Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc (KBLB)

[WebSlinger]

Another Potential MAJOR Issue with Production: Small Cocoons

As most of you are aware, the latest newsletter stated that Warwick Mills could not produce the sample shootpacks because of the "small quantity of silk thread" that was provided. The thread was then sent to a "textile research facility".

Here is the exact quote from the newsletter:

"The shootpacks were expected to be completed by December. A review and discussion in late December / early January between Kraig Labs and the textile mill that was scheduled to produce the shootpacks determined that the large scale production looms at their facility were not ideal for working with the small quantity of silk thread for these shootpacks. As a result of discussion with the textile mill, the spider silk thread has been sent to an alternative textile research facility. This new facility has the equipment to produce narrow warp woven fabrics needed for this project and the capacity to take on the work. We look forward to receiving the finished woven fabric in March and plan to share images of these first woven samples of recombinant spider silk with you."

I started thinking about this yesterday and I realized that this brings up another potential major issue.

It has been stated a few times that the cocoons from KBLB's transgenic worms are smaller than normal. This seems to be a problem for the silk industry. The smaller cocoons led to KBLB missing their 1st deadline for the sample shootpacks (Apr 2017), when the reeler was blamed because they couldn't work with the smaller cocoons.

But now it seems that Warwick also had issues because of the smaller cocoons (since smaller cocoons will produce smaller reels of fiber). So the smaller cocoons seem to be the reason for KBLB missing their 2nd deadline for the sample shootpacks as well (Dec 2017).

So it seems that the silk industry in general is used to using "normal" size reels from "normal" size cocoons.

So the question is, "How will KBLB mass produce fiber when the industry isn't setup for small cocoons?"

KBLB's current solution for the issue that Warwick had is to turn to a "research facility". But I doubt that a "research facility" will be able to mass produce. It might be able to create a few sample shootpacks, but that is about it.

One of KBLB's latest PRs (from 19 Jan 2018) even states that they are trying to create larger cocoons:

"The new recombinant spider silk strain combines properties from one of the Company’s best performing transgenics with a large commercial silkworm line, to produce larger cocoons and even stronger silk."

So it looks like they have acknowledged the issue and are trying to figure out how to solve the problem, but they are only at the beginning stages.

Once again, this tells me that KBLB is nowhere close to commercialization. They are still a research lab trying to figure out how to get there.