Chapter 9
I Introduction
II The Australian Chemical Industry
III Pharmaceuticals
IV Chemists In Other Industries
V The Dawn Of Modern Chemical Industry - High Pressure Synthesis
VI The Growth Of Synthetic Chemicals - Concentration, Rationalisation And International Links
VII Australian Industrial Chemical Research Laboratories
i Australian instrument inventions
ii Plant protection - overseas and in Australia
iii Successes in the laboratory but . . .
iv Drugs for sheep and cattle revisited Tetramisole - international success and local manufacture
v 'Promicide'* 'Grenade'* to control ticks
vi Technical service R&D
vii Industry/CSIRO/university collaboration
viii Australian entrepreneurs in modern chemistry
VIII The Plastics Industry
IX The Paint Industry
X Acknowledgements
References
Index
Search
Help
Contact us
Capital costs of nylon processes are so high, however, that even a major cost saving such as demonstrated is not competitive against marginal production from amortised plant -the main prospect was use in new plants. By 1970 the prospects of new plant constructions had deteriorated rapidly. Polyester ('Terylene', polyethyleneterephthalate) fibre, favoured by its lower energy demand, progressively improved its competitive edge over nylon; no more mercury cells -the source of amalgam -were built for environmental reasons; the jeans fashion cut into nylon markets and so did steel reinforced tyres. Finally the drastic down-turn in the textile industry set in, which shut down factories all over Europe and caused the loss of thousands of jobs. The two research teams, with regret, shut down the project. For some time competitive research on variants of the ICI route continued in Japan and Israel, and then the Knunyants/ICI Australia route became history. It was one of the company's most ambitious thrusts into polymer synthesis, perhaps too late in the history of nylon development.
Organisations in Australian Science at Work - I.C.I. Australia Ltd. Central Research Laboratories
 |
Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering |  |
© 1988 Print Edition page 686, Online Edition 2000
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/653.html