Carpet manufacture

Details Carpet manufacture Carpet manufacture

1997-12-17

2000-02-01

Pianalto, Bernard

Coating processes

With post-treatment of coating or coating material

Solid treating member or material contacts coating

427315, 427316, 427322, 427323, 427356, 427368, 427371, 4273855, 4273899, B05D 312

Patent

active

060200316

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF INVENTION

Shading has been a problem in the manufacture of carpets for many years. Shading is especially noticeable in plain and open ground carpets having a velvet pile. The cause of shading is not entirely understood but it is believed to be the result of light being reflected differently from different regions of the carpet pile to give the appearance of a watermark.


BACKGROUND ART

Numerous attempts have been made to overcome the problems of shading but so far these have met with only limited success. Indeed shading is one of the reasons why velvet pile carpets are less popular with both customers and manufacturers and the existence of problems with shading has led carpet manufacturers to offer different types of carpet such as those including a sculptured pile or a twist pile which either do not suffer from this problem or only suffer from it to a much smaller extent.
We believe the effect of shading is caused by the carpet pile tufts in some areas of the carpet being oriented at a slightly different angle with regard to the backing of the carpet from those in other areas. However, attempts to measure such angles and compare the angles in different regions where shading appears have not shown any measurable difference in their angle of orientation. Most carpet pile tufts are not placed perfectly normal to the backing and usually there is some "lay" of the pile tufts. In woven carpets this lay is caused by the tuft insertion technique and the beat-up operation. The pile tufts lay in the direction towards the already woven length of carpet and, usually to one side or the other when viewed from the already woven length of carpet.
GB-A-2,067,614 discloses a system for arranging long fibres of a material in a generally uniform direction before a treatment stage, for example dyeing, to ensure the subsequent treatment is uniformly applied to all fibres. subsequent treatment is uniformly applied to all fibres. This orientation of the fibres is achieved by brushing or combing the fibres, for example by a brush roller having fine wire bristles or using an air brush. The present inventors have found that brushing or combing the pile tufts of a carpet in this way cannot achieve uniform orientation of the tufts and does not overcome shading of the carpet.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to this invention, substantially to eliminate shading, a carpet is subjected to a treatment in which the pile tufts are steamed and then engaged by a scroll roll which engages the pile tufts and acts positively to orientate all of the tufts into a predetermined direction, the scroll roll including one or more helical or axially extending grooves or ribs.
Preferably the anti-shading treatment is carried out immediately before coating the backing of the carpet with latex and passing it through an oven in which the latex is cured. It is believed that orienting the steamed pile with a scroll roll immediately before the carpet is heated in the latex curing oven firstly orientates the pile all in the same direction and then the heat of the curing oven dries and "sets" the pile in the oriented direction.
The peripheral speed of the scroll roll must be different to the speed of the carpet past the roll so that differential movement occurs between surface features of the scroll roll and the carpet pile to orientate it. It has been contemplated that, instead of one or more ribs, the scroll roll may include a number of raised projections.
Preferably the ratio between the peripheral speed of the scroll roll and that of the carpet past the scroll roll is such that each tuft of pile is contacted by a surface feature of the scroll roll at least twice whilst the carpet is in contact with the scroll roll.
The scroll roll may urge the pile tufts into the direction of their lay but we have found particularly beneficial results are obtained when the scroll roll urges the pile tufts in the opposite direction to their "normal" direction of lay. Whilst the mechanism by which the present invention operates is still not fully understood,

REFERENCES:
patent: 4360946 (1982-11-01), Marshall et al.
patent: 4670317 (1987-06-01), Greenway
patent: 4875249 (1989-10-01), Collier
patent: 5249328 (1993-10-01), Shin

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