From ExtremeTech, June 19:
Researchers Create Gelatin-Based Textiles That Dissolve For Easy Disposal
Plus, a $560 open-source machine that spins gelatin-based fibers on our desktop.
Textile scientists in Colorado have found a way to make clothing out of the stuff used in jiggly, jewel-colored desserts. Gelatin, a byproduct of the meat and leather industries, can be spun into threads to make fabrics that are resilient while dry, but dissolve in hot water when the wearer no longer wants them. Researchers have also landed on a method of production that requires just one small, inexpensive machine, rather than a room-sized manufacturing setup.
The unexpected new textile comes from the Unstable Design Lab at the University of Colorado at Boulder. This lab focuses on all angles of the textile production process—not just the fabrics themselves, but also the equipment, materials, weaving methods, and designs used to create them. In an effort to create a textile that would skirt the landfill when it was no longer wanted, researchers at the Unstable Design Lab experimented with gelatin, a cheap, accessible, and biodegradable byproduct.
But first, they needed a way to spin Jell-O's main ingredient into fibers. Most "wet spinning lines," which submerge polymers in a coagulation bath to create fibers, require enough equipment to fill an entire laboratory. Knowing a conventional wet spinning line would make gelatin-based textiles inaccessible to most people and facilities, the Unstable Design Lab produced a desktop machine that skips the coagulation bath, instead heating the gelatin within a syringe to create fibers. With its small footprint, modular parts, and open-source build, the $560 machine can be used and customized within most design labs to experiment with gelatin-based fibers....
....MUCH MORE
If interested see also a couple posts linking to Librarian Shipwreck:
Join the cult, get the tote bag free!You Always Speak of Luddites But What of Captain Swing?
From Librarian Shipwreck (Libraries, Archives, Technology, Impending Doom)....