Incredibly strong, light and flexible, spider silk is a real natural miracle – now it can be recreated for industrial use. In cooperation with AMSilk, a leading biotechnology company, Airbus aims to use artificial spider silk to create a completely new generation of composite materials that can revolutionize aerospace design.
Spider silk is one of the most amazing materials in nature. Stronger than steel and incredibly light, a web as thick as a pencil could catch a fully loaded A350 weighing about 200 tons. For decades, scientists have sought to recreate the amazing properties of the spider silk for industrial use. However, these efforts have been unsuccessful until now.
AMSilk, a leading biotechnology company located not far from Munich, is the world’s first industrial supplier of what is called synthetic silk biopolymers – artificial spider silk. The company is already using this high-performance, fully biodegradable material for medical devices and cosmetics. Now, AMSilk, in collaboration with Airbus,wants to transfer its innovative technology to aerospace industry.
After the first interpretation of a spider DNA, AMSilk realized that they could artificially reproduce identical material by extracting the insect’s specific genetic code for silk production and introducing it into the bacteria. Currently, the company performs this process in 60,000-liter 4-floor-high containers, which are filled with water and heated to 37 °C for growing bacteria. The resulting powder can be transformed into fiber, film or gel.
Using spider silk will help reduce aircraft weight and, consequently, fuel consumption.
