Border, edge or pattern carpet tile design, manufacture and installation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing carpet tile designs require precise orientation to create discernible patterns, which can be aesthetically limiting and functionally challenging, especially in creating random or multi-directional installations without visible seams or out-of-place tiles.
Innovation Solution
The development of carpet tiles and manufacturing methods that allow for random installation and pattern creation using tufting machines, enabling tiles with varying yarn colors, heights, and textures to be produced from a single tufted web, with crisp or fuzzy transitions, allowing for bold and less prominent elements to be integrated without needing to align tiles by nap.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If carpet tiles are designed with discernible patterns requiring precise orientation, then aesthetic quality and functional directionality are improved, but installation complexity and design flexibility deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The carpet design is segmented into multiple visual layers: a background pattern that provides overall aesthetic and a foreground pattern with higher contrast that remains discernible regardless of tile orientation. This segmentation allows the carpet to maintain pattern visibility while enabling flexible installation without strict orientation requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs asymmetric pattern elements that are inherently multi-directional in nature, such as circular motifs, radial patterns, or irregular shapes that do not possess a single preferred orientation. These asymmetric designs naturally accommodate random installation while maintaining visual coherence across the carpet surface.
2Ease of manufacture
If carpet tiles are manufactured with uniform yarn characteristics, then manufacturing simplicity is improved, but pattern versatility and design options deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by varying yarn characteristics (such as color, texture, or pile height) in specific localized regions of the carpet to create distinct pattern elements. The background areas use uniform yarn for simplicity, while foreground pattern areas incorporate varied yarn properties to achieve visual distinction without requiring all tiles to be manufactured with complex multi-variable yarn specifications.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention utilizes parameter changes in yarn properties (color, diameter, material composition) to create visually distinct foreground patterns from the background. By selectively changing these parameters in specific pattern regions rather than across the entire carpet, the manufacturing process remains relatively simple while achieving versatile design outcomes.
3Illumination intensity
If carpet tiles use high contrast foreground patterns, then visual distinction and pattern visibility are improved, but sensitivity to wear and soiling deterioration
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a continuous visual field where the foreground pattern is distributed across multiple tiles in a repeating sequence. This continuity ensures that wear or soiling on individual tiles does not create noticeable disruptions, as the pattern flows seamlessly across tile boundaries and the human eye perceives the overall continuous design rather than individual tile conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention employs color changes strategically, using foreground patterns with color combinations that provide visual distinction while incorporating hues or shades that are less susceptible to showing wear and soiling. The color selection balances pattern visibility with durability considerations, choosing colors that maintain aesthetic appeal even when slightly degraded by use.
Data Source
AI summary
Design and manufacture of tufted articles, carpet tile webs and carpet tiles, and installation of carpet tiles, having different color, pile height, pile texture or other characteristics that, together with similar other such tiles, may be installed to create borders, edges or other multiple-tile designs, usually without any of the tiles looking out of place or improperly oriented relative to nap or the direction the tile is “facing.”