Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Carpet, Carpet Floorings

Carpet, Carpet Floorings.

The term "carpet" derives from Old Italian carpita, "carpire" meaning to pluck, A carpet stretches from wall-to-wall.
A carpet is a floor covering consisting of an upper layer of "pile" attached to a backing. The pile is usually either made from wool, an PVC or a artifical fibre such as polypropylene, and usually consists of crooked tufts which are often heat-treated to maintain their strength and structure.
Carpet types :
  • Woven  :
    This type of carpet is produced on a loom similar to woven cloth. The pile can be plush or berber. Plush carpet is a cut pile and berber carpet is a loop pile. There's new styles of carpet combining the styles called cut and loop carpeting. Normally lots of colored yarns are used and this process can produce intricate patterns from pre-determined designs. These carpets are usually the most expensive due to the comparatively slow speed of the manufacturing process.
  •  Tufted :
    These are carpets that have their pile injected in to a backing material, which is itself then bonded to a secondary backing comprising a woven hessian weave or a synthetic alternative to provide stability. This is the most common method of manufacturing of domestic carpets for floor covering purposes in the world.
  • Needlefelt  :
    These carpets are more technologically advanced. Needle felts are produced by electrostatic attraction of individual synthetic fibres forming an very long lasting carpet. These carpets are normally present in the contract market such as hotels etc. where there is a lot of traffic.
  • Knotted  :
    In a knotted pile carpet , the structural weft threads alternate with a supplementary weft that rises at right angles to the surface of the weave. This supplementary weft is attached to the warp by of knot types , such as shag which was popular in the 1970s, to form the pile or nap of the carpet. Knotting by hand is most prevalent in Oriental rugs & carpets. Kashmir carpets are also hand-knotted.
  • Others
    A flatweave carpet is created by interlocking warp and weft threads. Types of oriental flatwoven carpet include kilim, soumak, plain weave, and tapestry weave. Types of European flatwoven carpets include Venetian, Dutch, damask, list, haircloth, and ingrain.
    A hooked rug is a simple type of rug handmade by pulling strips of cloth such as wool or cotton through the meshes of a sturdy fabric such as burlap. This type of rug is now generally made as a handicraft.
Fibres  used in Making Carpet  :  

1)   Nylon :       Nylon is the most common material for construction of carpets. Both nylon 6 and nylon 6-6 are used. Nylon can be dyed topically or dyed in a molten state. Nylon can be printed basically and has excellent wear characteristics. In carpets Nylon tends to stain because it possesses dye sites on the fibre. These dye sites need to be filled in order to give Nylon any type of stain resistance. As nylon is petroleum-based it varies in cost with the cost of oil.



2)  Wool and wool-blends :     Wool has excellent durability, can be dyed basically and is ample. When blended with synthetic fibres such as nylon the durability of wool is increased. Blended wool yarns are extensively used in production of modern carpet, with the most common blend being 80% wool to 20% synthetic fibre, giving rise to the term "80/20". Wool is comparatively pricey and consequently a small portion of the market.



3)  Polyester :      The polyester known as "PET" (polyethylene terephthalate) is used in carpet manufacturing in both spun & filament constructions. After the cost of raw materials for plenty of types of carpet rose in the early 2000s, polyester became more competitive. Polyester has lovely physical properties & is inherently stain-resistant because it is hydrophobic, &, unlike nylon, does not have dye sites. Color is infused in a molten state (solution dyeing). Polyester has the disadvantage that it tends to crush or mat down basically. It is usually used in mid- to low-priced carpeting.


Another polyester, "PTT" (Polytrimethylene terephthalate) , also called Sorona or 3GT (Dupont)or Corterra (Shell), is a variant of PET. Lurgi Zimmer PTT was first patented in 1941, but it was not produced until the 1990s, when Shell Chemicals developed the low-cost technique of producing high-quality one,3 propanediol (PDO), the beginning raw material for PTT Corterra Polymers. PTT is similar to polyester, but its molecules have a "kink", similar to a spring, that makes the fibre more crush resistant, resilient, & straightforward to tidy. PTT also does not have dye sites, & is inherently stain resistant because color is infused in a molten state. Carpets made with PTT dry quickly & are resistant to mold.


4)  Polypropylene :
     Polypropylene is used to produce carpet yarns because it is cheap. It is difficult to dye and does not wear as well as wool or nylon. Polypropylene is often used to construct Berber carpets. In this case, polypropylene is often often called olefin. Giant looped olefin Berber carpets are usually only suited for light domestic use and tend to mat down quickly. Berber carpets with smaller loops tend to be more resilient and retain their new appearance longer than giant looped Berber styles. Commercial grade level-loop carpets have tiny loops, and commercial grade cut-pile styles are well constructed. When made with polypropylene these styles wear well, making them suitable for areas with heavy foot traffic such as offices. Polypropylene carpets are known to have nice stain resistance but not against oil based agents. If a stain does set, it can be difficult to neat. Commercial grade carpets can be glued directly to the floor or installed over a 1/4" thick, 8-pound density padding. Outdoor grass carpets are usually made from polypropylene.

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