Silk

Chinese scientists seem to have figured out the spinning mechanism of the silkworm and have suggested two spinning models.

The 54th report of the Parliament of India’s Standing Committee on Labour, Textiles and Skill Development, which was submitted earlier this month, provides alarming numbers about the state of the silk industry in the country.

Biomimetics has helped researchers in Japan to create a device that spins artificial spider silk that closely matches natural spider silk which is biodegradable and ideal for biomedical applications, such as sutures and artificial ligaments.

An American researcher has developed a method to create synthetic spider silk at high yields while retaining strength and toughness using mussel foot proteins that can pave the way for a new era of sustainable clothing production.

All this while it was believed that silkworm silk could not compete with spider silks on mechanical performance. New research by scientists at China’s Tianjin University solidified the silk in a bath of metals and sugars, and once manually spun and drawn, these silks are thinner than the original silkworm silk, reaching nearly the same size as spider silks.

Scientists in the US have developed a method to make silk-based materials that refuse to stick to water, or almost anything else containing water. One can imagine automotive windshields where rainwater just rolls off without using wipers, coatings on metals that help prevent rust, or on fabrics to make them easier to clean.

Vegan, completely biodegradable and produced with bio-fabrication, AMSilk’s products are environment friendly and make a significant contribution to a future zero-waste society. Ulrich Scherbel, Managing Director at AMSilk, the world’s leading supplier of innovative high-performance biotech materials, talks to texfash.com about how he aims to make smart performing biotech materials part of everyday life.