INT323-2021

  The Face Weight of carpet is talking about the weight in ounces per square yard.  The weight can tell you how durable the carpet is, and you can come up with measurements of the carpet.  The measurements are not always precise though because face weight does not take into consideration the height of the carpet.  When buying carpet you should choose a carpet with at least 35 ounces in face weight. The pile yard height  is the length of the carpet fibers from their end tips to the point where they reach the carpet backing.  The pile height adds to the density of the carpet.  Carpet density refers to how close the fibers are tufted together in the back of the carpet. Cut and loop carpet was very popular in the 1970s and the style is created by combining looped fibers and cut ones.  This kind of  carpet provides nice texture and visual interest.  Multi-level loop carpet has a dimensional appearance because of the different heights of ...

 Pile yard height & weight  In soft floor coverings surface texture is the added third dimension that gives the floor covering more depth, this is achieved by the pile layer. This can create different visual appearances based on the pile height, pile thickness, construction, density, and yarn twist. The pile height in a carpet is the length of the pile tufts above the backings. Any amount of the pile yarn that is in the backing does not count towards the pile height of the carpet. This height is normally counted for in decimal form, this information is given to the designers, architects, and those installing the products. Along with pile height comes pile density, which is how close the pile tufts are to one another. As seen below the yarns on the right have a low density since they are further spaces. The left yarns are a high density since there is less space between them.  Cut + loop piles & multilevel carpet styles Carpeting has many different shapes and forms...

  Wall-to-wall Tufted Carpet Tufted carpets consist of cut and looped yarns poking through a backing. These carpets need to be produced on  a tufting machine, needles are attached to the machine and used to punch the yarns through to the backing.    Tufting machines have multiple settings where the pile tufts' height can be adjusted to be uniform or to have varying heights. Patterns can also be programmed into the machine and once again the heights can vary for the patterns. Tufted carpets can have different colors they can be a single color or varying colors mixed into a pattern. Stain resistance is more often than not used to treat tufted carpets. Tufted wall-to-wall carpeting is becoming increasingly popular as well as in accent rugs.  Carpet Tiles Carpet tiles is product seen quite often in the commercial area of design, especially places like offices, doctors offices, etc. In recent years they have also become popular in some residential spaces like play ro...

 Flax is grown on a large scale in Western Europe.  There is about 100 days between planting and harvest. Harvesting flax is in June and the flax plant only blooms for one day.  While harvesting it is uprooted instead of cut because the fibers go all the way through the roots.  There is a retting stage where the flax plant is laid out collect moisture that helps break down the fibers that keep the plant together.  Scutching and Hackling is the next process where they take the flax by hand and work the fibers out in order to get it to be a very fine texture.  From there it is spun in to flax yarns.  Flax is turned into linen fabric which is used for many different things.  Linen can be sold straight from the loom without being treated. This gives us a visual of what the flax looks like at the beginning and how it changes with each step. The video I watched about wool came from Alpaca instead of Sheep like I am used to looking at.  First step i...

 Raw Wool to Finished Fabric Wool is a protein fiber that has many desirable qualities, such as its softness and fire resistance. The process of how wool is taken from a raw material to the finished product is quite interesting.  First and foremost  the sheering process must take place to obtain the raw material (sometimes called fleece) and then it can be shipped to the factory to be processed. Once the fleece arrives at the factory it is inspected to see the diameter and thickness of the material so the use of the fabric can be determined, this process is called classing. Next the fleece is scoured in order to clean off any dirt, dust, or other materials from the farm. It is cleaned in hot water and then dried to move to the next step. The wools from separate batches are then mechanically blended together to get more regular in the size of the fibers. When these different batches are mixed together they can form knots and have a rough appearance, so they are carded to g...

  Polyester is a manufactured filament yarn.  It is mixed from acid and alcohol creating little plastic pellets.  They are then melted down and go through a grill splitting the melted substance into fine strings.  The strings are then twisted and pinned together creating the yarn.  The yarn goes through a long stretching process until it ends up on a yarn roll.  Polyester is one of the most used fibers in today's society.  It is sustainable and durable, and uses less water to clean it.  Another pro of polyester is that it is soft and lightweight.  The process of creating polyester yarns is long, but it has added many different options to our line of work.    The picture on the left gives a brief diagram of the polyester yarn process.  What goes into the pellets and eventually how it comes out of the spinneret and creates the filament. Nanjing Yunjin Brocade is an old traditional Chinese weaving method. ...

Nylon Production  Nylon, often referred to as fake silk, is a synthetic fiber that has become quite popular due to its strength and durability. Nylon is created from a series of monomers, mainly coming from two raw monomers called cyclohexane and adiponitrile. These raw monomers are taken from crude oil and made into nylon fibers. These monomers are introduced with water and nylon becomes a byproduct of these monomers and water. Since nylon is synthetically made it is a very strong fabric. It is resistant to abrasion and does not shrink or stretch when washed. Without flame retardants it is highly flammable but, it has a higher water absorption than materials made with other monomers. Nylon has a wide range of uses in both clothing and interior uses. It is heavily used to create stockings, parachutes, and ropes. In fact, Neil Armstrong's flight suit was created with nylon. In interior settings nylon can be used for carpeting and a cheaper alternative to silk. It is great to be used...