TEXTILES

Synthetic fibres today have a major stronghold in the textile industry.

For a great many centuries, natural materials such as wool, cotton, linen and silk were the only resources of the textile industry. All textile products were direct consumers of the natural materials.

However, over about the last fifty years, new fibres have been appearing on the market, where they have progressively carved out a major place for themselves. Cellulose textiles, obtained by theviscose process (rayon, spun rayon) have taken a leading share in this area. At the present time, annual world production of cellulose textiles easily exceeds 3 millions tons. Each year, their manufacture consumes considerable tonnages of causti soda: in fact it requires about 600 kg of caustic soda to produce a ton of cellulose fibres.