Tuftable carpet backings and carpets with enhanced tuft holding properties

Abstract

Primary carpet backings for tufted carpets comprise, in one embodiment, fabric woven from warp tapes comprising polypropylene and weft yarns in a plain, closed weave with an average warp count of about 18 to 32 tapes per inch and a lower average weft count, wherein the warp tapes have deniers of about 250 to about 800 and the weft yarns comprise polypropylene tapes that are thicker and of greater denier than the warp tapes. In another embodiment carpets comprising a primary backing as described above tufted with carpet face yarn to provide a pile surface comprising a plurality of face yarn tufts on one side of the backing and a plurality of stitches of the face yarn on an opposite, stitched side of the tufted backing and, optionally having a secondary backing laminated to the stitched side of the backing, have good tuft holding properties for a wide range of carpet face yarn deniers, carpet pile surfaces and styles.

Description

[0001] This invention relates to tuftable and tufted fabrics and, more particularly, primary carpet backings with good tuftability and tuft holding capabilities and tufted backings and carpets with improved tuft hold. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Primary backings for tufted carpets in the form of flat fabrics woven from tapes of synthetic polymeric resins, also commonly referred to as ribbons, ribbon yarns, slit film yarns and flat yarns, are well known and described in U.S. Pat. NO. 3,110,905. A wide range of yarn compositions and configurations and their use in various backing fabric designs have been described in the literature. In actual practice, woven polypropylene tape fabrics are and have been long preferred primary backings for commercial manufacture of carpets due to important features such as strength, mold and mildew resistance, cost, tuftability and compatibility with other aspects of carpet manufacturing operations. [0003] Primary backings conventionally used in ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] This invention provides primary carpet backings with improved features and that solve difficulties with conventional backings, including those described above, by providing good tuftability and improved tuft holding properties for carpet face yarns with a broad range of deniers and in carpets with textured pile surfaces as well as those with more uniform pile heights calling for high tuft hold.

[0014] In other embodiments, the invention provides primary carpet backings having good tuftability and tuft hold in loop pile tufted backings suitable for beck-dyeing and other smooth pile carpet styles, comprising fabric woven from warp tapes and weft yarns comprising polypropylene resin in a plain, closed weave with an average warp count of about 18 to about 32 tapes per inch and a lower average weft count of about 15 to about 20 yarns per inch, wherein the warp tapes are about 1.4 to 2.0 mils thick with deniers of about 250 to about 800 and the weft yarns comprise tapes that are thicker than the warp tapes and about 1.7 to about 2.5 mils thick, with deniers of about 1200 to about 1600. Carpets comprising face yarn tufted into the backings, and especially loop pile carpets with about 800 to about 4000 denier face yarn, have good resistance to tuft pullout, even in severe finishing environments such as beck dyeing operations.

Problems solved by technology

More specific tailoring of other backing designs to particular carpet styles is complicated, and empirical in many respects due to numerous manufacturing, performance and design features of both backings and carpets that must be accounted for and their complex, sometimes conflicting or unpredictable interrelationships.

Both of those backing design aspects, however, can impact tuftability of a fabric.

While application of this rule of thumb can, or is often considered to provide improved tuftability, it also has limitations and exceptions.

Backing fabrics woven from tapes in one direction and, in the other direction, fibrillated tapes or other yarns with a multi-filament or multi-sectioned configuration, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,359,934 and 4,145,467, can be used to reduce piercing of tapes during tufting due to the more easily penetrated, open yarn configuration, but tuft holding properties of the fabrics are inferior to those of fabrics woven from tapes in both directions, and the fibrillated or multi-sectioned yarns add cost to backing fabrics and carpets.

Conventional backings often are inadequate in one or more respects and attempts to tailor backings to new carpet styles, weights and other characteristics require challenging and expensive modifications and significant investigation and trial and error with new backing designs.

Another example is beck-dyed carpets, in which face yarn tufts can suffer significant pullout from tufted backings due to rigors of the dyeing technique and the equipment used to remove excess dye.

Stitch pullout in beck-dyed loop pile carpets is a particular difficulty because loop pile tufts running in the machine direction of the tufted backing are formed from a continuous length of face yarn, such that tuft pullout can easily propagate over a significant portion of the tufted backing, ultimately producing off-quality carpets.

In conventional backings, even weft counts as high as 15-18 tapes per inch can be deficient in tuft hold, yet higher counts can impair tuftability.