AMD’s nMark™ system contributes to textile consortium’s sustainability goals

Advanced Material Development (AMD) is pleased to announce that a new consortium made up of AMD, RubyMoon Design, The ReManuFactory and Queen Mary University, is seeking to develop new functional textiles using recycled polymers and bespoke nanomaterials.

Reducing the carbon footprint and improving sustainability of textiles continues to be major area of innovation. The UK’s £54bn clothing industry produces in excess of 350,000 tonnes of still wearable clothing that ends up in landfill every year.

Mixed synthetic fibres are often difficult to separate into their original components, but recent improvements in separation and extraction technologies, along with the introduction of new additives, could create new products with enhanced fibre properties. Our aim is to reduce landfill wastage and increase sustainability by improving material circularity, and developing a new textile that can also be traced, disassembled, and reused.

AMD has created several novel nanomaterial additives which when added to the polymer spinning process, improve the structural and thermal properties of the resulting fibres. It has also created a traceability system called nMark™ that utilises the spectroscopic properties of nanomaterials to embed a ‘fingerprint code’ into these fibres which reinforces moves towards producer accountability and facilitates re-use. To support the business pull and exploitation of the project, RubyMoon Design CIC and ReManuFactory Ltd are providing expertise in the water sports textile industry and circular economy practice.

With the support of UKRI and the BFTT (Business of Fashion, Textiles & Technology), an industry-led project, focussed on delivering sustainable innovation within the fashion and textile supply chain, will work with Queen Mary University London through Dr. Emiliano Bilotti’s materials research team. This will utilise the Nanoforce facility which supports the use of nanotechnology within the creative industries with its facilities for compounding of thermoplastics and hot melt spinning of new fibres.

The ReManuFactory is an inspirational hub built to provide both social and environmental impact whilst manufacturing exciting products and creating employment opportunities for who find permanent employment difficult to secure.

AMD's CEO, John Lee says, "This project demonstrates the longer term thinking of the AMD strategy as it extends its relationships into other Universities where it sees complementary academic strengths to further leverage its core competencies."

For more information, please contact James Johnstone james@amdnano.com

17-January-2022