INDUSTRY & BUSINESS
Celanese Buys Nytril Fiber Rights New textile material to compete with acrylics and polyesters; Goodrich retains nonfabric uses ITH its purchase a few days ago from Goodrich of patents, trademark, know-how, and world rights to make and sell Darvan nytril fiber, Celanese diversifies one step further in synthetic textiles. Already represented by rayon, acetate, Arnel triacetate, and Teron (a new polyester being produced in association with Imperial Chemical Industries), Celanese now is adding a fiber which will compete both with polyesters and with acrylics. Terms of the purchase haven't been disclosed, but it does involve royalty payments. Goodrich jvill retain rights to nontextile uses of the polymer, including plastics and film. Darvan, called Darlan until two years ago, is a copolymer of vinylidine dinitrile and vinyl acetate. It is chemically unique, containing two CN groups directly attached to the same carbon atom. The steric hindrance this creates in the regularly alternating copolymer probably explains why the material is paradoxically noncrystalline, Goodrich feels. And Dar van's high secondorder transition temperature (above 300° F.) gives it exceptional heat and sunlight stability, the firm states. The new material is said to be better
in several ways than existing textile fibers for wearing apparel: • Hand. • Launderability and ability. • Shape retention—vital goods.
dry-cleanfor
knit
• Wear—especially for synthetic furs. • Pilling resistance. It can be used straight or blended with other synthetic fibers (or with wool or cotton), says Goodrich. • Found During the War. Discovered during a World War II search for a synthetic tire cord yarn in Goodrich's basic research laboratory at Brecksville, Ohio, the novel nytril fiber has been produced in limited amounts at Goodrich Chemical's Avon Lake development center since 1952. This pilot plant, rated at 500,000 pounds per year, will run for Celanese until that firm starts making its own fiber. Celanese is in a good basic position to make Darvan. Its chemical unit, Celanese Chemical, produces both acetic acid and vinyl acetate—the principal raw materials for the fiber—at Pampa, Tex. No plans are settled yet for size
TOP LEVEL. B. F. Goodrich sells Darvan to Celanese. Harold Blancke (left), Celanese president, discusses deal with Goodrich's president J. W. Keener
or site of its Darvan fiber plant, but the polymer will be made at Pampa. In new facilities to be built there, Celanese Chemical will convert acetic acid, probably through intermediate formation of ketene and diacetyl cyanide, to vinylidene dinitrile. This will then be copolymerized with vinyl acetate to form a regularly alternating polymer chain with a 1:1 monomer ratio. Harold Blancke, president of Celanese, looks for commercial production within a year or so. He estimates an annual world market for Darvan of 36 to 40 million pounds. • To Market, To Market. But Celanese Fibers will begin marketing the fiber immediately, says division president John Brooks. Properties and end uses of Darvan will not overlap the company's present line, Mr. Brooks feels. The new fiber now sells for $1.45 to $1.55 per pound. While trade sources look for a price reduction after Celanese gets into production, Mr. Blancke hopes the good qualities of the fiber will instead justify a higher price. Darvan's obvious competitors are acrylic (selling for about $1.25 a pound) and polyester ($1.50 per pound) fibers.
More Borden PVC Coming Borden Chemical will boost its polyvinyl chloride capacity 100% with a 40 million pound-per-year plant to be built at Illiopolis, 111. The company has purchased a 20-acre tract next to its existing facilities at Illiopolis, expects that the $4 million project will be completed by the end of 1960. Late last year, Borden finished up a PVC expansion at Leominster, Mass., bringing capacity at that spot to 40 million pounds per year. A. R. Marusi, company president, says that the Illiopolis unit will allow Borden to help meet the needs of expanding Midwest markets. The plant will make the company's full line of vinyl products, including those for the flooring industry, the record industry, solution coatings and extrusion grades, and specialty resins. Borden is by no means alone in PVC expansion. Some 13 other firms are in the process of raising vinyl capacity (C&EN, Jan. 4, page 3 0 ) . Last year the country's output of vinyl resins and copolymers came to a record 1.1 billion pounds, and production this year should top 1959 by about 16%.
