Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Camosun College will be assisting Nature Bee Holdings Ltd. (Nature Bee) through this first applied research partnership in the redesign of a prototype fabric waxing machine. Nature Bee, a Victoria, BC company that manufactures beeswax wraps, started as Katie Gamble's final project towards her Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Victoria. A recipe for reusable food wraps was created using sustainable ingredients and including Canadian sourced beeswax. Production and sales started at a small scale, out of Katie's parents' basement and has increased significantly over the first 2 years of operation. As a result, Nature Bee started automating the fabric waxing process, a key part of production which was very time consuming, messy, and labour intensive. With continued growth and having embarked on a technology adoption path, Nature Bee is now looking to further boost production and improve efficiencies. Camosun College has in-house expertise in manufacturing automation, design and prototyping that will assist Nature Bee in its effort to minimize waste and increase throughput.