OXMAN, a design lab whose mission is to create and deliver nature-centric products and environments to its clients and the natural world, has officially announced the launch of a biomaterial, digital, and robotic technology platform called O°.
According to certain reports, the stated platform is designed to support the production of biobased textiles and wearables that are 100% biodegradable when disposed.
More on the same would reveal how O° can effectively eliminate the complexity usually associated with the conventional fabrication processes so to facilitate the creation of consumer products from one material, under one roof, with minimal human intervention, and that too, through a nearly zero-waste process. This it does, to a great extent, using polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), which is a class of organic material known for its versatility and biodegradability. In case you weren’t aware, 0% petrochemicals, 0% forever chemicals, 0% microplastics, and 100% biodegradable PHAs can be produced by bacteria which consume atmospheric carbon dioxide, methane, and/or food waste to cut back on carbon in the environment as they grow.
Now, as the components in question are biologically recyclable and 100% biodegradable in ambient conditions, using them allows O° to not leave behind microplastics when they decompose. In fact, thanks to their organic PHA content, these textiles actually return to the bacteria from which they originated.
Having said so, just like traditional biodegradable materials used for apparel such as cotton, wool, and silk, PHA will not biodegrade while being worn, washed, or stored.
“PHAs have long been recognized as a promising alternative to petroleum-based plastics,” said Neri Oxman, CEO and Founder of OXMAN. “We have successfully elevated the potential of PHA through the development of O°, a new technology for the design and fabrication of products that seeks to minimize harm in its conception and nourish the environment in its afterlife.”
Anyway, talk about the given solution on a slightly deeper level; we begin with its high-efficiency design process. You see, the material produced by O° packs together precise designs informed by the kinetics of human motion. To understand the given feature better, we must acknowledge how OXMAN has already leveraged its new platform to create a collection of shoes made entirely with PHA. During this particular application, O° ensured that, no matter whether they take final form as a walking or running shoe, or ballet slipper, each shoe has a base layer of a knitted upper and outer layers that are printed on the textile to provide specific functionality, including reinforcement, cushioning, strength, and pliability. Such versatility and automation, on O° platform’s part, would do a lot to enable rapid iterations and an accelerated development process from design to production.
Next up, there is the platform’s near zero-waste production process. Basically, leveraging a compact robotic system, the technology is able to 3D print custom PHA blends onto a textile that is already 3D knitted on an industrial flatbed machine from a 100% PHA yarn, which is markedly produced through a process of extrusion and melt spinning.
Instead, O° technology brings to the fore a near zero-waste production process, and at the same time, mandates minimal human involvement and intervention. This ensures local and low-cost production, thus minimizing the transport cost and environmental impact of the distant supply chains.
Another detail worth a mention here would be the new platform’s pledge to deliver bio-engineered colorways, colorways that are conceived without a shed of harmful petrochemicals. You see, many industrial pigments and dyes today are sourced from raw materials based on petro-chemicals that release environmentally damaging chemicals during their production and usage. These dyes and pigments are dependent on a resource-intensive and complex global supply chain for synthesis, processing, and transport.
The all-new O°, though, bets on a bacteria form which can produce pigments from simple and abundant natural resources. The platform uses bacteria not just as a source of material, but also to encode other functional properties such as pigment production to simplify and centralize the manufacturing process.
