What are manufactured fibers?

The fibers that belong to this category are either entirely produced from chemical or is a combination of chemical processing and raw material sourced from nature. The fibers in this class are long length known as filament fibers. These can further be cut into staple length as per the requirement. The manufactured fibers can further be classified as:

Regenerated fibers: These fibers are produced or regenerated from natural polymer sources by obtaining the raw material from nature and then processed through a series of chemical reactions.

The resultant obtained is a long continuous fiber strand. The starting material and the fiber produced have the same chemical polymer in case of regenerated fibers. The need for such fibers emerged since there is a lot of raw material that is available in nature but cannot be directly made into fibers due to certain limitations and hence the urge for regenerated fiber originated.

The raw materials include small cotton fibers (linters), wood, milk protein, and other diverse substances that can not be used for textiles in their original form.

The first regenerated fiber produced was rayon followed by acetate both being cellulosic in nature.

For example, viscose rayon, cuprammonium rayon, acetate rayon, casein ardil, etc.

Synthetic fibers: The basic chemical unit or polymer is formed by the chemical synthesis followed by the formation of fiber by chemical processing and passing the polymer through the spinneret. Nylon was the first synthetic fiber to be produced.

They do not require natural raw material as a base for the manufacture, as in the case of regenerated fibers.

For example, hexamethylenediamine and adipic acid are used in the manufacture of nylon and dimethyl terephthalate and ethylene glycol in the production of polyester fiber, etc.

Inorganic fibers: This category of manufactured fibers include glass and metallic fibers. These are produced as a result of inorganic substances that do not have conventional long-chain molecules. But it is possible to soften them by heat and then make into a flexible thin, long strand that is similar to organic fibers.

Inorganic fibers do not find their application in the apparel sector.