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Man-Made Fibres: Reference Books of TextileTechnologies
A Survey of Man-made Fibres History
Man-made cellulose fibres
The first man-made fibres which were developed and produced usedpolymers of natural origin, more precisely of cellulose which is a raw materialavailable in large quantities in the vegetable world.
The beginning of industrial production of man-made fibresgoes back to the year 1890, when the French Count Hilaire de Chardonnet startedup his plant for the production of "Chardonnet silk" (initial output:50 kg per day), using the cellulose nitrate process.
As it happens in general in the case of technical-scientificdevelopments, this achievement was the result of previous studies andresearches (since approximately the year 1840) focused mainly on the chemicalproperties of cellulose.
In particular the researchers found the way to treatcellulose (a material insoluble in usual solvents and inflammable) with nitricacid (nitrification), to dissolve the derivative with solutions of alcohol-ether,to prepare suitable extrusion devices (spinnerets) and finally to regeneratecellulose through saponification in alkaline baths (denitrification) in orderto eliminate the danger inherent in the nitro compound (inflammable andexplosive).
Actually the birth date of the "artificial silk"(such was the name given to this fibre at its introduction) is said to dateback some years before (1884) when an Englishman, Mr. Swan, produced smallquantities of nitrocellulose which the researcher gad in mind to use for the developmentof incandescent bulbs.
More or less in the same period another way had beensearched for to make cellulose capable of being spun, after being discovered thatcellulose could be dissolved in a mixture of copper oxide and ammonia(Schweitzer's reagent, 1857).
In fact this principle had been the basis in Germany for the production initially of incandescent bulbs (1891), then of cuprammoniumfibres (1897) via the so-called "cupro" process, which was improvedwith the draw-spinning process (1891) and resulted in the production of Bembergcupro yarn in 1909.
Meanwhile a patent had been registered in England by the researchers Cross, Bevan and Beadle (1892) for the production of sodiumcellulose xanthate and for its dissolution in dilute caustic soda. In this waythe bases were laid for the production of a man-made cellulose fibre, now calledviscose, which remained for decades the main process in use for the productionof manmade fibres.
Acknowledgements
Fondazione ACIMIT feel bound to thank Centro TessileCotoniero e Abbigliamento of Busto Arsizio and in particular General Manager Ms.Grazia Cerini and Technical Manager Ms. Gabriella Fusi, who kindly accepted theassignment of producing this "Man-made Fibres" Notebook.
The drafting of present work was entrusted by Centro Tessileto Mr. Cesare Andreoli and Mr. Fabrizio Freti, to whom Fondazione ACIMIT owes aspecial thank for the time and enthusiasm they dedicated to the production ofthis Notebook.
Thisnotebook is republished with due permission from
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