Carpet construction and carpet backings for same

Over the years, nonwoven primary carpet backings have been constantly improved in order to meet the ever more stringent demands of carpet manufacturers and consumers. Of particular importance are: increasing the breaking strength and elongation at break after tufting, increasing the tear resistance after tufting and coating, generally improving the appearance of the resulting carpet, allowing effective mending of imperfections that occur during tufting, and facilitating tuftability, i.e. by providing lower tuft-needle penetration resistance and reduced needle deflection during tufting, avoiding rough back stitch, increasing stitch lock, and reducing noise during tufting.

Indeed, systematic study of carpets and secondary backings showing lack of correlation between dimensional stability of carpets and backing properties suggests that the backings' ability to impart dimensional stability is best gauged from carpet performance itself.The carpets can include any suitable primary backing structure. A wide range of primary backings is well known. They are generally non woven materials with flexibility and integrity suited for process manipulations and sufficient strength and tuftability for penetration by needles and face yarn during tufting while retaining strength and integrity for carpet performance.

The first backing layer and second backing layer are thermobonded together with an adhesive web positioned therebetween to form the two-part primary backing. Tufts of yarn are then sewn through the two-part primary backing. The resulting acoustically enhanced automotive tufted carpet may be backcoated or precoated, and may have a secondary backing adhered thereto as a matter of choice.