Lightweight Modular Carpet Tile with Embedded Scrim for Flatness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional carpet tile installation techniques require heavy tiles to prevent curling and doming, which increases transportation and installation costs and limits their use in weight-sensitive applications like the airline industry.
Innovation Solution
A low-weight carpet tile design featuring a facecloth with tufted face yarns, an extruded polymer secondary backing layer, and a reinforcing scrim layer embedded within the secondary backing layer, which provides dimensional stability and prevents curling or doming.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If carpet tiles are made heavy to prevent curling and doming, then flatness and dimensional stability are improved, but transportation cost and installation time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies composite materials by combining a polymer secondary backing layer with a reinforcing scrim layer embedded within it. This composite structure provides the necessary flatness and dimensional stability through the scrim's tensile strength while keeping the overall weight lower than traditional solid heavy tiles, as the polymer matrix provides bulk without excessive weight.
Solution Approach 2:
The reinforcing scrim layer is strategically embedded within the polymer secondary backing layer to provide localized reinforcement at the bottom of the carpet tile. This local quality approach ensures that the critical area for preventing curling and doming (the backside) has enhanced stiffness and dimensional stability, while the overall tile weight remains reduced compared to uniformly heavy construction.
2Stability of the object's composition
If carpet tiles are made heavy to prevent curling and doming, then dimensional stability is improved, but installation time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The composite structure of polymer secondary backing with embedded scrim provides dimensional stability through the scrim's reinforcement, eliminating the need for excessively heavy tiles. This allows for lighter, easier-to-handle tiles that reduce installation time while maintaining the dimensional stability required to prevent curling and doming during and after installation.
Solution Approach 2:
By concentrating the reinforcing scrim layer at the backside of the tile where it is most needed for dimensional stability, the design provides maximum stabilization effect with minimum additional weight. This localized reinforcement reduces handling difficulty and installation time compared to uniformly heavy tiles, while ensuring the tile maintains its flatness and dimensions.
3Stability of the object's composition
If carpet tiles are made heavy to prevent curling and doming, then flatness is improved, but transportation cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The composite construction using polymer secondary backing with embedded scrim creates a tile that achieves flatness and dimensional stability without the excessive weight of traditional solid tiles. This reduced weight directly lowers transportation energy consumption and costs, as lighter materials require less energy to move over the same distance, while the scrim reinforcement ensures the tile remains flat during transport and installation.
Solution Approach 2:
The localized embedding of the reinforcing scrim layer within the polymer secondary backing provides the necessary flatness characteristics at the critical backside area without requiring the entire tile to be uniformly heavy. This approach minimizes overall weight reduction while maintaining flatness, thereby reducing transportation costs without sacrificing the flatness required for proper installation and appearance.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The carpet tile achieves exceptional flatness and dimensional stability while reducing weight to less than 60 ounces per square yard, lowering transportation and installation costs and enabling use in weight-sensitive applications.
Implementation Method 1
The reinforcing scrim layer may be laid onto the extruded polymer secondary backing layer while the extruded polymer secondary backing layer remains above a softening temperature for the resin
Implementation Method 2
The entire multi-layer web may then be passed through a nip to embed the reinforcing scrim layer into the extruded polymer secondary layer
Implementation Method 3
the entire web may then be passed through a nip to embed the reinforcing scrim layer into the extruded polymer secondary layer, and the entire web may be chilled
Data Source
AI summary
A low-weight carpet tile and process for making the same, wherein the carpet tile comprises a facecloth having a plurality of face yarns tufted through a primary backing, an extruded polymer secondary backing layer, and a reinforcing scrim layer partially embedded within the extruded polymer secondary backing layer. The top surface and bottom surface of the carpet tile are defined by the facecloth and the reinforcing scrim layer, respectively. A polymer-based resin is extruded onto the facecloth to form an at least substantially uniform secondary backing layer, and the reinforcing scrim layer is laid onto the extruded polymer secondary backing layer while the extruded polymer secondary backing layer remains above a softening temperature for the resin. The entire multi-layer web is then passed through a nip to embed the reinforcing scrim layer into the extruded polymer secondary layer, and the entire web is chilled.