About Us
We are a team of engineers and designers who want to make a change.
Photography by Audrey Gaulard
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.
Meet The Team
Emile De Visscher
co-founder - CEO
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.
Christophe Machet
co-founder - CTO
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.
Elisa Sebag
head of development
Elisa leads the commercial and financial development for Polyfloss. She is an experienced laywer and entrepreneur, attentive to people and always nurturing new ideas to develop them further.
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.
Audrey Gaulard
co-founder - COO
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.
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.
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.
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.
Machine Timeline
Degree Show Machine
First fully assembled Polyfloss machine, this version was working on hot air pulsing systems.
Discovery Machine
Bench machine which proved the principle. We could use centrifugation to make waste plastic fibers !
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.
2020
Oslo machine
Oslo is an improved Rafale machine with different head design, simplifying manufacture.
2019
Inferno
Inferno is a bespoke machine created in Madagascar with local tools and parts. It works on gaz burners and bike belt systems.
2014
Rafale
Rafale is a small gaz powered machine creating our finest fibers and has proven to be very stable and easy to maintain.
2013
Tornado
Tornado is our biggest vertical machine. It was designed for educational purposes, and has an inbuilt extraction system to be used indoors.
2012
2011
2011
2011
2023
Ely 4.0
Ely 4.0 is the latest version of Ely. It is our fastest and most reliable machine.
1st Machine
First stable bench machine, this experiment allowed us to start reliable production of floss and our first batch of product design.
Ely
2022
Ely is a horizontal-version with electrical pre-heating technology, control panels and improved throughput. It is our fastest and most reliable machine.
They trusted us
They have been supporting us
