Integrated spin-draw-texturizing process for manufacture of texturized polyamide filaments

In an integrated process for the manufacture of a texturized yarn by a continuous melt-spinning, drawing and texturizing of a fiber-forming synthetic linear high molecular weight polymer selected from the group consisting of poly-.epsilon.-caprolactam and polyhexamethylene adipamide wherein the steps of spinning, drawing and texturizing are combined in immediate succession, the improvement which comprises:

• a. melt-spinning filaments of said fiber-forming polymer at a temperature of between 260.degree. C and 295.degree. C and at a spin-draw melt attenuation ratio of between 1:10 and 1:60;
• b. drawing the spun filaments only on forwarding elements for the development of a uniform tensile strength and modulus of elasticity, said spun filaments being collected as a bundle leaving the melt-spinning stage and directly wound on at least two forwarding elements, of which the initial elements have a surface temperature of between 50.degree. C and 120.degree. C and the final element has a surface temperature of between 80.degree. C and 350.degree. C at a draw ratio such that the drawn filaments on leaving the drawing stage, have an extensibility of between 10 and 50%;
• and
• c. air-texturizing said filaments as a collected yarn leaving the drawing stage at a velocity of between 800 and 3,000 m/min, the overfeed in the texturizing stage being from 10 to 50% at a filament temperature, prior to texturization, of between 50.degree. C and 180.degree. C, the spinning, drawing and texturizing yielding a yarn with a total final denier of from 100 to 3,600 dtex and an individual filament denier of from 3 to 30 dtex.