R&D contract for samples. I don't know exactly what the other $900K would entail, but I believe that Kim would, at the minimum, be able to scale his silkworms on the artificial feed to meet the demand of that contract.
I believe that the 10 fold remark probably means that they are only producing very small scale currently. After all, they announced only on October 3, 2016 that they had 40,000 silkworms. That many can make about 8 kilograms of silk. Apparently enough for samples and definitely scaleable, but still very small scale.
Well, only producing 2-3 metric tons of silk annually is not going to be able to make full mass production and that is only achievable after full land utilization which involves planting up to ~56,000 trees and waiting about 3 years for them to mature.
I don't consider it a negative, though. It is definitely a good start and more land can be purchased to expand from there, but I think it was pointed out that this is going to be a fairly small scale facility and it will take time to get it going.
It will probably be useful for future scaling up of the newest silkworm strains once Vietnam is put in place, but ultimately, it will be Vietnam that will be able to produce the tens of thousands of metric tons annually that will be needed to truly achieve actual mass production.
Yes, i am.
Knowing the address, I can keep an eye on the area. Knowing Kim, he likely wouldn't PR if anything bad happened, but I can watch for natural disasters and anything else that can affect the yield. I also have a general idea of what to expect out of the facility as well, so I wont over or underestimate what it is capable of.
Ok, Here is what I know:
The photo in the PR has embedded into it the GPS coordinates of where it was taken. This was extremely careless on the part of whoever took the photo and put out the PR for not scrubbing this info, but it is already out publicly now. This was playfully pointed out by M4N in his Post #118136 a few days ago and I confirmed it. Here is a link to the Google Maps coordinates. I thought it might have been planted there as a false lead, but upon investigation, I found it to be accurate. From that, here is what I have been able to find out about the Texas Facility:
- The total land area is 15 Acres.
- One acre of the land holds a 2,000 sqft manufactured home, a separate carport, and two small ponds.
- The other 14 acres are pasture and where the trees are being planted.
- Assuming full land utilization, they should be able to produce around 2-3 metric tons of silk annually from this facility
- The land was purchased by Kim personally in December and is being leased to the company
- The address is 213 LCR 661, Kosse, TX 76653
- You can see come general pictures of it before it was sold HERE
Are you referring to the geo-tag pulled off the photo or the information that I was able to acquire from that on the Texas facility?
This issue was brought up late 2015 in regards to a picture of the undisclosed worm facility and another picture of Kim in the lab. While there was not a specific geotag with that worm facility picture, both M4N and I noticed that the image EXIF data was intact and that the time of the picture taken strongly suggested that the location would be in a time zone on the other side of the world (though it could also be that the camera used to take the picture was never set up with the correct time or it was changed to mislead anyone who looked that far).
Either way, I mentioned it in detail on my Post #95334 regarding this image data, so i would have thought that they would be scrubbing the image of this data prior to sending it out unless they are trying to intentionally mislead us with this info.
I was a little late checking my mail and looking into this, did the KBLB website previously have the picture posted with the PR?: http://www.kraiglabs.com/kraig-biocraft-laboratories-completes-planting-of-2000-mulberry-trees-at-its-new-texas-location-to-support-spider-silk-production/
If so, it is gone now, likely due to that "little" oversight. Too late now that the secret is out with the e-mails, though. They might as well list the address in the next filing.
This is, of course, assuming that that little Easter egg wasn't intentionally planted there to throw nosy people like us off. I will be keeping my eye on it now regardless.
Yeah, i see it too and I know where you got your info, it is something that I thought was addressed last year and was pretty careless on both the owner of the Nexus and whoever sent out the PR if they wanted to keep the location hidden.
Interesting. I wonder if this has to do with their South by Southwest "big news" announcement in a couple weeks.
Fair enough, you do have a point. Kim does have a tendency to mislead with half-truths in such a way, so there is a possibility that that is the case here.
I agree, they did a good job with this newsletter. While it doesn't give very much new information, it elaborates quite a bit on what they have accomplished and gives a clear view of their intended path forward with ballpark time frames to accomplish that in. Whoever wrote this newsletter should be "the guy" to write them from now on.
They might need MS for applications where a high elasticity is desired. Mundane clothing such as socks, panty hose, sportswear, etc. would be good applications for it. DS would be better for applications where a higher strength and lower elasticity is desired such as jackets, vests, lining, and tents.
Now, once this new Über Silk is perfected and moved out of the lab into production, i think it will replace MS assuming it has actually started in Vietnam by then in the same way that DS has replaced Big Red.
I am pretty sure that that is referring to the new genetic line that they are working on. It will be as elastic as Monster Silk and as strong as Dragon Silk, so it is the best of both worlds.
Yeah, i remember that. They collected the $309,159 grant upfront, but had to keep pushing the due date several years down the line until last year where they finally had to pay back $46,374 of it. I hope KBLB does not follow the same pattern.
Here's the grant info if you are curious.
They already have a company.
I mentioned earlier that this is Spiber Technologies. They work out of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Anna Rising who is mentioned in the article is one of their chief scientists and works with My Hedhammar, the company founder.
Thanks jazz710,
77.2 ±29.5 MJ/m^3 is the highest PNAS MonsterSilk Toughness for the record.
It is not quite as strong as natural spider silk, but it looks like Sweden's Spiber Technologies AB are able to make pretty strong fibers that are almost as good.
I just watched the segment a couple times on Hulu. Its not bad. The look around the lab and simplified explanation on what is happening behind the science was pretty educational.
There were one statement that i picked up on that I thought was really interesting:
Yeah, it was telling that they did not allow me to touch the Moon Parka. In fact, I found out afterwards when speaking to a North Face associate that was working during the Moon Parka display in Harajuku, they didn't even allow the salespeople at The North Face to touch it.
They admitted that the blue dress was not really all that strong after it had been on display a while and an associate at the TEPIA museum told me that it felt really coarse, similar to burlap, so I am guessing the Moon Parka had similar problems and they still haven't worked out all of the issues with their production.
It looks like issues with quality and consistency is a common problem throughout all spider silk production methods. I hope that KBLB can resolve their issues with the simple setup of climate controlled or overseas production facilities. Time will tell if this is the case.
Announcing the postponement of the launch of the MOON PARKA, the world’s first outdoor apparel product created with next-generation structural protein materials
2016/9/30
https://www.spiber.jp/uploads/2016/09/160930_moonparka_english.pdf
The product release for the ‘MOON PARKA’ outdoor apparel item, jointly developed by GOLDWIN INC. (Representative Director: Akio Nishida; Head office: 2-20-6 Shoto, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8517, Japan; TSE:8111) and Spiber Inc. (Representative Executive Officer: Kazuhide Sekiyama; Head office: 234-1 Mizukami Kakuganji Tsuruoka, Yamagata 997-0052, Japan) has been postponed until 2017 onwards.
First unveiled in October 2015, the MOON PARKA prototype uses textiles made with Spiber’s proprietary synthetic spider silk fibers, ‘QMONOS™’. It is the first apparel prototype in the world to integrate synthetic spider silk materials with existing industrial manufacturing technology.
GOLDWIN and Spiber have developed many new technologies and effective processes to improve material quality and address issues that were identified throughout the initial prototyping stage in order to
prepare for a 2016 product launch. However, in order to ensure delivery of the best possible product to our customers, we have decided that more time is required to further improve our production process for more stability of material quality. Therefore, we have decided to delay the release of the MOON PARKA until 2017 onwards.
We plan to announce more details concerning the new release date once decided, and our goal of initiating sales as soon as possible remains unchanged.
GOLDWIN and Spiber remain committed to our collaboration and continue to redouble our efforts to deliver superior products to our customers. We look forward to sharing this journey with you.
Website:
GOLDWIN INC. http://www.goldwin.co.jp/
Spiber Inc. http://www.spiber.jp/
Please direct related inquiries to:
GOLDWIN INC. Corporate Communications Dept. TEL. +81-3-3481-7250
Spiber Inc. https://www.spiber.jp/en/contact
(This is a translated version of the original Japanese press release which can be found here.)
Unfortunately, i was not given an exact number at the time, but they did say that it would be a very limited run and likely just sold from one location. I have reason to believe that it will be sold at The North Face store in Harajuku (near Tokyo), but that is unconfirmed. The rep said that they just wanted to start getting their name out there with this run.
I wish i knew more about the terms of their partnerships, but all I got is what they put out publicly. I didn't really think to ask the rep that level of detail at the time nor do i think that she would have told me any useful info if i did.
Both Spiber and Bolt Threads indicate that their arrangements with Patagonia and Goldwin (The North Face Japan's Manufacturer) are in the form of partnerships. I know that Goldwin invested 3 billion yen (~$30 million USD) in Spiber, but I am unsure if Patagonia made a similar investment in Bolt Threads.
A Spiber representative mentioned to me several months ago that the Moon Parka will likely come out in the late fall or winter time this year to give them time to manufacture enough of them and simply due to the fact that it is a heavy winter jacket.
Bolt Threads mentioned that they should have some products released by Patagonia in 2018 and other products through other companies next year sometime.
Honestly, based on the silkworm life cycle and the crossbreeding that will have to be done with local silkworm lines to get them acclimated with the local climates overseas, i don't expect to see any "mundane" textile products from KBLB silk hitting the shelf until late 2018 at the very earliest assuming they set up their overseas facilities sometime in the next couple months. Technical textiles could likely be publicly marketed earlier as the Indiana facility is ramped up assuming there are no issues with quality or consistency, though.
I e-mailed Ben asking about it and other addresses of places leased and used by KBLB. The reply I got was:
Agreed, CRISPR is causing a revolution in genetically modified everything. Here is a pretty good YouTube video that explains it and its potential implications for the future of humanity:
If I had to guess the reason, i would say it is just because he has not gotten enough Dragon Silk to work with yet. KBLB needs to set up their new sericulture facility, grow the silkworms, and test their silk to ensure the re are no quality or consistency issues prior to sending it off to WM. He might have had a few samples here or there, maybe enough to make another set of gloves, but I doubt he has had enough to work into ballistic vests. I doubt he will for several months at least.
He has been working with Monster Silk, so might have a good idea on what to do with it, but Monster Silk is lacking on the strength capabilities that Dragon Silk has, so he won't know for sure what he has got until he actually gets enough to work with and tests it out. Also, previous issues regarding quality and consistency along with potentially violating an NDA might make him leary about publicly commenting on it.
It seems that he has always been pretty tight lipped and the negative response when he initially mentioned that it would take years to work Monster Silk into fabrics might have made him even more reluctant to talk about it.
I would like a comment from WM as well, but I would not bet on hearing from them before they actually have a vest available. Even then, you might only hear "the Army liked it and we got the rest of the million from the grant" due to the potential confidentiality of the vest properties.
Thanks, I am really interested in the technology, which is what got me interested in KBLB in the first place, so I like to keep up with where everyone is in development. I have a fairly optimistic outlook on it for both KBLB and the competitors which is not necessarily shared by others on this board, some even going so far as to call the competition scams and others calling KBLB one. I just see it as a bunch of companies seeing a product that can revolutionize multiple industries, earning potentially billions in the process.
Each company has their own methods and each have advantages and disadvantages to them. The ultimate test to see which are viable will be if they can reach commercialization and profitability. The only three companies that i think that can do this in the near future are KBLB, Spiber, and Bolt Threads which is why i focus on them when I talk about the competition. There is plenty of room for growth for each of these companies as well as lots of money to be made as they scale up and perfect their methods. I am just planning on riding on the KBLB train since that is the only company that I can invest in for now on the public market. If the other two ever go public, then I will invest in them as well.
I also keep a close watch on the competition and have been for several years now. If you want a good list of companies that are potential competitors, i posted about them about a year ago in my Post #96120.
My personal opinion, there will be 3 main Spider Silk companies that will do well and commercialize by the end of the decade: Spiber, Bolt Threads, and KBLB. Here is a quick rundown of Spiber and Bolt Threads:
Spiber Inc. is a Japanese company aiming for the Japanese market, at least initially. They are already in pilot commercial production and already have sales. They are due to release their first commercial product in collaboration with The North Face Japan later this year, the Moon Parka. They are also working with Kojima Industries to work their proteins into automobiles.
Bolt Threads Inc. has been making a lot of noise, raising a lot of cash, and making a lot of big partnerships recently. Their production method is similar to Spiber's but more efficient since they use Yeast rather than bacteria, so they can make more proteins with less materials. The have Partnered with Patagonia and Unifi and will be producing their first metric ton later this year, hoping to commercialize early 2017.
I don't think that Nike is off the table for KBLB; i think this article is just addressing the former experience of the people working for them. If you check their website, you will see that their chief marketing officer used to work at Nike. Their VP of Product Development also lists Nike as previous job experience along with Patagonia whom they did partner up with.
Since they do have former Nike employees working there, they will have an advantage when negotiating, but ultimately Nike cares about profits, so I don't think that they will limit themselves to only one type of spider silk when others that may be cheaper or stronger are available.
I agree that the new site would likely be associated with Notre Dame, though it will likely be leased which generally would not show up in any parcel search. I am hoping to see it listed with more info and an address in the next quarterly.
I seriously doubt it, but it is not like it would matter anyway since he now lives in the Lansing area.