The
generic name allocated to the cellulosic fibre produced by Courtaulds Genesis
solvent spinning process is to be Lyocell not Tencel. Lyocell is notable for
its high wet strength. Its suitability for advanced nonwovens manufacturing
systems, such as hydroentanglement, has been under evaluation.
Anon, Nonwovens Rep. Int., no. 220, July 1989, p. 10
This little abstract hides a multitude of issues. In 1988 I think we hoped to get Tencel as the generic but realised that Tencel was becoming too associated with Courtaulds and issued an edict that Tencel should become "tencel" in the literature to emphasise that it was not a brand. This failed.
I think CF001 became the temporary US generic before the FTC accepted lyocell, but what was the situation in the EU? Finally lyocell became generic and Tencel the brand and I'll check the FTC site for more. Had we got our way and Tencel had been accepted as the generic name, who knows what would the brand name would have been?
1 comment:
The CF0001 term was applied after the application to the FTC Normal procedure after a new application Its was alwyas considered that a new generic term would help in the promotion of the new fiber and we did not want to be associated with Rayon ( viscose) especially in the US.
The FTC head quarters are in LA on Wiltshire Bvd and i recall a couple of trips over there with Bob Feil to make our case. The FTC was represented by a cowboy booted bureaucrat called Brett something or other and he was supported by a british lecturer from Cal tech a fellow brit and ATI so I thought this would be easy. from the start it was obvious the technical advisor from Cal Tech had an entrenched position and thought this was just a new rayon or a cupro rayon since it was based on solvent spinning. we made the case that in all other production methods the cellulose undergoes chemical changes into an intermediary before dissolution and regeneration As we all know Tencel is direct dissolution into the AO solution. I have no idea where the copy of the final application resides but it became a very long a technical document covering every aspect of the fiber from production to performance in fabrics, nonwovens , knits.
The new generic was granted in 1995, just before i left Courtaulds, my parting shot from a 9 year association with Tencel which I left with very fond memories , lifelong friendships, about a million miles on Delta !! "
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