Nylon is a polymer, meaning it is a plastic that has a molecular structure of a large number of similar units bonded together. An analogy would be that it is just like a metal chain is made of repeating links. Nylon is a whole family of very similar types of materials called polyamides.Traditional materials such as wood and cotton exist in nature, while nylon does not. A nylon polymer is made by reacting together two relatively large molecules using heat around 545°F and pressure from an industrial-strength kettle. When the units combine, they fuse to form an even larger molecule. This abundant polymer is the most common type of nylon—known as nylon-6,6, which contains six carbon atoms. With a similar process, other nylon variations are made by reacting to different starting chemicals.