David Pike (Seydell-Wooley and Co Inc) recalls the first sizing of 100% Tencel in 1993

Here's the first contribution from one of the multitude of non-Courtaulds people who contributed to the successful  development of uses for the new fibre.  

If we get more I'll start a new page of credits.

I can help as I was the first person to size 100% Tencel at the old Greenwood Mills - Lindale Plant - Lindale Ga. location in 1993 & 1995 and 65/35 tencel/cotton in 1995. Email me at davidmpike@dpgenterprises.com and I will assist. I was working with SEYDEL-WOOLLEY & CO. INC. at the time and still have all the technical papers from the slashing of the yarns on an old West Point Foundry slasher #4 with West Point Foundry 863 Equi-Squeeze boxes/ medium pressure (5 ton) for research by Courtalds out of Axis, Alabama plant.

The people I dealt with were from the Axis, Alabama plant.  One of the engineers called me one day a few years later for some information on slashing/sizing techniques but I don't remember his name.  A I said, I have all my old notes from each warp sizing trial I conducted for 10 years while at SEYDEL-WOOLLEY & CO. INC.  I am still friendly to my my old company and the president Mr. Steve Adams and I am sure I could secure some of that other additional lab bench work info if a paper or history was ever put together.  

My best memory was the 65/35 Tencel/Cotton trial we conducted in 1995.  We were told it was basically a RAYON so we used that as a basis point but that was not the case at all.  We set the slasher up for a stretch of 4% which is standard for RAYON and low and behold it turned to rubber bands.  Our 100% Tencel trials went off without a hitch but the 65/35 was a different animal all together with a stretch more in line with cotton.  It turned out that Tencel was more like cotton and once we determined that away we went.

From: David M. Pike of DPG ENTERPRISES, INC.