"That statement puts our silk a a 500-600% premium to normal silk."
100 tonnes is 100,000 kilos..i have seen china silk being sold between $20 to $185 a kilo..
the expensive silk yarn is premium of course, but it is still "normal silk"...
I should think our silk, since it could be used for high tech purposes and personal protection products, would surpass the value of normal premium silk...probably by a lot...
the initial price will be a benchmark for all prices after that...
consider the companies partnering with amsilk and spiber...their prices for their silk is sky-high...but those companies are not deterred in the least...sure they want the prices to come down...and they will...but its still going to end up being far more costly than normal silk...
and apparently, they are willing to pay..
if normal silk can sell at $185 per kilo, I don't see why kblb couldn't easily get $200 per kilo...that's about $91.00 per pound...
and kblb thinks they might be able to get $300 per kilo...im ok with that too..
"And for ballistic uses the kevlar competition is less than $20 a pound."
I just checked ebay...you can buy 12 sheets of 10"x12" Kevlar bullet proof fabric for $33.00...and I doubt that weighs close to a pound...and 12 sheets isn't enough to stop anything...you'd need more like 20...and I doubt 20 sheets weighs close to a pound..and for a bullet proof vest, you are going to need bigger that 10"x12"...and then you will need the same for the back...and some on the sides...
regardless of all that, it does not matter what the cost of the material is..what kblb has to come close to matching is the overall price of the vest being sold to the army...
as far as I can tell, the army pays $800 or more for their body armor..
we don't have to beat $20 a lb ( which it isn't anyway)...we have to beat $800 per vest...
and if its a better vest and lighter, we don't have to beat $800 per vest...we can charge more...
