Innovation Exchange Challenge: Innovative Solutions to Enable High Throughput Processing of Bioplastics During Die Cutting Requiring Increased Strength

Background

Sequins made from plastic film are frequently used in fashion, but the current industrially significant materials used to manufacture those are fossil based. Clean Colour Ltd, a dynamic start-up, has developed a scalable, biobased and biodegradable sequin film that is almost comparable to traditional fossil-based sequins and could be used as a drop-in replacement. The innovations around these biodegradable sequins are set to pave the way to support a sustainable fashion industry whilst minimising the impact to the environment. Two functional challenges stand in the way of the sequin being near perfect; 1) its ability to be spooled (i.e. the strength of the link between the adjoined sequins without tearing when die cutting machinery is operating at optimum speed); 2) the link retaining the ability to snap off the adjoined sequin chain once the industrial embroidery machine sews the sequin onto the fabric at high speeds.

The Challenge

Clean Colour Ltd has developed a biodegradable sequin which is attractive to the market and now needs to ensure its solution can run at the speeds currently required by industry for scaled fabric manufacture. Traditional sequins that are affixed to fabric are deployed from a spool at high speed and Clean Colour Limited’s solution aims to displace the traditional sequins with biodegradable equivalents, but this comes with its challenges.

As they currently stand, the joints between the sequins on the spooled chain are not strong enough to withstand the fast de-spooling/machining process and this is where the solution is required.

Clean Colour Ltd is looking to use open innovation to find a solution provider that can provide a solution to the challenge of machining sequins onto substrate fabrics at speeds on par with fossil based current sequin solutions.

Eligibility

Entrants to this competition must be:

• Micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)

Your project must:

• Have a grant funding request up to £25,000
• Last up to 3 months (project start date 1st Feb 2025)
• Carry out its project work in the UK
• Intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

Rewards & Benefits

Successful applicants will be given an opportunity to pitch their solution to Clean Colour. The winning pitch, as selected by Clean Colour Ltd, will receive £25,000 funding from Innovate UK to trial the solution in a 3-months project with potential for further adoption if trials are successful.

The benefits package for a successful applicant may also include:

• Support from Innovate UK Business Connect
• Support in the development of a prototype or pilot
• Technical support
• Invitation to attend or present at Innovate UK Business Connect events
• A potential business collaboration
• Investor introductions (if investment is required)
• Support if any Innovate or similar competitions are relevant.