Manhas been thinking of producing fibres, first in the laboratory, and then in thefactory, since a few centuries ago and more so since the dawn of 20^thcentury, when sincere attempts were made for the production of man-made fibres.

Thefirst commercially successful man-made fibre, i.e., Viscose rayon, came intoexistence around 1892. Then, around 1950, three other man-made syntheticfibres, viz., Nylon, Polyester and Orion were discovered almost simultaneouslyand these four formed the backbone of man-made fibre industry. However, therehave been numerous modifications and developments of all of them, over a periodof time.

Amongthe natural fibres used today, silk is supreme. In the category of man-madefibres, at one end is the regenerated viscose fibre, man's first attempt tomanufacture artificial silk, and at the other end, is the high strength, hightemperature resistant fibre used mainly in high-tech industry.

Forthe last category, i.e., high knowledge based fibres, product and processtechnology will be built upon multidisciplinary platform. This approach willallow the synthesis of fibres having structures and properties dictated byman's requirements. The following are the discussion on Newer fibres asapplicable to commodity and high end sector.

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This article was originally published in the Textile Review magazine,May, 2013 issue, published by Saket Projects Limited.

Aboutthe Author:

Dr. S.K. Basu & A.N.Jariwala are associated with the Man Made Textiles Research Association(MANTRA) at Surat.