Polyamide, commonly known by its trade name nylon is assumed as revolution in the plastic industry. Announced in 1930, nylon was the first purely synthetic fiber, introduced by DuPont Corporation at World’s Fair in New York City in 1939. Polyamides are typified by amide groups and encompass a range of material types, providing an extremely broad range of available properties. Polyamide is of two types- those made of one basic material and other one is made of two basic materials. They can occur both naturally i.e wool and silk and synthetically i.e nylon. Polyamides have excellent mechanical properties and can be either hard and tough or soft and flexible. Polyamides occurs both naturally and artificially and is used in the making of variety of materials. Naturally occurring polyamides are wool and silk which are nothing but proteins while artificially manufactured polyamides are nylon, sodium poly (aspirate) and aramids.
Polyamide mainly used in an engineering plastic industry, consequently an engineering plastic market is witnessing a robust development. The reasons of using polyamide in engineering plastic industry is due to its high mechanical strength, hardness and rigidity. Good fatigue strength, good sliding properties and high wear resistance are some more reasons that polyamides are highly recommended in engineering plastic industry. Due to rising demand for and growth of automotive and transportation in various regions across the globe, the usage of polyamides has increased in engineering plastic industry. This is expected to drive the global engineering plastic market. Rapid urbanisation, infrastructural development, and increasing income levels across various end-user segments are other factors that are likely to boost the growth of the global engineering plastic market. However, high cost of polyamides, increasing use of alternative substitutes and fluctuations in the cost of raw material are likely to hamper the growth of the global engineering plastics market over the forecast period.
Forecast wise, global polyamide market is expected to witness significant growth due to its increasing consumption in major end-use industries such as automotive, machinery and consumer goods. Growing polyamide demand in sporting goods and textile on account of their increasing consumption is expected to further complement the global market growth over the forecast period.