Carpet and carpet making methods

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a carpet product, a process for manufacturing carpet, and an apparatus used in a carpet manufacturing process. The carpet product is made from tufted polymer filament yarn wherein the individual yarn filaments of the yarn back loops are integrally fused so that the carpet resists fuzzing. The primary backing preferably is modified polypropylene in the fill direction. Further, the primary backing may be coated with a polymer before tufting to adhere or integrally fuse the inside of the fiber tuft to the primary backing. An optional secondary backing is preferably made of tape yarn in both directions. The process includes providing a carpet base having a primary backing penetrated by yarn, applying heat to the underside of the primary backing, extruding a heated sheet of polymer and continuously contacting the heated extruded sheet of polymer with the base. The apparatus includes a source of carpet precursor, a heated cylinder for heating the underside of the carpet, an extruder and a casting roll against which the extruded sheet and heated carpet are pressed.

We claim:  
     
         1 . A method for manufacturing a carpet comprising (a) fixing tufts of carpet fibers to a primary backing so that the tufts protrude from the top surface of the primary backing to form a tufted base (b) applying a heated sheet of thermoplastic polyolefin, (c) continuously contacting a lower surface of said tufted base with said heated sheet, and (d) integrally fusing at least one of the primary backing or tufts to said heated sheet of thermoplastic polyolefin.