MANUFACTURING OF MANMADE FIBRES| FOOD SCIENCE & NUTRITION | L-28|

Man Made Fibres

What are Man Made Fibres?

Man-made fibres Like plastics, man-made fibres are also made from polymers. Man-made fibres are not the same as natural fibres, such as silk, cotton and wool. There are two types of man-made fibres – synthetic fibres and regenerated fibres.

Regenerated fibres are made from cellulose polymers that occur naturally in plants such as cotton, wood, hemp and flax. Materials like rayon and acetate two of the first man made fibres to be produced were made from cellulose polymers. Here plant cellulose was taken and then made into fibres.

Synthetic fibres are made only from polymers found in natural gas and the by-products of petroleum. They include nylon, acrylics, polyurethane and polypropylene. Millions of tons of these fibres are produced all over the world each year.

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Man made fibres are considered under two main headings.

Natural fibres – fibre forming material is of the natural origin.

Synthetic fibres – fibre forming material is made from simpler substances.

Natural Polymer Fibres

The fibres in this category may be classified into the following sub groups.

Cellulose Fibres – Rayons in which the fibre is wholly or mainly cellulose

Cellulose ester fibres

Protein fibres

Miscellaneous natural polymer fibres

Synthetic Fibres

The use of natural fibre in the textile market is known to man from ancient times. However, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries witnessed an era of industrial revolution resulting in tremendous upsurge in fibre. Synthetic fibres may be classified with reference to their chemical structure.

The following synthetic materials have become the basis of commercially important fibres.

Polyamides

Polyesters

Polyvinyl derivatives

Polyacrylonitrile

polyvinyl chloride

Polyvinylidene chloride

Polyvinyl alcohol

Polytetrafluoroethylene

Polyvinylidene dinitrile

Polystyrene

Miscellaneous polyvinyl derivatives

Polyolefins

Polyethylene

Polypropylene

Polyurethanes

Miscellaneous synthetic fibres.

List of Man Made Fibres

1. Rayon

Rayon and acetate are man-made fibres manufactured from a cellulose base, the cellulose being normally obtained from wood pulp and cotton linters. Invented by Chardonnet, a French chemist rayon was made cotton or wool pulp. He found that nitrocellulose fibres found in cotton or wood pulp can be chemically changed into smooth and shiny cellulose fibre. First called Chardonnet silk, this fibre was later named rayon. Its commercial production began in France in 1891.

2. Nylon

Nylon fibre was discovered in the 1930s. Only one type of nylon – nylon 6,6 was selected for commercial production. Nylon-6,6 is made from two organic compounds each containing six carbon atoms. Nylon fibre has a variety of uses. A high molecular weight nylon 66 is only obtained if equimolecular amounts of the components are used. An excess of the components would terminate the chain by formation of an acid or amino end group.

3. Polyesters

Exhibiting properties similar to nylon polyester fibre is made from a chemical compound called ethylene glycol. Polyester fiber was invented in the United Kingdom in 1938. Its commercial production began only in 1950. In 1972 it replaced nylon as the largest produced man made fibre in the world and is used mainly in making synthetic textiles.