Carpet | How It's Made

Knowing how carpet is made can be very advantageous. Knowing the different materials that make up various carpets also helps you understand and evaluate their performance aspects: why certain carpets are easier to install, why some wear better, longer, and why others are easier to care for and clean. It can also make you a smarter shopper.

Selections:

• thicker is not always better
• tight twist in each yarn is better than loose and frayed
• firm and dense pile means quality
• the more backing seen, the less dense and durable
• high traffic areas need lower profiles to avoid matting and crushing

Step 1: Fiber

• basic material of makeup
• 90% is synthetic fiber
• rest is natural fiber, mostly wool

Synthetic Fibers

• made up of one of three materials: nylon, polypropylene or polyester
• created by chemical processes from oil and natural gas

Nylon

• 75% is made of nylon
• performs the best overall
• leader in: appearance retention, fade and heat resistance, soil and stain resistance, color and styling
• highest performance nylon is Type 6.6 for more resistant to stain penetration

Polypropylene

• next most common material is polypropylene
• introduced in the late 1950's in Italy
• BCF represents more than 35% of all fibers
• not as resilient or resistant to abrasion as nylon
• naturally stain and fade resistant
• naturally resistance to moisture
• more limited range of color options
• most often used in loop pile constructions

Polyester

• third type of material is polyester
• introduced to the carpet industry in the mid 1960's
• well accepted for bulkiness, color clarity, and good stain and fade resistance
• not as resilient as nylon
• can be a good performer

PET

• Mohawk makes from plastic bottles
• plastic is collected, separated by color, and then ground and melted
• used to manufacture the PET carpet fiber
• carpets made by Mohawk of PET staple fiber made from 100% recycled material
• great color clarity, stain resistance, durability
• keeps over 3 billion bottles out of landfills

SmartStrand

• made with DuPont Sonora polymer
• DuPont and Mohawk make this fiber into carpet
• SmartStrand with DuPont Sorona is continuous filament fiber
• eliminates shedding
• highly stain resistant and durable
• 40% of the fiber made from corn by products

Wool

• The above three materials make up the majority of synthetic fibers.
• The other type of fiber used in carpet construction is staple fiber.
• While some synthetics are used in the creation of staple fibers, the original staple fiber used in the making of carpet is wool.
• The wool used in today's carpet comes primarily from New Zealand, Argentina, and the United Kingdom.
• Since wool is a natural fiber, it ranges in color from off-white to black, with many earthen tones between.
• Wool doesn't stand up to abrasion and moisture as well as synthetics, it cleans well and is known to age gracefully.
• Wool is the most expensive carpet fiber, and represents less than one percent of the U.S. carpet market.

Berber

• considered a type of carpet construction
• actually comes from the name of a group of North African sheepherders called the Berbers
• Berbers produced coarse wool, with color flecks in their yarns

Carpet is made in a 3-part process.

#1 Tufting

• begins with weaving the synthetic or staple fiber into a primary backing material
• usually made of woven polypropylene
• main value is to provide a base cloth to hold the yarn while tufting happens
• tufting machine has 800 to 2000 needles like a sewing machine to pull the yarn through the primary backing material
• tufting machine is 12 feet wide, its needles penetrate the backing and a small hook (looper) grabs the yarn and holds it in place

Loop pile construction

• holds appearance well
• no exposed yarn tips
• only sides of the yarn are exposed to wear and stress
• known to hold up the best

Alternative step

• sometimes the looper cuts small loops creating a cut pile
• length of these pieces called pile height, or distance between the looper and primary backing
• cuts are controlled by a computer, and can be programmed to cut only some of the loops
• this cutting is called cut and loop construction and creates pattern on the surface

#2 Application of dye

Two dyeing processes

• yarn dyeing/ pre-dyeing -color is applied to the yarn prior to tufting
• advantages are good side-by-side color consistency, large lot sizes, uniformity
• carpet dying - applying color to the yarn after tufting
• benefits -greater color flexibility, lower co

Carpet dyeing methods

• Beck/ batch dyeing- stitching the ends together, then running the tufted carpet loop through large vats of dye and water for several hours.
• Beck process ideal for small runs, heavier face weight products
• continuous dyeing -similar to Beck dyeing - carpet is also run through processes other than dying
• continuous dyeing - applies color to the face by spraying or printing, also to create multicolor or patterned effects
• screen printing - color is applied through anywhere from 1-8 silk-screens.

#3 Manufacturing the carpet

• finishing process- single production line that completes the final construction stages
  • coating of latex applied to dyed carpet's primary and secondary backing
• secondary backing - made of woven synthetic polypropylene
• two parts are squeezed together in a large heated press and held firmly to preserve shape
• shearing- removing loose ends and projecting fibers created during the tufting process
• also helps the yarn's tip definition
• inspection - for color uniformity and defects before it rolled, wrapped, and shipped

Terms and construction variables

Pile height, or nap

• length of the tuft measured from the primary backing to the yarn tips
• shown as a fraction, or decimal equivalent
• shorter pile is more durable than longer pile
• stitch rate - measure of how close the yarns are together
• stitch rate is measured in penetrations, or tufts, in a given length of carpet, usually an inch.
• stitch rate is controlled by the speed the carpet is moved through the tufting machine
• good number is seven to eight tufts per inch
• face weight-actual amount of fiber per square yard, measured in ounces
• typical carpet may have a face weight of 35 to 45 oz
• density- how tightly the yarn is stitched into the primary backing
• higher density will wear better than low density