During the Iron Age (1200-300 BCE), nobility and royalty as well as their protectors began wearing shirts of interwoven metal rings to protect themselves. Known as chainmail, this technological improve - ment vastly improved the wearer’s chances of surviving a blow from a sharpened weapon. The earliest versions of chainmail were formed when leather or cloth shirts had overlapping rings of iron sewn onto them, but by the 10th century smiths were fashioning divided chain - mail suits that covered the head, neck, and torso while also facilitating use from horseback. In addition, improvements in industrial practices meant that chainmail was cheaper and easier to produce, meaning that it was no longer exclusively for nobility and their protectors. However, chainmail began to fall out of favor starting around the 14th century with the introduction of plate armor, and fell largely out of use until the late 20th century when it was found to be incredibly useful when diving with sharks. Now, thanks to Kayne Horsham and his company Kaynemaile, chainmail is making its way back into the conversation. Horsham and his team at Kaynemaile, based in New Zealand, have developed a chainmail material made from lightweight polycarbonate that protects buildings as well as bodies; this update from the iron and steel of centuries past makes the material incredibly robust while still being lightweight. When Kaynemaile is used in place of steel sheets or mesh, it presents several key advantages. For example, Kaynemaile reduces the static load on buildings and cuts down on installation time and costs. Furthermore, Kaynemaile reduces the solar energy and sun - light entering a building, which has been one of its earliest applications in parking garages. Horsham first became familiar with chainmail when he served as an artistic director for the creatures, weapons, and armor department on the set of the iconic Lord of the Rings trilogy. When he was initially approached for the film, Horsham knew he had to not only make the materials look good on film, but also stand up to the rigors of moving to different filming locations over years of shooting. The first material they tried to use was steel, which looked beautiful, but weighed too much. Because the material was to be worn by actors and not battle hardened knights, Horsham knew he had to find a lighter material. Strict requirements set out by director Peter Jackson set aside the pos - sibility of using some sort of painted material. Horsham’s solution was to create a set of plastic rings then coat the rings with pure silver and copper using a process called electroform - ing. The resulting mesh very closely resembled the medieval chain - mail with the pure silver adding a necessary element of fantasy. While this product looked good on film, the labor of creating it was intensive. Each of the links were hand welded individually, which took thousands Gondor to Dubai: Chainmail as a Structural Solution By Luke Carothers
of hours for Horsham and his team. Additionally, because the material was used in all the stunts throughout the film, Horsham and the team constantly had to replace torn or broken pieces. It was during this time that Horsham began to think about ways to make his chainmail, dubbed “Kayne’s-maile” by actor Viggo Mortensen, both stronger and easier to manufacture. After filming wrapped, Horsham briefly worked in miniatures before he started working on a machine to assemble this material. Once this machine was assembled, it was fully automated to create the material, but it still took a lot of time and cost a lot of money. Coming to the realization that he was making chainmail the same way it had been made for thousands of years, Horsham changed direction and focused on creating the rings already assembled. Thus, the liquid state as - sembly (LSA) system was created. Horsham likens it to part printing rather than layered printing in that it “prints a part at a time in a desired position and [builds on] that.” According to Horsham, this paradigm shift in the assembly process alleviated quality control issues because he no longer had to worry about the strength of each assembled link. With quality control as - sured, Horsham began experimenting with different materials to build the links with. Because of his previous work, he originally intended to use this new process and material in the fashion and costuming industry. Developing the world’s first liquid state assembly process allowed Horsham to develop his mail with modern materials such as polycarbonate, which has a high strength to weight ratio and could give the material applications in the architecture and engineering fields.
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DECEMBER 2021
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