Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, has a unique biology that can be leveraged to grow materials that self-assemble into complex, fully-formed structures. Mycelium-based composite material has developed quickly to commercial applications for textiles, packaging, and food industry for its unique biodegradable feature. However, there is little deep research on mycelium-based material cushion properties in protective packaging. This research fills the gap and examines and evaluates mushroom mycelium foam cushion performance. The mycelium-based composites in this research came from Ecovative company. Several groups of foams with the desired size and shape were grown in the lab. Samples’ density and weight were recorded. The mechanical properties of the compressive strength and foam rebound resilience were tested. Various comparison experiments were conducted to determine factors impacting the mechanical properties of the mushroom foam. The main results include that density is a critical factor in cushioning performance. The higher the density, the stronger the foam, which has better mechanical strength and smaller height deformation under force. Unlike EPE (Expandable Polyethylene), mushroom foam has very low rebound resilience (50% compression, 65% rebound resilience for medium density). A suitable application of mushroom mycelium foam is for relatively durable products with more than 65 to 85 Gs fragility. The specific mushroom mycelium foam in this research showed that the number of drops greatly impacted cushion performance. The foam performed the best on the first drop, and its cushioning decreased with more drops. The common tip of pre-loading force to compensate for size deflection was not applicable for mushroom foam. Moreover, mushroom foam’s water content was another key factor in protection performance. Water increases the number of free hydroxyl groups in the fiber, makes the materials sustain more force, absorb more energy, and improve their protection function. Another conclusion was that corrugated paperboard is an effective material for making molds to shape mushroom foam structures. It is encouraged to combine corrugated paperboard with mushroom foam in protective packaging to improve overall performance. Finally, a verified drop test following the ISTA 1A procedure proved these discoveries.
Recommended Citation
liu, xiaojing
(2024)
"Mushroom Mycelium Foam Cushioning Properties in Protective Packaging Application,"
Journal of Applied Packaging Research: Vol. 16:
No.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://repository.rit.edu/japr/vol16/iss1/3