Turning hoki skins into a natural skin care product has won New Zealand nanofibre producer Revolution Fibres a top honour at the Seafood Stars Awards. The West Auckland company’s actiVLayr product uses collagen extracted from fish skins as a base ingredient, which is then combined with elements, such as fruit extracts and hyaluronic acid, to help reduce wrinkles, heal burns and enhance medical treatments.   

The local Seafood New Zealand award follows Revolution Fibres’ win last month at the international Textiles Institute Awards for its expertise in electrospinning, the process the company use to create nanofibre.

Diverse uses

Revolution Fibres CEO Iain Hosie says the two awards highlight the diverse uses nanofibre has ranging from skin care and medical treatment to strengthening in Formula 1 cars and fishing rods. “The incredible thing is, this is just the start. The potential for nanofibre is limitless and we are especially looking forward to further developing actiVLayr in the medical area,” he said.

“The way actiVLayr is created means ingredients are absorbed quickly and efficiently into the skin to help maximise the repair and protection of the skin. This enables a controlled dose of medicine to be delivered to a patient with skin lesions, burns or acne.”  

Commercialisation of actiVLayr

The Seafood Stars Award was in recognition of Revolution Fibres manufacture and commercialisation of actiVLayr, which was launched earlier this year and is now on shelves in Hong Kong and China. It will be available in New Zealand later this year. 

The development of the product was a joint project between Revolution Fibres, Sanford (the supplier of the hoki), and Plant and Food Research in Nelson. The innovative skin care, actiVlayr, is currently part of a campaign by New Zealand Story Group, a company who shares the stories of NZ businesses to the world.

Nanofibres are textiles made from super-fine fibres between 100-500 nanometres in width (a human hair is 50,000 nm wide). These small fibres can create vast changes in mechanical strength, reactivity, and conductivity among many other properties.

Working across multiple sectors

At the Textile Institute Awards, this year based in Leeds, UK, Revolution Fibres won the Innovation Award for outstanding achievement in enhancing international textile interests through creativity, commerce, marketing and economic development. The award has been running for 28 years and previous winners include Unilever and Marks and Spencer.

Hosie says the company is now working across multiple sectors as international demand continues to grow with nanofibre used for large scale manufacturing through to niche application areas such as the aerospace industry. “There’s now a steady stream of industries embracing the characteristics of nanofibre material and this will only increase as research and development uncovers even greater opportunities,” he commented.

Revolution Fibres latest wins follow its product, Xantu.Layr, a nanofibre composite reinforcement veil, being a finalist for a number of international awards including the Future Textiles Award and RISE Innovation Awards in 2017.

www.revolutionfibres.com