TECHNOLOGY

BASF process may reshape textile industry

Economics of

casting fabric from

monomer undermine

traditional spinning

and weaving methods

Badische Anilin-& Soda-Fabrik's recent development in casting fabric directly from monomer may mark the begin­ning of a new technological era among the world's chemical compa­nies, fiber producers, and textile mills. BASF's process could seed develop­ment of further technology that would restructure the entire textile industry.

Such monomer-to-fabric technol­ogy completely eliminates the labor-and capital-intensive operations of spinning and weaving fiber. It so simplifies the fabric-making proce­dure that it could shake the textile industry loose from its traditional framework of processing fiber into fabric through many complex and fragmented steps.

The new technology carries eco­nomic advantages that could shift the fortunes and profits of many compa­nies. In the U.S. alone, the stakes

are enormous. This year, trie man-made fiber producers' gross plant investment of $4.2 billion will gen­erate sales of $3.3 billion to the textile mills. In turn, the textile mills' gross plant investment of $9.5 billion will generate sales of $22.5 billion.

Those companies most likely to gain business opportunities from monomer-to-fabric technology fall into three groups:

• The more integrated textile firms, such as Japan's Toyo Rayon and Britain's Courtaulds, which may seek in-house economies of production for some textile products.

• The chemical companies which hold strong positions in plastics, such as BASF and Union Carbide, which may move to profit in the textile markets more than they can expect to with their limited fiber operations.

• Newcomers and entrepreneurs

Monomer-to-îabnc route eliminates labor, and capital-intensive operations of making fiber and processing it into fabric

TRADITIONAL ROUTE

Monomer Spinneret extrusion

Filament

Staple Yarn l ^ B spinning ^ H

Weaving ^ H and ^ ^ B

knitting ^ H

Dyeing and

finishin

MONOMERTOFABRIC ROUTE

Monomer Calendering

and embossing

Dyeing and

finishinf

Dr. Carl H, Krauch ôf Badische Anilin- & Soda» Fabrik briefly outlined severe! steps for preparing fabric from monomer in a one«page process des­cription in Naturwissenschaften { i l , 539 (1968)] First, a solution is made by mixing monomer and catalysts with water or other solvents (such as trloxane or glacial acetic acid). Next, this solution is deposited onto a cold surface to freeze tin ν crys­

tals ot solvent into a matrix, the size and geometry of the crystais being a function of the solvent used. As the matrix forms, monomer is forced to spread homogeneously throughout the crystalline network* Then, polymerization is initiated by a nonthermal source (such as ultraviolet light) or electrochemical methods. Finally, the crystalline matrix is malted leavino behind a oorous fabric.

38 C&EN MARCH 17, 1969

Polymer

CAST FABRIC. At BASF's Ludwigshafen laboratory, Dr. Carl Heinrich Krauch (right, front) and his research team examine fabric polymerized directly from monomer

who may buy their way over the lower technological and investment hurdles to gain access to textile mar­kets.

Those companies most likely to lose business in some textile product areas fall into two groups:

• The nonintegrated fiber produc­ers, such as Du Pont and Monsanto, whose textile fibers departments are committed to not integrating ahead into fabrics—a move that would bring them into competition with their tex­tile mill customers and thus jeopar­dize their business relationships.

• The nonintegrated textile mills, such as Burlington Industries and J. P. Stevens & Co., which do not currently have the capability in poly­mer science to develop monomer-to-fabric technology.

The textile markets for fabrics cast from monomer appear extensive. These markets might include indus­trial fabrics such as work clothes and coverings, institutional fabrics such as restaurant tablecloths, home furnish­ings such as upholstery and drapes, and some apparel fabrics. Markets would develop with great difficulty for cast fabrics in products where tear strength is a critical specification or where high fashion aesthetics are required.

Since BASF's research chemist Carl Heinrich Krauch first reported the laboratory process in last November's Naturwissenschaften, C&EN discussed the commercial feasibility of monomer-to-fabric technology with research and development managers of the leading fiber and plastics companies.

At Du Pont, Monsanto, Celanese, Dow Chemical, and Union Carbide, some speculate that this technology

could become commercial a decade from now; yet no one indicates or admits to any current research in this area. Others appear skeptical that this technology could ever be­come commercial on the basis that the process is too radical to the established methods of the textile industry.

"In terms of production economics, a monomer-to-fabric route represents the ideal," comments Union Carbide's Monty Montagna, vice president, fi­bers and fabrics division. "It's the most direct process conceivable for making fabrics.

"In fact, it might be just as eco­nomically attractive to start with the polymer rather than the monomer. The conversion costs of less than 10 cents a pound for polymerizing most monomers is only a very small frac­tion of the total differential between the costs of raw materials and those of woven fabrics," Mr. Montagna points out.

The processing and price differential for nylon 6, for example, runs some­thing like this: Caprolactam mono­mer, which sells for about 20 cents a pound, is continuously polymerized and spun into fiber, drawn for orien­tation, twisted into yarn, and textured for bulk. A typical product from this process is 70-denier filament for apparel, which lists at about $1.71 a pound but today trades at about $1.20 a pound. The textile mills then weave or knit this yarn into fabric which, when dyed and finished, sells to the garment makers for an equivalent of about $3.75 a pound. Up to this point, then, the value-added multiple (including energy) of raw material to finished fabric is nearly 20.

"While there are strong economic incentives to develop new technology," Mr. Montagna goes on, "'There seems to be one hole in the concept: that is, fabrics cast from monomer, or poly­mer, would lack the strength that fabrics woven from highly oriented fibers have."

A Du Pont spokesman for the tex­tile fibers department also points out that cast fabrics would show se­rious strength deficiencies. He esti­mates that cast fabrics would prob­ably exhibit strength properties sim­ilar to those of thermoplastic films which, even when biaxially oriented, have low dimensional stabilities and do stretch out of shape. By com­parison, he adds, synthetic fibers are drawn three to four times their ex­truded lengths to orient the polymer chains and impart high tensile strengths.

Improving the strength properties of cast fabrics is a technological problem, to be sure, but it is only a technological problem. The eco­nomic incentives appear powerful enough to compel many companies to try to solve this problem.

Many other technological develop­ments in the chemical and textile industries can be thought of as mov­ing toward the ideal of monomer-to-fabric technology. The nonwoven products—paper disposables and flex­ible polyurethane and vinyl foams-represent moves to circumvent the textile mill's operations and, at the same time, provide new kinds of tex­tile materials. Du Pont's continuous spin-draw technique called the "Ro-toset" process combines two costly steps within the fibermaking opera­tion. The process thereby effects economies in the procedure of wind­ing up spun filament, transferring the fiber to the draw-twist equipment, and then unwinding it again in that operation. Processes for fibrillating films are based on the more attractive economics of producing monofilaments and yarns from blown films rather than producing them from extruded fibers.

These developments, of course, are already part of the textile industry. Further developments to minimize production costs will come. But how soon will other producers besides BASF look completely outside their traditional operating framework to the new ball game that appears so inevitable?

MARCH 17, 1969 C&EN 39