The world production of polyester fibers was of 8,4 million metric tons during the 1989, which 42% corresponds to continuous thread and the rest to discontinuous fibers.

PET polyester was synthesized for the first time by Whinfield & Dickson in Great Britain (1940) and the patents were bought by ICI (UK) and Du Pont (USA). But it seems to be that the production to world scale began in 1954.

The only important fibers of polyamide, for their commercial volume, are the nylon 6.6 and the nylon 6, with a world production of more than 3,7 million tons in 1988. The nylon 6.6 was obtained for the first time thanks to a team of investigators directed by Carothers to Du Pont. The industrial production began in 1939. The nylon 6 was initially synthesized by P.Schlack of I.G.Farbenindustrie and the fiber production to great scale began in 1941. In both cases, it proceeded to the spinning for coalition, unknown until then.

The two fibers beginnings coincided with the preparations of the Second World War that, due to their excellent properties, their production was militarized to practical effects. It was the reason why true textile development of the polyamide fibers was delayed until after the war. At the moment, it constitutes one of the four more important chemical fibers families, together with the celulose, the polyester and the acrylic ones.