U.S. patent number 3,871,948 [Application Number 05/372,634] was granted by the patent office on 1975-03-18 for non-woven carpet material with resilient backing.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Bigelow-Sanford, Inc.. Invention is credited to Alan H. Norris.
United States Patent |
3,871,948 |
Norris |
March 18, 1975 |
**Please see images for:
( Certificate of Correction ) ** |
NON-WOVEN CARPET MATERIAL WITH RESILIENT BACKING
Abstract
Carpet material made up of a needled deposited layer of
non-woven fibers. The deposited layer may be fused on either the
upper or the lower surface or both, and a layer of a substantially
resilient material is attached to the lower surface. An additional
layer of non-woven fiber may be placed on top of the deposited
layer, and a layer of tacky adhesive covered by a peelable sheet
may be applied to the bottom of the resilient material.
Inventors: |
Norris; Alan H. (Somers,
CT) |
Assignee: |
Bigelow-Sanford, Inc. (New
York, NY)
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Family
ID: |
26828217 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/372,634 |
Filed: |
June 22, 1973 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
Issue Date |
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130155 |
Apr 1, 1971 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
428/40.6; 28/112;
156/148; 428/317.3; 428/343; 428/300.7 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B32B
25/16 (20130101); B32B 5/06 (20130101); B32B
5/26 (20130101); B32B 25/12 (20130101); B32B
5/18 (20130101); D04H 1/48 (20130101); B32B
7/12 (20130101); B32B 27/304 (20130101); B32B
5/245 (20130101); B32B 7/06 (20130101); B32B
5/022 (20130101); B32B 25/10 (20130101); B32B
2471/02 (20130101); B32B 2305/20 (20130101); B32B
2262/0253 (20130101); Y10T 428/28 (20150115); B32B
2305/022 (20130101); B32B 2307/748 (20130101); Y10T
428/1424 (20150115); B32B 2266/0235 (20130101); B32B
2317/22 (20130101); Y10T 428/24995 (20150401); B32B
2262/0246 (20130101); B32B 2327/06 (20130101); Y10T
428/249983 (20150401) |
Current International
Class: |
D04H
1/48 (20060101); B32b 007/04 () |
Field of
Search: |
;161/50,51,52,62-67,80,81,154,156,159,160,406,164 ;156/72,148
;28/72.2 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Lesmes; George F.
Assistant Examiner: Bell; James J.
Parent Case Text
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 130,155, filed Apr.
1, 1971, and now abandoned.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. Carpet material comprising a layer of substantially resilient
material having a predetermined height and providing a base support
of said carpet material;
a layer formed of non-woven fibers being vertically intermixed by
needling, said layer having a height less than the height of said
resilient backing and including top and bottom surfaces;
each of said top and bottom surfaces being heat fused and thereby
leaving interior fibers of said non-woven layer mobile, said bottom
surface being attached to said resilient layer, and said top
surface forming a non-tufted wear surface of said carpet
material.
2. Carpet material according to claim 1 in which a layer of sticky
adhesive is affixed to the lower surface of said resilient layer,
and a sheet adapted to be peeled therefrom is provided to cover
said adhesive.
3. Carpet material according to claim 1 in which a second layer of
non-woven fibers is placed on said top surface of said deposited
layer, and said layer is subjected to vertical needling.
4. Carpet material according to claim 1 in which the carpet
material comprises an individual tile of square shape adapted to
provide a floor covering by abutment with similar tiles, and the
resilient layer is selected from a group consisting of latex foam,
butadiene or polyvinyl chloride.
5. Carpet material according to claim 1 in which the carpet
material comprises outdoor carpeting, and the resilient layer
comprises blown polyvinyl chloride.
6. Carpet material according to claim 1 in which a supporting
material is incorporated in said non-woven layer.
Description
BROAD STATEMENT OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to carpet material which includes an
attached substantially resilient backing that can be used for
carpet tile, outdoor carpet or underlay and a method of producing
such carpet material.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
It is known in the prior art to provide carpet material that can be
used as tile or as outdoor carpet. Carpet tile is usually made in
the form of rectangles, and preferably as 9 inch, 12 inch or 18
inch square. Other shapes or configurations are also suitable. Such
tiles may have a self-stick adhesive on the bottom which is covered
by a sheet that can be peeled off to allow the adhesive to adhere
to the surface on which the tile is being placed. This type of tile
has become quite popular as a do-it-yourself product. The consumer
can easily apply the tiles which can be of the same color or mixed
to match tiles of different colors. A damaged or soiled tile can
easily be taken up and replaced with a new tile. Carpet tiles of
this type can have a regular carpet pile on their face or they can
have a flat non-woven face. When the non-woven, flat surfaced tiles
are used, they have a needle-punched synthetic fiber face. However,
the prior art carpet tile of this type has not been completely
satisfactory. The non-woven fabrics that have been used in the
prior art are bonded by adhesive or self-bonded by the use of heat
and pressure. This results in loose loops or ends of fibers or
filaments that protrude from the upper surface of the non-woven
fibers which are caused to be caught and pulled into small webs or
balls or fibers that cobweb over the upper surface. This is known
as "pilling", and this is a common defect of needle-punched
non-woven fabric used as the top surface for carpet tile or the
like in the prior art.
It has also been found that this prior art carpet tile was not as
resilient as desired, because of such stiffness, the tile would
break down under heavy traffic conditions and become
unsatisfactory.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a carpt material which can be used
for carpet tile or outdoor carpet and avoids the problem of
"pilling" and further provides more resiliency to the material.
In the present invention a carpet material is provided wherein a
needled and fused layer of non-woven fibers is attached to a
substantially resilient backing.
A further provision of the subject invention is the heat fusion of
at least one surface of a layer of non-woven fibers which is
attached to a substantially resilient backing.
There is also provided a carpet material wherein a layer of needled
non-woven deposited fibers is attached to a substantially resilient
backing onto which a self-stick adhesive is affixed.
A further provision of the present invention is a second layer of
non-woven fibers placed on a deposited layer of non-woven fibers
which is then subjected to a further needling.
There is further provided carpet material of non-woven fibers
attached to a substantially resilient backing which can be formed
into individual tiles of desired shape that can be abutted with
similar tiles to form a floor covering.
Still another provision of the present invention is carpet material
of non-woven fibers with a backing of blown polyvinyl chloride
suitable for use as outdoor carpeting.
A still further provision of the present invention is a method of
forming a non-woven carpet material by needling
Still another provision of the present invention is carpet material
by needling a layer of deposited fibers, bonding at least one
surface of the needled fibers and attaching it to a layer of
substantially resilient backing.
A further provision of the present invention is a method of forming
carpet material of a layer of deposited and needled non-woven
fibers on which another layer of non-woven fibers is placed and
further needled before attaching to a substantially resilient
backing.
A still further provision of the present invention is a method of
forming carpet material of non-woven fibers attached to a foam
backing that can be cut into tile squares to be placed together in
abutting relation to make a floor covering.
In one embodiment of the present invention a layer of thermoplastic
material such as polypropylene fibers is deposited on a carrier and
vertically needled therethrough for intermixing and interengaging
the fibers thereof. In such embodiment a layer of cheesecloth or
other supporting material may be used as the carrier and become an
integral part of the needled layer. The needled layer is then fused
on at least one of the top or bottom surfaces. An example of such
fused carpet material is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,394,043,
issued July 23, 1968 to David B. Parlin et al.
The needled layer that has now been fused is then attached to a
substantially resilient backing to provide the finished product. If
desired, a self-stick adhesive may be applied to the bottom of the
resilient material with a covering sheet that can be peeled off to
apply the material. The carpet material may also have a second web
or cap applied on the top surface which can be utilized for desired
dye characteristics or the formation of a pattern. It is also
possible to fuse both the upper and lower surfaces to provide the
improved product as this locks in the loose fibers that have been
carried from one surface to the other during the needling. The
resulting carpet material is improved over the prior art in that it
is more resilient since the interior fibers remain mobile while the
outer surface is fused, and pilling is avoided by the fusion
feature previously described. The resulting product can either be
cut into squares, rectangles, etc, to form tile segments, or the
product can be made in a continuous material to be used as outdoor
carpeting.
The nature of the present invention will become more clearly
apparent and better understood from the following description and
accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a side elevational view in vertical sections
diagrammatically illustrating the carpet material in the first
stage of its formation showing the deposition and the needling;
FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1 illustrating the carpet material
after surface treatment;
FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 illustrating the addition of a
substantially resilient backing to the carpet material;
FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 illustrating the addition of a
self-stick adhesive to the foam layer;
FIG. 5 is an elevational view similar to FIG. 3 illustrating a
second embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 6 is an elevational view similar to FIG. 4 illustrating a
third embodiment of the present invention.
It will be understood that the accompanying drawings are merely
diagrammatic illustrations, and reference should be made to the
following description for a more detailed explanation of the
structure involved. As explained in the aforementioned patent, it
is known to provide carpet material comprised principally of
thermoplastic fibers that have been needled and fused on at least
one surface. In the present application such carpet material is
shown in FIG. 1 where a layer of thermoplastic fibers 10 have been
deposited on a carrier or support such as illustrated in the
aforementioned patent. The thermoplastic material deposited may be
polypropylene fibers which are subjected to a first needling as
illustrated by the herringbone patterns 12. It may be desired to
provide an additional support such as a layer of cheesecloth 15
which is shown in the FIG. 6 embodiment.
It will be appreciated that the depositing of layer 10 is effected
on a moving belt as illustrated in the aforementioned patent, and
the needles pass through layer 10 from the upper surface to
vertically intermix and interengage the fibers. As mentioned
previously, in the prior art of forming carpet tile or outdoor
carpeting, the needle-punched material had the problem of loose
fiber ends that would be formed into undesirable balls of fibers.
Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 2 surface treatment is provided in
the present invention comprising heating the surface fibers so as
to form a fused lower surface 14. This fusion of the narrow surface
14 allows the interior fibers of layer 10 to remain mobile and
provide the desired resilience in the finished product. This fusion
treatment also eliminates the undesirable balls of fibers so that
the pilling problem is avoided.
FIG. 3 illustrates the completed assembly of the novel carpet tile,
outdoor carpet or underlay that is provided by the present
invention. A layer of a substantially resilient backing 16 is
attached to the lower surface of the deposited fibers 10 as shown
in FIG. 3. The layer 10 of fibers has a height less than the height
of the resilient backing 16, as illustrated in the drawings. The
attachment of the backing or layer 16 to the fused surface 14 can
be done in a conventional manner such as by using an adhesive or
providing fusion adhesion.
The resilient layer that is applied to the lower surface of the
carpet material when it is used indoors for carpet tile or underlay
can be latex foam or polyvinyl chloride, butadiene (styrene or
natural), a polyvinyl chloride plastisol or other suitable
material. When an outdoor use is intended, the resilient layer may
suitably be a polyvinyl chloride latex or a blown polyvinyl
chloride plastisol foam.
FIG. 3. illustrates the basic embodiment of the invention which can
be utilized as described hereinbefore. FIG. 4 represents a further
embodiment of the invention, and in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 the same
reference numerals have been utilized to denote the same elements.
In FIG. 4 the fiber layer 10 is fused on both the top and bottom to
form a fused lower surface 14 and a fused top surface 18. Such
double fusion further eliminates the pilling problem as well as
continuing to provide the desired resiliency by the interior of
layer 10 remaining mobile. In FIG. 4 a self-stick adhesive unit 20
is shown as being applied to the bottom of resilient layer 16.
Particularly in the formation of carpet tile it is desirable in the
do-it-yourself field to provide the self-stick adhesive feature.
Unit 20 comprises adhesive in a sticky or tacky state, and a
covering sheet is applied thereto which can be peeled off by the
consumer when it is desired to apply the tile for adhering to a
surface such as a floor.
FIG. 5 illustrates a further embodiment of the invention where a
resilient layer 16 has been attached to a fiber layer 10 that has a
fused lower surface 14. In FIG. 5 an additional layer of non-woven
material 22 is placed on layer 10. As mentioned previously, where
layer 10 may comprise polypropylene or similar thermoplastic
fibrous material, layer 22 may be acrylic fibers having
particularly desired characteristics. For example, the acrylic
fibers 22 may be unsuitable for heat fusion, but they may have the
ability to accept deeper color dyes and other dyes which would not
be accepted by the polypropylene fibers. The acrylic layer or cap
22 is then subjected to a second needling step for intermixing its
fibers with layer 10.
A further embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 6
where the additional acrylic layer 22 is combined with an upper
fused surface 18 as already disclosed in FIG. 4. The fusing of
surface 18 can be effected before or after the layer 22 has been
added and needled.
A further advantage of adding layer or cap 22 is to provide fiber
blending in the cap or mixing different fibers to provide a
patterned or varied color effect on the top surface. Alternatively,
it is possible to print or dye the upper surface after the carpet
material has been formed as described above.
The above description illustrates a novel carpet material that can
be used either as carpet tile, outdoor carpet or underlay where a
thermoplastic material that has been needled and fused is attached
to a resilient backing to provide features and advantages not found
in the prior art.
The above description further illustrates a novel method of forming
the carpet material by depositing thermoplastic material to form a
layer, needling and fusing such material and then attaching it to a
resilient backing to provide the improved product. Further
embodiments have been described with respect to heat fusion of
upper and lower surfaces, addition of a self-stick adhesive bottom
surface, and addition of an upper layer or cap which can be needled
to the assembled carpet material.
It will be understood that various changes and modifications may be
made by those skilled in the art in the particular embodiments of
the carpet material and the method of producing the same which have
been described above for illustrative purposes without departing
from the scope of the invention as defined by the following
claims.
* * * * *