The raw materials for synthetic fibres generally stem from crude oil which originates from the transformation of huge quantities of marine organisms.

In contrast to natural fibres, the composition and structure of man-made fibres can be determined by man. This lends man-made fibres special properties and renders them useful for many different purposes.

In order to manufacture man-made fibres, viscous, stringy liquids are needed. The matter that results from dissolving or heating is called the spin mass. The resulting spinnable matter is called a polymer.

In order to produce filaments (continuous yarns) from the spin mass, various spinning processes are used, the dry spinning process, the wet spinning process and the melt spinning process. In all cases the spinnable material is pressed through the extremely small openings of a spinneret and upon exiting the filaments produced are either gathered to a filament yarn or spooled, or joined. After spinning man-made fibres the molecules are not yet in alignment and the fibres have to be drawn, as in the manufacture of natural yarns.

Texturing is a procedure used to increase the volume and elasticity of a filament yarn. The essential properties of textured yarns and the products made from them are softness, fullness, a high degree of elasticity, thermal insulation and moisture transporting properties. All yarns which can be shaped by heat are suitable for texturing.

In all spinning processes filaments are formed from the spin mass by the spinnerets. If the product of staple fibres is desired i.e. short fibre sections for the spinning mill, thousands of filaments are combined and cut into staple fibres. During the production of filament yarns each single filament bundle exiting the spinnerets is wound onto a spool, in the production of staple fibres numerous filament bundles are first combined to form a thick filament tow which can be crimped and cut into stale fibres. By cutting the tow, staple fibres are obtained which can be compared in length, e.g. with wool or cotton. Depending on the process used, the tow is either cut directly by the manufacture and pressed into bales for delivery or cut or torn into staple fibres using a converter at later stage.