SYNTHETIC FIBRES

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27564, 22 January 1955, Page 7

SYNTHETIC FIBRES

Output From New Factory

<Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, January 20. The output from a new push-button factory, at Wilton, in Yorkshire, will goon increase Britain’s exports of synthetic fibres by 3,000,0001 b each year —more than doubling it. The factory is Britain’s first largescale production plant making teryline, a British fibre which has been described as the nearest approach to wool yet discovered in the field of synthetic materials. In its filament form, teryline is similar to silk and nylon. Dr. E. D. Kamn, commercial director of Imperial Chemical Industries—the product’s developers—said today that the fibre was already competing with wool on a price for price basis, and would probably compete in future with many other fibres in industrial use.

He said prices were expected to fall as the Wilton plant went into full production.

A Wilton works official said it was hoped to produce a short-stapled fibre suitable for shirt making by the end of the year, and this would increase the fibre’s competition with cotton fabrics. Licences for overseas manufacture of the fibre have been issued for pilot plants in Germany, France, Italy, and the Benelux countries. The Common-

wealth will share in the 15 per cent, of the new Wilton factory’s output which is to be devoted to export.