AMSilk to develop high performance Products using Biosteel R fiber

The world’s first industrial supplier of synthetic silk biopolymers, AMSilk GmbH, has entered into a new strategic partnership with its already existing partner Gruschwitz Textilwerke AG, a supplier to the processing industry has specialized in the development, production and sales of technical threads and yarns.

The aim of the strategic partnership between AMSilk and Gruschwitz is to develop further innovative yarn products based on Biosteel(R) fiber, with a special focus on products for premium markets. In addition to collaborating on the yarn structure itself, the two companies will cooperate more closely in the area of fiber finishing. Biosteel(R) yarns may, for example, be refined by coatings and PFC-free finishings as well as optimized for the specific field of application.

Severin Bertsch, Head of Fiber Business, AMSilk said that as a well established and interactive team, AMSilk and Gruschwitz will develop future-oriented products for the textile, automotive and aviation industries. All our products are developed in accordance with our mission of ‘bridging opposites’ – of combining high-performance with environmental integrity. The new adidas running shoe made from Biosteel(R) fiber is an example of this, as it combines breakthrough high-performance with 100 % biodegradability.

AMSilk CEO Jens Klein that they are very pleased to bring their longstanding cooperation with Gruschwitz to the next level by entering into a strategic partnership.From the very beginning they have been impressed by the Gruschwitz’s competence, reliability, creativity and motivation and they excited to work more closely on exciting new innovations.

Ditmar Schultschik, CEO of Gruschwitz Textilwerke AG said that for Gruschwitz, the cooperation with AMSilk is an excellent addition to our activities in the high-tech area. AMSilk is a young, dynamic company with a great product. For them it has been challenging and at the same time fascinating to develop the necessary manufacturing process for the Biosteel(R) yarns and to be able to accompany AMSilk’s market entry.

AMSilk first began working with Gruschwitz Textilwerke AG in 2014 in order to continue developing and commercializing Biosteel(R) fibers. Gruschwitz’s proven expertise in the field of synthetic high-performance yarns, combined with its tradition of innovation that’s persisted for over 200 years, make it an ideal partner. Among Gruschwitz’s notable recent innovations are a special coating technology used for extremely resilient offshore ropes made of DSM Dyneema(R) and very sophisticated yarns for Johnson & Johnson, a global player in medical textiles.

In 2015, the joint research and development activities of AMSilk and Gruschwitz yielded a technological innovation: instead of relying on specialized knitting machines to process Biosteel(R) fiber, the companies were able to process the silk biopolymers on conventional knitting machines. The result was the first textile fabric made of biotechnologically produced synthetic silk fibers – a revolution in the textile industry. This technology proved the basis for AMSilk’s partnership with Adidas, first announced in November 2016, for the production of high-performance sports shoes made of Biosteel(R) fiber.