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How Carpets are Made
from: Maxx Home GuidesCarpets are manufacture these days with a mix of old world craftsmanship and a touch of 21st century innovation. Combining these techniques makes carpeting a main household feature we all know and love -- but often get weary of cleaning.
Carpets can be manufactured in a couple of different two ways -- weaving or tufting. Woven carpets are mainly wool and are very durable but quite expensive. Woven carpet types can be hand produced as they have been for centuries, or produced by machines. Regardless of the method, the same procedures are followed.
Yarn for a carpet is woven through or around vertical fibers known as warps, and then locked into place with horizontal strands known as wefts. Woven carpets can use a variety of colors that create intricate patterns in the highest quality carpets.
Tufting machines are used as well, as they use computers to determine the patterns, styles, construction and density. There's no longer the need to do everything by hand since tufting machines take the guesswork out and make things easy on the operator.
Once the fibers are locked into place, the carpet is dyed using a variety of methods that create patterns or effects. For cut pile carpets, the final stage is stretched, cutting the pile loops. This is an important stage, as it determines the softness and feel of the carpet.
The carpet also receives a secondary stretch backing for stability and to allow it to be stretched during the installation process. Most carpets nowadays also receive stain protection, a process that occurs during the manufacturing phase.
How a carpet is made has a major affect on how the carpet should be installed. In the past, the creation of carpet was a very complicated process, since there were no computers to do most of the work. When everything was done by hand, the final carpets were great, but there wasn't the wide variety of colors or textures available as we have to choose from today.
Carpet manufacturers now have technology that makes the entire process of making carpets easier and more efficient.
The continuous fibers in carpets are heat set and twisted at the mill to give a tightly twisted product that is commonly found with frieze carpets. Thess yarns are less bulky, although they hold their shape for a long period of time. This means there is less need to replace worn out carpets, as they maintain their beauty and shape for many more years.
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