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🪢How it is made

Nylon · Carothers’ polyamide — stockings, tyre cord, climbing rope and a melt-drip fire personality.

At a glance
Score intensity

Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.

Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology

Quick answers

Is Nylon non-combustible?

Declared reaction class in this atlas: combustible, melt-drip. Assemblies still need resistance tests.

Does Nylon insulate?

Thermal mark 30/100 versus the atlas. Conductivity note: low.

What is the density band?

~1.14 g/cm³

How is it made?

Origin story: DuPont 1935–38 (United States).

Can it be recycled?

Circularity mark 32/100 — editorial, route-specific.

Typical melting or failure heat?

PA6 ~220 °C; PA66 ~260 °C

heat 46 · fire 26

Start with this section - How it is made

Making Nylon is a chain: feedstock, conversion (DuPont 1935–38), forming, heat, finish, install.

Skip a step and the properties chapter is describing a different object.

Process steps

01 Feedstock

Ore, monomer, fibre, mineral or scrap that can legally become Nylon.

02 Conversion

DuPont 1935–38

03 Forming

Cast, spin, weave, sinter, foam, laminate or coat — the step that sets anisotropy.

04 Heat / cure

Temper, vulcanise, calcine or dry: skip it and the datasheet is fiction.

05 Finish

Coatings, sizings, facers, galvanizing, anodising, painting.

06 Install

Fasteners, adhesives, DFT, compression, dryness — site quality is a material property.

Routes

Primary

Virgin route around United States.

Recycled / secondary

Recycling exists but quality or energy often disappoints.

Specialty

High-spec grades leave the commodity mill.

Site-applied

Coatings, sprays, casts — the factory is sometimes a jobsite.

Diagrams

Nylon process path

Feedstock to installed product.

  1. Feed — in
  2. Convert — mill
  3. Form — shape
  4. Finish — coat
  5. Install — out
  6. Spec — code
  7. Scrap loop — rec

Nylon heat & fire

Energy in, class out.

  1. Heat — in
  2. Nylon — mat
  3. λ / char — out
  4. Ignition — fire
  5. Euroclass — class
  6. Assembly — sys

Hard limits

Envelope

Melting/softening PA6 ~220 °C; PA66 ~260 °C; conductivity low.

Environment

Moisture, UV, chlorides, alkalis or oxygen — pick the one that actually kills Nylon.

Code

Fire class combustible, melt-drip is a starting letter, not a wall rating.

Process energy and scrap quality belong in the carbon passport, not in a footnote.

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