Most carpets were made on weaving machines prior to tufting. Weaving created beautiful designs and intricate patterns. Though the process was slow, making wall to wall carpet was out of reach for many people. Today, the tufted carpet manufacturing process produces the majority of all wall to wall carpet. Tufting is able to produce these patterns at a fraction of the costs of woven products.
How Tufted Carpet is Made
Using computers and specialized tufting machines, miracles seam to happen. Beautiful, intricate patterns once only seen in woven carpets can be achieved by the tufted carpet manufacturing process. Computers can be programmed to determine the patterns, styles, construction, and density.
Graphics Tufted Carpet
Graphics tufted carpet needles can be threaded with many different colors. The yarn is stitched into a the carpets primary backing, creating loop designs. The loops can be left uncut resulting in a loop pile carpet. The loops can be sheared to create a cut pile carpet. Patterns are created by needles that shift side-to-side in sequence. Companies like Nedgraphics make this possible with software they create.
Carpet Production
- All tufted carpets including cut pile start out as a loop.
- For cut pile carpet the loops are cut during the tufting process.
- The face of the carpet is sheared to its desired effect and a secondary backing is applied to the carpet.
- This secondary backing will give the carpet its stability and allow it to be stretched during the installation process.
- Some tufted carpets are manufactured using pre-dyed yarn.
- Some synthetic yarn is solution dyed with the color built into the formulation.
- Other yarn is produced and then predyed using methods suck as skein dyeing.
- Most tufted carpet is manufactured using a greige yarn (undyed yarn). The carpet is dyed following the tufting.
Carpet Yarn Dyeing
The following video will give you a better understanding of tufted carpet manufacturing including both tufting and dyeing.
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