TIL spiders create different silk for draglines and eggcases.
Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks
11–20 of 69 posts
Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks
#12Say this could be mass produced. What are the beachhead markets? What are the moneymakers?
Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks
#13TLDR; they reprocess natural silk from silkworms to produce silk fibers with better tensile strength. This is partly achieved by doing a better job of washing out non-strong compounds from the fiber, so the yield is strictly lower than that for natural silk. This process still involves boiling silkworms alive.
This contrasts from biotech based fibers, e.g. https://boltthreads.com/technology/microsilk/ , which is produced by genetically modified yeast.
Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks
#14Say this could be mass produced. What are the beachhead markets? What are the moneymakers?
Bulletproof backpacks for kids in the USA. Only partially kidding, as Kevlar vests are the standard I believe…
Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks
#15Tensile strength of 2 GPa for this silk compared to 0.4 to 0.8 GPa for steel. Really cool.. This is without including the strength to weight aspect!
Could reinforced concrete be made with silk instead of steel?
My high school physics understanding of reinforced concrete is that the coefficients of expansion for steel and concrete are similar to a degree that it is very resilient to heat stress. I doubt that's the case for silk.
Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
I want to see a braided rope made with this stuff...
I would imagine you could use ultra thin rope for heavy loads. I worked at a bungy jump place once and we had members of the Canadian military come to our bridge to test some very thin paracord. The rope they used did not look like it would be able to hold them but it did. But this silk is obviously way stronger then what they had I could only imagine how thin it would be and have the same strength
Probably something like dyneema
Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
I actually don't understand how they do tensile strength testing between steel and silk - doesn't silk stretch or yield?
Elastic stretching, the one that reverses completely on taking the load off, is the regime where there is a linear relationship between the stress load and the stretching. This should be seen as different from yielding which in mechanical testing is an irreversible change usually signifying a destructive change in the material. So, yes, silk stretches but is not damaged while doing so and the resistance it provides a…
Steel also undergoes elastic deformation, stretches but is not damaged while doing so, up until the yield point.
Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks
#18Reminds me of biosteel — silk made from transgenic goats milk:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioSteel_(fiber)
Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks
#19IMO, fibers with very high tensile strength have only two applications worth speaking of:
a) Space elevators (but the tensile strength required for that is too high and we are still not close enough), and
b) Large O'Neill cylinders, in the radius of about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles). With regards to tensile strength, these would require something with the strength of graphene.
This particular fiber seems to have 2 GPa of tensile strength, which is only good for a smallish O'Neill cylinder.
Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks
#20IMO, fibers with very high tensile strength have only two applications worth speaking of: a) Space elevators (but the tensile strength required for that is too high and we are still not close enough), and b) Large O'Neill cylinders, in the radius of about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles). With regards to tensile strength, these would require something with the strength of graphene. This particular fiber seems to have 2…
I can think of a couple:
- Durable stringy clothing items
- Thinner ropes? Particularly relevant is for safety applications.
- Fiber ropes are particularly advantageous when compared to steel ropes in applications that require repeated bending.