Because of its strength and flexibility it has been used in building projects throughout the world including, New York’s Cornell University and Hard Rock Cafes throughout the United States. It is fully recyclable and has a carbon footprint of less than one-quarter of an equivalent stainless steel product. They established a company called Kaynemaile to manufacture and market the product. However, because of the inherent strength of their product they soon realized it had a much wider application that just creating special chainmail costumes for movies. Kaynemaile Colour optionsĪfter a lot of hard work they finally created a machine that could injection mould a continuous sheet of seamless polycarbonate mesh. He and his partner then set about designing a machine that could produce a 2D continuous mesh of components with none of the inherent weaknesses of the traditional chainmail design. After being told by toolmakers it was just not possible he taught himself the rudiments of injection moulding. Kayne’s team spent hours laboriously creating and then repairing the costumes by hand and it wasn’t long before the actors started calling his costumes “Kayne-mail”.Īfter the filming was over Kayne starting thinking about ways to develop a method in which the chainmail could be made by machine in one continuous process, eliminating the slow and laborious work. OK, I know I'm no AragornĪlso, like traditional chainmail, the costumes had an inherent weakness because the rings have a join where they are interlocked. It was a slow and laborious process with each chainmail costume created one link at a time. Well the inventor, Kayne Horsham worked as an art director for Weta Workshop and had the tedious task of creating a lightweight, robust and authentic looking chainmail to be worn by Aragorn and other characters in “The Lord of the Rings” movies. Of course chainmail is nothing new and has been around for centuries so what makes this polycarbonate chainmail so special. I recently visited a small factory in Petone, near Wellington, which manufactures a seamless polycarbonate mesh, a modern version of chainmail, which is designed for the architectural and lighting sectors where it is used for facades, screens, curtains and designer lighting. I also get to see some pretty cool and unique technology. Apart from my Amiga passion (hey who said obsession) I enjoy helping young companies start their business and, as a founding investor in Lightning Lab, I’m in the fortunate position of working with some of the best young talented entrepreneurs and companies in New Zealand. Unfortunately, there are just not enough hours in the day at the moment. It’s been quite a while since I’ve updated my blog.
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