WoolCool – Wool packaging

Disgrifiad o Effaith

BC has worked with the company Wool Cool for the last 5 years and within that time the com[any has moved from being a single person company to employing 46 people and turning over £4.26 million in their last financial year with a continued growth projection. This growth is a direct result of developing a scientific understanding of the use of wool as a packaging material. The company are currently moving from food packaging into medical packaging which over the next years have the potential to increase vaccine viability whilst in transit (currently 2/3 of Ebola vaccine are lost due to changes in temperature whilst in transit).

BC has worked with the company Wool Cool for the last 5 years and within that time the com[any has moved from being a single person company to employing 46 people and turning over £4.26 million in their last financial year with a continued growth projection. This growth is a direct result of developing a scientific understanding of the use of wool as a packaging material.

The impact of our work with Wool Cool continues to grow with their annual fleece requirement expected to equal the fleece production of Wales and the company are currently in negotiations with the Welsh Government and the wool marketing board to develop the new market for Welsh upland wool and pay a fair price for it. The understanding that Welsh Upland wool is the preferred type has come directly from the research undertaken with BC.
The company are currently moving from food packaging into medical packaging which over the next years have the potential to increase vaccine viability whilst in transit. Vaccines often have a very narrow viability window (generally between 5-8 °C) and it has been noted through the research jointly undertaken that wool packaging can sustain this temperature range for 72 hours in cyclic temperature conditions, whereas the current EPS only maintains 24 hour temperature range. The implications for the transport of vaccines is great and the company is currently in negotiations with 2 large Pharmaceutical companies to begin supply, therefore with in the next year a good case study can be built around this story .

Disgrifiad o'r ymchwil sylfaenol

Current published research is limited and currently we are ‘back filling’ the research. However the research was conducted under the following grants 1. Direct funding from the company 2. TSB SMART R&D grant 3. YSB SMART Prototyping grant All projects have been reported with summaries available from Innovate UK

Statws effaith	Potensial
Categori effaith	Economegol, Ansawdd Bywyd / Iechyd, Technegol