because it tends to retain its appearance and resiliency and, provides a better surface for the rolling traffic of wheel chairs or food carts. For areas like libraries, individual offices and boardrooms, Cut pile or cut and loop pile carpet should be preferred.
The backing system on the carpet provides extra protection and durability to the carpet. The backing system adds stability and also make carpet impervious to moisture. It also protects carpet from edge raveling. Focus should be on the functional needs of a particular area.
Carpets meant for commercial applications are manufactured using tufting or weaving techniques. Both process produce quality floor coverings, but tufted carpet accounts for 95 percent of all carpet construction. Tufting and manufacturing of commercial carpet involve efficient advanced technology to provide capability for a myriad of patterns and floor covering.
Tufted carpet manufacturing
In tufting process carpet is manufactured on specialized multi-needle sewing machines. Numerous needles stitch hundreds of rows of pile yarn tufts through a backing fabric called the primary backing. The needles push yarn through a primary backing fabric, where a loop holds the yarn in place to form a tuft as the needle is removed. For4 loop pile carpets, the yarn is caught by loopers and held in place whereas for loop-pile carpet yarn is cut by blades. At last secondary backings of various types are applied to render a variety of performance properties.
Woven Carpet Manufacturing
Woven carpets are manufactured on looms by simultaneously interlacing face yarns and backing yarns into a complete product, thereby eliminating the need for a secondary backing. Sometimes little amount of latex-back coating is applied for bulk.
Fiber for Construction
Carpets are manufactured either from natural or from synthetic fibers. Some of the common fibers used for constructing carpets are Nylon, Olefin and wool. For commercial purposes 80 to 82 percent of the carpets are constructed out of nylon, 8 to 10 percent of olefin and 8 percent of wool.
Facts on Backings
Carpets are generally backed by backing system which helps keep the tufts in place. Backing systems are made from different materials and may also come with various kinds of protective treatments (such as anti-microbial or anti-stain) or beneficial properties (such as anti-static).
The methods and chemicals used depend upon the specifier's performance considerations and the manufacturer's recommendations. Performance considerations are important for demanding environments. The specifier specify the priority needs for how the carpet will perform, whether that is wear and tear, moisture-resistance, or heavy foot traffic.
The constituents of carpet backing system include a primary backing, a chemical adhesive, and often a secondary backing. The yarn is secured into the primary backing by synthetic latex, and a secondary backing (or cushion) is attached with a bonding agent or adhesive that helps in the stabilization of the pile yarn and adds dimensional stability to the carpet structure.
Depending on the end use, secondary backing is used on the carpet. For high performance end use carpet usually has a primary backing and a secondary backing. For low traffic areas, carpet may have only a coating of latex, a secondary backing or a cushion attached to the primary polypropylene backing.
