Interviews
News Flash
Kraig Biocraft installs new cocoon processing machine
18 Apr '17
2 min read
Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, Inc., developer of spider silk based fibres, has announced that it is expanding domestic recombinant spider silk production capacity with the purchase and installation of a new commercial scale cocoon processing machine. The equipment is being installed now, and is expected to be fully operational before the end of April.
The machine replaces a much smaller cocoon processing machine the company has been using to produce materials under a contract with the US army. The increased capacity and efficiency the new equipment offers will free up production staff and lower overall costs.
Over the next month, the company plans to supply the US army with sample single filament dragon silk fibres for independent testing and to have the first batch of finished dragon silk thread ready for knitting into Ballistic shootpacks. The company anticipates completing the additional silk necessary for producing the woven shootpacks for the US army in the third quarter. The newly installed equipment is expected to play an important role in meeting this new timeline.
Kraig COO Jon Rice said, “In many cases, up until now, we’ve been working with research scale equipment as we transitioned out of the laboratory. We had originally hoped to have completed all silk production for the first army contact by now. That timeline, in consultation with our customer, has been extended due to challenges that a third party vendor had in scheduling and processing as well as the throughput limitations of our production facility in its first month of operations. The new equipment can process more cocoons in one hour than we currently process in a month and it is expected to play an important role in meeting the new timeline. The new commercial scale machine is expected to sustain our domestic production capacity through 2019 and reduce labour costs significantly.” (GK)
The machine replaces a much smaller cocoon processing machine the company has been using to produce materials under a contract with the US army. The increased capacity and efficiency the new equipment offers will free up production staff and lower overall costs.
Over the next month, the company plans to supply the US army with sample single filament dragon silk fibres for independent testing and to have the first batch of finished dragon silk thread ready for knitting into Ballistic shootpacks. The company anticipates completing the additional silk necessary for producing the woven shootpacks for the US army in the third quarter. The newly installed equipment is expected to play an important role in meeting this new timeline.
Kraig COO Jon Rice said, “In many cases, up until now, we’ve been working with research scale equipment as we transitioned out of the laboratory. We had originally hoped to have completed all silk production for the first army contact by now. That timeline, in consultation with our customer, has been extended due to challenges that a third party vendor had in scheduling and processing as well as the throughput limitations of our production facility in its first month of operations. The new equipment can process more cocoons in one hour than we currently process in a month and it is expected to play an important role in meeting the new timeline. The new commercial scale machine is expected to sustain our domestic production capacity through 2019 and reduce labour costs significantly.” (GK)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India
Popular News
Leave your Comments
Christian Guinet
French Textile Equipment Manufacturers’ Association (UCMTF)
Andreas Rass
ZIMMER AUSTRIA | Digital Printing Systems
Esteemed Clients
-Ltd..jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Thermore (Far East) Ltd.")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (TSllC Ltd)")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF)")
