Fiber science research helps small businesses

Vanessa Sanchez
Provided
Vanessa Sanchez ’15, an undergraduate research assistant in professor Margaret Frey’s lab, views fabric swatches under a scanning electron microscope for the Wool&Prince JumpStart project.

For the past few years, Rochester, New York-based SensGard has been expanding its market share for lightweight hearing protection. The company’s patented technology blocks noise while still allowing conversation, which should make it the ideal fit for industry and construction. But before its latest headset can gain wider acceptance, SensGard needs to fine-tune its design.

That’s why the company came to Cornell.

“We place a tremendous value on the research that’s being done at Cornell,” said Greg Post, CEO of SensGard. “For a business like ours, having access to Cornell faculty and students is a huge asset, and it’s moving us forward at a much faster pace than we could go any other way.”

In 2012, Post applied to the Cornell Center for Materials Research’s (CCMR) JumpStart program, funded by Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) and dedicated to helping small businesses solve issues with materials. Initially, the company worked with Chih-Chang Chu, Cornell’s Rebecca Q. Morgan ’60 Professor in Fiber Science & Apparel Design (FSAD) in the College of Human Ecology, who created a methodology to evaluate the foam ear cuffs used in SensGard’s headsets.

A year later, it collaborated with FSAD professor Anil Netravali, who examined the comfort of potential cuff materials, compression-testing nine different kinds of foam, including two used by SensGard. Netravali and his students proposed design changes to the angle of the cuff, the material used in the shell, the shape of the earpieces and the joint where the cuff and shell come together.

“This was a project I would never have envisioned doing without JumpStart,” said Netravali, who generally works on green materials. “The design students learned a lot about materials, and the engineering students learned a lot about design. We approached the project as a multidisciplinary team, and it was a positive experience for all of us.”

Like Netravali, FSAD associate professor Margaret Frey encountered a new challenge with her recent JumpStart project: How do you measure smelliness? Wool&Prince, a Brooklyn, New York-based apparel company founded by Mac Bishop ’11 wanted evidence to support their claim that wool resists odor, even if you wear the same shirt 100 days in a row without laundering it, which is what Bishop did for the company’s Kickstarter campaign.

Knowing that bacteria growth in perspiration is the main cause of odor on clothing, Frey, working with Bishop and Katie Elks ’12, former Wool&Prince creative director, devised a “simulated sweat test” to grow Micrococcus luteus on 10 different swatches of fabric, including ones made of cotton, polyester, wool and merino wool, each in its own Petri dish. The tests validated Bishop’s claim: There was significant bacterial growth on cotton and even more on polyester – even on supposed “anti-microbial” polyester – but virtually none on Wool&Prince’s merino blue dress shirt.

“They’ve developed a really nice product, and there are many, many benefits to working on a project like this,” said Frey. “It’s given us a chance to connect with alumni and support their new venture – when Wool&Prince came to see how the project was going, they talked to my intro class about their work. And it opened a new question for my research group, something we weren’t thinking about before.”

In the future, Frey hopes her team can determine why the bacteria didn’t grow on wool, and Bishop hopes that next step will help improve his product line. “As we learn about the properties of wool and its natural advantages, we can use this information to develop new fabrics and improve the performance of our shirts,” said Bishop. “We continually test new fabrics, and we look forward to more research initiatives with Cornell.”

The CCMR JumpStart program is accepting applications for spring 2015 projects. The deadline is Nov. 1.

Kenny Berkowitz ’85 is a freelance writer

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