Technology of Man-made Fibres

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Introduction
history of man-made fibres
classification of man-made fibres
present trends of man-made fibre industry

Manufacture of Man-made Fibres

types (cotton, wool or carpet) and forms (filament, tow or staple) of man-made fibres
production outline (spinning, drawing, spin finish, intermingling, texturization, heat setting,
drying, cutting)
spinning principles (melt, dry, wet), additives
various texturization processes, draw-texturization
spin finishes (objects, requirements, components)
tow-to-top conversion
bi-/multi-component spinning

Characteristics of Man-made Fibres

physical (fineness, length, strength, shrinkage)
structural (cross-section, crimp, surface area)
chemical, thermal, electrical, optical, weather

Regenerated Fibres
viscose (definition, chemical structure, fibre manufacture, properties, end use)
cupro (definition, properties, end use)
modal (definition, fibre manufacture, properties, end use)
lyocell (definition, fibre manufacture, properties, end use)
other regenerated fibres (definition, chemical structure, properties, end use)

Ester-cellulose Fibres
Acetate/Triacetate (definition, chemical structure, fibre manufacture, properties, end use)

Synthetic Fibres
polyamides (definition, chemical structure, fibre manufacture, properties, end use)
polyesters (definition, chemical structure, fibre manufacture, properties, end use)
polyacrylonitriles (definition, chemical structure, fibre manufacture, properties, end use)
polyolefines (definition, chemical structure, fibre manufacture, properties, end use)
elastomerics (definition, chemical structure, fibre manufacture, properties, end use)
other synthetic fibres e.g. carbon, glass, PVA, PVC, PBI, polycarbonate, novoloid (definition,
chemical structure, properties, end use)

New Generation Fibres

introduction
high-tech fibres (high-performance, high-function, high-sense, microfibre)
application of new fibres in apparel and technical textiles

References:

1. Textiles: Fiber to Fabric, Sixth Edition, 1983 by BP Corbman; McGrahill, USA

2. Textile Science, Second Edition, 1983 by EPG Gohl and LD Vilensky; Longman, UK
3. Handbook of Textile Fibres, Vol II, Fifth Edition, 1984 by JG Cook; Woodhead, UK
4. Polyester: 50 Years of Achievement, 1992 by The Textile Institute, UK
5. Advanced Fibre Spinning Technology, 1994 by T. Nakajima; Woodhead, UK
6. New Fibers, Second Edition, 1997 by T Hongu and GO Phillips; Woodhead, UK

Technology of Man-made Fibres © 2009 Prof. Dr. Md. Saifur Rahman, NITTRAD Page 1 of 4
 FIRST LECTURE

Definition

A fibre or staple fibre is a substance which is usually at least 100 times longer than its diameter. Usually
fibres are several thousand times longer than they are thick. Most apparel fibres are about 15 to 150 mm
long and 10 to 50 µm (µm = 0.001 mm) thick but the length of a filament fibre may be several kilometers.
Staples offered opportunity to blend with natural fibres and ensures a greater economy in
manufacturing (machines are 10 times more efficient).

Fibres that are not found in nature in fibre form are called man-made fibre. The fibre forming substances
have to be manufactured by chemical method instead of growing them in fields. Because of this, man-
made fibres are also called chemical or manufactured fibre. The fibre forming substances are usually
made from wood pulp, cotton linters, petrochemicals or natural gas.

History

1664 English physicist Robert Hooke suggested the possibility of extruding artificial silk by a
mechanical imitation of the silkworm.

1855 A patent was issued to French scientist Georges Audemars for the manufacture of nitrocellulose
(gun cotton). Extreme flammability made them unacceptable for textile use.

1884 Count Hilaire de Chardonnet in France produced regenerated cellulose (de-nitrated) fibre from
nitrocellulose at the same time as Sir Joseph Wilson Swan in Britain.

1891 Manufacture of the first commercially produced man-made fibre known as Chardonnet Silk
began. Viscose Rayon was discovered by CF Cross and EJ Bevan.

1905 First commercial production of Viscose Rayon by Courtaulds.

1921 First commercial production of Acetate (Celanese®) by British Celanese.

1938 First Synthetic fibre Nylon was discovered by WH Carothers at Du Pont. He also discovered
neoprene synthetic rubber and aliphatic polyester. Commercial production started in 1939.

1941 Polyester was discovered by JT Dickson and JR Whinfield at Calico Printers Association, UK.

1950 Commercial production of Acrylic (Orlon®) by Du Pont.

1953 Commercial production of Polyester by ICI (Terylene®) in UK and Du Pont (Dacron®) in USA.

1959 Commercial production of Spandex (Lycra®) by Du Pont.

1963 Commercial production of Aramid (Nomex®) by Du Pont.

1981 Genesis by Courtaulds started, leading to the discovery of Lyocell (Tencel®).

1992 Full commercial production of Lyocell (Tencel®) by Courtaulds.

1998 Commercial production of PBO (poly-para-phenylene bisoxazole) by Toyobo (Japan).

Technology of Man-made Fibres © 2009 Prof. Dr. Md. Saifur Rahman, NITTRAD Page 2 of 4
 SECOND LECTURE

Classification of Man-made Fibres

Man-made fibres are basically divided into two major groups based on the origin of the fibre-forming
substance i.e. natural or synthetic. Another group includes fibres such as Metal (Aluminum/Steel),
Carbon and Glass. A detailed classification is given below:

Man-made Fibres

Natural Polymer Synthetic Polymer Others

Vegetable Origin Elastomerics Metallic

Elastane/Spandex Aluminum
Cellulosic fibres Elastodiene Steel
Viscose, Cupro
Modal, Lyocell Polyolefines Carbon
Polyethylene
Ester-cellulose fibres Polypropylene Glass
Acetate, Triacetate PTFE

Alginate Novoloid
Ca-alginate (FR, 2371 oC)

Rubber Polyacrylonitrile
Acrylic
Animal Origin Modacrylic

Casein Polyamides
Nylon
Aramid (26 gpd, 371 oC)

Polyester

Polybenzimidazole (PBI)
(HT, FR, 560 oC , space shuttle Columbia)

Polychloro
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
Polyvinylidine chloride

Man-made Fibre Industry

Current world production of textile fibres is about 60 million tons (2003) and about 60% of them are
man-made fibres. Among all man-made fibres, Polyester has the highest share (19 million tons in 2000;
57% filament, 43% staple; 75% of production from developing countries; 34 million tons by 2010) and its
share is increasing while the share of Nylon (17.5%, 3.9 million tons in 1995; 16% staple, 84% filament
including BCF; 5 million tons by 2000) is steady. The share of Acrylic (10.8%, 2.4 million tons in 1995) is
slowly decreasing and the share of cellulosics (11.2%, 2.5 million tons in 1995) has started to increase
after a few years of minus growth due to environmental problems. Other fibres of importance include
Polypropylene (6.7%, 1.5 million tons in 1995; 4 million tons by 2000), Lyocell (18 thousand tons in 1993;
0.3 million tons by 2005) and Elastane (0.1 million tons by 2000). Geographically, USA remains the
single largest producer (19% in 1995) while the production share of Western Europe and Japan are 15%
and 8% respectively. The growth centre for man-made fiber industry is Asia and the combined
production of Taiwan, China, South Korea and India accounts for 33% of world production in 1995.

Technology of Man-made Fibres © 2009 Prof. Dr. Md. Saifur Rahman, NITTRAD Page 3 of 4
Man-made Fibre Industry in Bangladesh

Although Bangladesh has a huge demand of man-made fibres for its thriving textile sector, only a few
production facilities are available to meet such a requirement. One of the earliest man-made fibre
(Viscose Rayon) production facilities in Bangladesh was constructed in Chittagong (Chandragona
Rayon Mill, BCCI) which now stands obsolete. Few production plants had also been set-up in the
private sector. Beximco Synthetics (20 ton/day) and KSFL are few to name here.

Driving Factors behind Rapid Growth of Man-made Fibre Industry

Natural fibres have been dominating the world fibre consumption for about 6000 years. Ninety nine
years after the first commercial production of man-made fibre in 1905, its share of total fibre production
now stands more than 50%. The factors contributed greatly to this rapid development are:

1. Ready accessibility of raw materials e.g. wood pulp, petrochemicals

2. Independence of production from climatic conditions and increase of sowing area
3. Stability of market price, free from sudden fluctuation
4. High labour productivity
5. Uniform and constant fibre qualities e.g. length, fineness, strength
6. Means to control fibre parameters during production
7. Easier processing, higher machinery efficiency, greater economy

In addition, man-made fibres satisfy the following growing demand of a modern consumer:

Natural aesthetics
o Natural appearance e.g. dull, silky, crimped
o Easy care characteristics e.g. wash and go!
o High fashion appearance: styling and colorways
Strength e.g. Kevlar® = 26.5 gpd, PBO = 40 gpd, Cotton = 4 gpd [a single fibre of PBO, a mere 1
mm in diameter is strong enough to lift 400 kg (the weight of a cow)].
Reproducibility to specification
Chemical/biological/thermal resistance
Comfort e.g. second skin with stretch and breathability
Multifunctional end uses i.e. breaks the boundaries between sports, leisure and casual wears
e.g. Jacket

Present Trends

1. Most R&D is devoted to Polyester (mostly used for blends with cotton & wool and to make silk-
like fabrics; most existing microfibres are polyesters; FR, anti-bacterial, spun-look Polyester
filament proved successful).
2. In apparel sector, development will continue to focus on active sportswear, women’s fashionwear.
3. Development of high-tech fibres e.g. fibres maintaining constant body temperature & change color
with temperature, producer-dyed microfibres, biodegradable fibres, super-strong fibres, optical
fibres, environmental change responsive fibres etc.

types (cotton, wool or carpet) and forms (filament, tow or staple) of man-made fibres

Technology of Man-made Fibres © 2009 Prof. Dr. Md. Saifur Rahman, NITTRAD Page 4 of 4