Bysco: textiles made with molds

Jean Zeid 06:53, February 8, 2024

This Thursday morning, we make textiles with molds 

You won't eat a mold and fries in the same way anymore. To find this innovation which is not really one, you obviously have to go to Brittany in the workshop of the Bysco company in Ille-et-Vilaine (Brittany). In its Cancale workshop, Bysco uses a forgotten material, the filament of the mussels, the byssus, a filament which connects the molds to the rocks or to a rope. A noble material fallen into oblivion which was nicknamed “marine silk”. It is not only natural but also resistant, fireproof, ecological, and thanks to it, Bysco can manufacture thermal insulators and acoustic absorbers. Performances that are of interest to the mobility and building sectors.

And also the textile industry.

Yes, it is a material used since Antiquity to make it. We find a trace of it as clothing in Jules Vernes' novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” Here, we are not talking about clothing but about textiles. 

4,500 tonnes of byssus are thus available each year. Between 25 and 30,000 tonnes in Europe. 

Initially, the founders of Bysco were looking for a fiber capable of replacing fiberglass in the manufacture of composite racing boats. The tests are not conclusive, the material is too flexible to design boat hulls, but it turns out to be strong and light. Perfect for textiles.

Installed in a building in the Cancale shellfish growing area, Bysco collects the famous filaments from mussel producers to transform it into textiles. Another big advantage of this textile; This is because it is entirely possible to recycle it once it has reached the end of its life. Enough to greatly reduce the carbon impact of its manufacturing.

If these filaments have been known since the dawn of time, this is a major innovation. 

Because this time, Bysco has developed a unique process to transform it into textile. There was a lot of prototyping carried out by Robin Maquet, engineer and president of Bysco before creating his box in 2021. The material is cleaned and dried before being transformed in Hauts-de-France. The challenge is this cleaning of the fibers. The other challenge is to move from the artisanal stage to a pre-industrial process. Objective: to remain competitive, not to explode costs in order to achieve economic viability.

At the end of the chain, we have raw, non-woven textiles, capable of interest manufacturers in sectors as varied as transport, construction, insulation of camper vans, train sets or even boats. Other processes are currently being researched with the transformation of fiber into yarn and this time, it is the manufacture of clothing which is targeted.