High-Performance Acrylic Fibers

Abstract

Acrylic fibers are among the most important man-made fibers. They rank third after polyesters and nylons [1]. The first commercially available acrylic fiber was orlon, introduced by DuPont in 1943. Soon thereafter, other companies introduced new acrylic fibers, such as Acrilan, Dralon, and so forth. During the 1950s, the acrylic fiber industry experienced a rapid growth, with 18 companies introducing acrylic fiber products into the market. In 1970 21% of the synthetic fibers produced were acrylic fiber, whereas this figure fell to about 14% in 1992. In the corresponding period, the actual production of acrylic fibers increased from 809,890 tons to 2,410,520 tons. However, the overall production of synthetic fibers increased from 4.809 million tons to 17.218 million tons (Fig. 1). Interestingly, in 1970 only 12% of the acrylic fibers were produced in Third World countries (countries other than the United States, Japan, and western Europe) whereas this figure increased to 46% in 1989 and was expected to go still higher by 1995 [2–4] indicating a remarkable growth in the expansion of the acrylic fiber industry especially in the developing countries (Fig. 2). In India also there has been a considerable increase in the production of acrylic fibers as three new companies -Pasupati Acrylon Ltd., Indian Acrylics, and Consolidated Fibres—have started producing acrylic fibers of different denier range. In China, the acrylic fiber industry has made rapid progress. The total production of acrylic fiber in 1970 was about 5100 tons, whereas the production had increased to more than 140,000 tons in 1993.