In 1952, the DuPont Company organized a Product Information section within the Public Relations Department. Its main purpose was to create news releases accompanied by photographs that would be run editorially by trade journals and newspapers to create inexpensive publicity and indirect advertising.The DuPont Company product information collection collection (Accession 1972.341) contains photographs of DuPont Company corporate events and proceedings, product trade shows and fairs, development and manufacturing processes, and the employees and facilities where the products were created. Most of the photographs were taken from the 1930s through the 1950s. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety.Image: Comparison of Teflon and plastic. Click to view.
Cured tire is ready to be removed from press for studies to determine role of cord in tire performance. Equipment is part of facilities for study of processing methods and development of new industrial end products of man-made fibers at DuPont's Textile Research Laboratory at Chestnut Run, near Wilmington, Delaware.
Tires are tested at various loads and inflation pressures on $80,000 test wheel to determine performance characteristics of tire cord under controlled conditions. Equipment is part of facilities for study of processing methods and development of new industrial end products of manmade fibers at DuPont's Textile Research Laboratory at Chestnut Run, near Wilmington, Delaware.
Before and after testing, tires are completely dissected to determine strength characteristics and cord performance. Studies are carefully planned to give accurate performance data for individual plies and critical points of stress of body of tire. This test is typical phase in studies of processing methods and development of new industrial end products of manmade fibers at DuPont's Textile Research Laboratory at Chestnut Run, near Wilmington, Delaware.
An instron tester, capable of exerting force of 10,000 pounds, is used to determine carcass strength and record exact force required to push plunger through wall of fully inflated tired. Equipment is part of facilities for study of processing methods and development of new industrial end products of manmade fibers at DuPont's Textile Research Laboratory at Chestnut Run, near Wilmington, Delaware.
Rayon tow is here being converted into top on a machine invented by N.S. Campbell, of Greenwich, Connecticut. The operator has inserted several ends of DuPont Fiber-D rayon tow into the far end of the machine. They then pass between a pair of helical sheers, the upper member of which can just been seen at the top of the machine. The cutter cuts the tow diagonally to convert the continuous filaments into short fibers or a given length, which then feed into a gill box, at the center of the machine. The web of cut fibers is seen emerging from the gill box and passing into a dynamic funnel, assisted by the arrangement of guide belts. The funnel and controller put a false twist into the condense web. The resulting sliver, being wound on the tube in the foreground, has thus been made without benefit of cards and combs.
Several ends of the sliver prepared in the Campbell tow-cutting machine are here entering a second machine and passing under a fluted roll into a gill box, the fallers of which may be seen at the left end. This second stage of the tow-to-top operation further blends drafts and condenses the sliver, which is then, as in the case of the DuPont Fiber D rayon shown here, drawn into yarn for rugs.
Rayon tow, manufactured by the DuPont Company, is here being fed into a Perlok tow-to-top machine. The bands of continuous filaments are broken between the sets of rollers at the right without ever losing their original parallelism. In the producing of top by this method, the entire carding and combing process is bypassed.
Two finished slivers are seen emerging from the break rolls, which are covered with leather aprons and entering stuffing boxes which impart a crimp. The crimped sliver then falls into the cans at the bottom of the picture. This Perlock machine was built from a standard worsted roving frame.
Square braided packing, made from DuPont continuous filament rayon tow is serving war industry in water pumps, accumulators of hydraulic presses, punches etc. and is doing a good job. It replaces packing made of imported long line flax. Here some of the impregnated rayon packing is being coiled on a coiling plated for shipment. In the background are several coils in a box and a reel of un-impregnated rayon packing.
Shown here are several stages in the production of rayon packing, beginning at the upper right hand corner with a tube of DuPont rayon tow. The man's hands are holding several loops of the two, which consists of thousands of continuous filaments of rayon. Reading counter-clockwise from this point are a spool of the twisted roving, made from the tow, a reel of white braided packing in the dry form, a coil of impregnated packing on the coiling plate, several cut rings of pacing ready to install on a stuffing box and a box of coils prepared for shipping.
A tube of bright rayon tow being packaged at one of the DuPont rayon plants for shipment to a textile mill employing one of the new two-to-top conversion processes.
Power lines with a view of the chemical buildings and fumes stack in rear at the Spruance rayon plant of E.I. du Pont Nemours & Company, near Richmond, Virginia.
View of the acid tanks with power lines overhead and chemical building and fumes stack in rear at the Spruance rayon pant of E.I. du Pont Nemours & Company, near Richmond, Virginia.
Cotton linters and wood pulp storage building in the foreground, with chemical building and fumes stack in rear and electrical lines overhead at the Spruance rayon plant of E.I. du Pont Nemours & Company, near Richmond, Virginia.
Aerial view of the Orlon acrylic fiber, acetate yarn and Lycra spandex fiber plants of E.I. du Pont Nemours & Company at Waynesboro, Virginia. The Orlon unit was completed in 1958; Du Pont's acetate plant has been in operation in Waynesboro since 1929. The company's first Orlon plant went into production at Camden, South Carolina in 1950, following a ten year research program. The commercial manufacturing facilities for Lycra were completed in 1962.
