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About Us

We are a team of engineers and designers who want to make a change.

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Our Story

 We initially met during the IDE Master’s program at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College in London. This is where Polyfloss was born, back in 2012. For more than 6 years, we developed our technology and used it for educational workshops, exhibitions and tests.

 

In 2018, we teamed up with several NGOs to explore the potential of the technology in humanitarian and development contexts. From there, we understood the potential of our machine, not only in terms of ecology but also to support livelihood programs and carbon reduction in places that matter most. 

Our story

Meet The Team

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Christophe Machet
co-founder

 Christophe is our technology lead. He makes things work. He was trained as an engineer and designer and developed a whole lot of machines and technologies for different clients. 

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Audrey Gaulard
co-founder

Audrey is our project and operation manager. She is the heart of Polyfloss. She initially trained in fashion and since then has been senior designer in several companies and is also teaching at Imperial College London.

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Joel Trotter
design engineer 

Joel travels all over the world to instal and develop the projects on site. Trained as an Industrial designer and engineer, product development has no secret for him. 

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Carla Donati
designer

Carla is our in-house designer. They work on various parts of the projects, such as product developement, graphic design and visual communication.  They were trained as a product designer and have experience as an illustrator.

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Emile De Vischer
co-founder

Emile is our research and development lead, as well as strategy leader. He knows something about materials. He obtained a PhD and worked in various research labs, as well as developed several new materials. 

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Nick Paget
co-founder

Nick is our scaling and design lead. He thinks big. He was trained as an industrial designer and setup several companies supporting design for production projects. 

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Cristobal Romo Alvarez
engineer

Cristobal is our in-house engineer. He is a skillful engineer who masters both CAD softwares and CAF machining. He works on the development and production of the machines, and knows them from top to bottom.

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Karl Samba Elumbu
engineer apprentice

Karl is a skilled technician and currently apprentice in engineering for production and maintenance. He supports machine production, supply chain and development. 

The team

Machine Timeline

Degree Show Machine

First fully assembled Polyfloss machine, this version was working on hot air pulsing systems. 

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1st Machine

First stable bench machine, this experiment allowed us to start reliable production of floss and our first batch of product design. 

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Discovery Machine

Bench machine which proved the principle. We could use centrifugation to make waste plastic fibers ! 

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Beginning

Hands on bricolage was the start of the project. We built a first prototype with a cut aluminum can and some torch found in the workshop. 

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2020

Ely 

Ely is a horizontal-version with electrical pre-heating technology, control panels and improved throughput. It is our fastest and most reliable machine.

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Oslo machine

Oslo is an improved Rafale machine with different head design, simplifying manufacture. 

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2019

Inferno

Inferno is a bespoke machine created in Madagascar with local tools and parts. It works on gaz burners and bike belt systems. 

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2014

Rafale

Rafale is a small gaz powered machine creating our finest fibers and has proven to be very stable and easy to maintain. 

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2013 

Tornado

Tornado is our biggest vertical machine. It was designed for educational purposes, and has an inbuilt extraction system to be used indoors.

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2022

2012

2011

2011

2011

Press.

 Business Insider - World Wide Waste  video, January, 27th, 2023

Documentary by Business Insider World Wide Waste presenting our history and the most recent projects with the Waste for Warmth humanitarian consortium, with Engineers Without Borders Norway and Sayaha Hazir.

Brut magazine
Lire la vidéo

 Brut. Magazine video, June, 13th, 2022

Paris Match

July, 1st, 2020

Disegno Magazine

July, 1st, 2019

Intramuros

September, 18th, 2018

Domusweb

May, 29th, 2020

The observer design 2019 The Guardian

April, 8th, 2019

Imperial Alumni magazine

November, 19th, 2017

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Surface magazine US

January, 13th, 2013

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Wired Magazine

December, 1st, 2012

BBC

February, 3rd, 2013

Maison francaise

September, 9th, 2012

Intramuros

July, 15th, 2012

Le Parisien

January, 13th, 2013

ArchiCree

September, 9th, 2012

Time Out

June, 10th, 2012

Timeline
Press

They trusted us 

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They have been supporting us 

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