Recently developed technology for production of high-performance cellulosic fibres
http://www.his.fi/en/articles/ioncell-a-new-textile-fibre
Marimekko presented a design at a recent fashion show prepared from birch kraft fibre using the IONCELL-F process:
Is this innovation or investigation? Nice work
Ha……good point. Nice to see people are paying attention to the details flying about the media and social media.
I had to look up the definition of ‘innovation’. In business terms it is ‘The process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay (http://www.businessdictionary.com)’. Other dictionary/encyclopedia definitions say it is something like ‘application of new ideas to give improved processes or products’.
Therefore, I feel the work that Aalto University have done on the technology development of the IONCELL-F is ‘innovation’. Both Aalto and Us (University of Helsinki) have investigated fundamental aspects of fibre-formation and ionic liquid properties, respectively, to allow for this. At least in the case of the IONCELL-F there is clearly an improvement over the existing NMMO-based lyocell process in terms of mechanical properties of the fibres. Further invetigations are required to understand this phenomenon and to improve other properties of the fibres and the overall economics of the process. I feel the word ‘investigation’ is rather a broader topic which can cover many kinds of scientific studies…. fundamental to engineering.