kevlar is the current standard, so replacing it completely is a less likely early adoption than someone competing with a blend of spider silk and kevlar, right?
on the news tonight there was a segment about Viet Nam relying on technology from Korea, but the bigger part of what caught my attention was the report that trade with China and the USA comprises 30% of its exports. Interestingly, one of the featured industrial exports was yarn.
But, moments later, a very very very long news segment was the bio on the creater of brewed spider silk proteins. They momentarily flashed its being used in the moon parka, but that was not the focus of the segment. See https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/bizstream/20190608/2074041/
Commercially, "volunteers" helped with the birth of this technology, as they emphasized the know how of textile and fermentation engineers in Japan who, in 2007 were already in their 70s and 80 and gave help to the grad students who created "spiber." the history of the company and the bio of the founder were well presented. The big news in my view is that they have a Thai factory opening in 2021 with commercial instead of lab volumes of production. They are already producing, and delivering to customers since 2014, lab scale volumes of materials that rival both yarns and hard plastics. The materials in 2007were dust sized. The materials in 2014 were looking commercially viable. In 2015 they raised substantial capital from investors. An impressive presentation that did not touch on the two key facts driving hopeful investors in kblb. (1) does brewed protein have an absolute advantage or disadvantage, in physics or chemistry, against silkworm produced fibers? (2) does brewed protein have an absolute advantage or disadvantage, in economics or performance, against silkworm produced fibers?
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
