Woven Carpets
Woven carpets are a quality product that are constructed largely from wool or a predominantly wool blend. The carpets are formed in a similar way to the traditional carpet manufacturing method using a loom. The carpet fibers are woven into the backing which crafts a strong durable product. A woven carpet is said to last up to 3 times longer than a tufted carpet due to the strength of its construction.
Types
There are 3 main types of woven carpets:
- Axminster
- Wilton Woven
- Flat Weave
AXMINSTER
The Axminster carpet is a woven carpet produced with a composite of high-quality Wool and Nylon and is known for its detailed designs and a large multitude of colors. Axminster carpets offer endless design possibilities and are transformative, making a bold statement. The two-ply yarns are skein dyed to create vivid colors that make carpet designs come alive! Wool-rich Axminister carpets provide generous advantages in terms of aesthetics, durability, and appearance retention. They offer little or no cross joining, reduced seaming costs & installation time, and allows for perfect corner details. The design repeat can be virtually any length, creating a variety of designs, which require only limited selvedge seaming. Up to 16 colors can be used in a single carpet, making them a very desirable statement floor choice often desired by the hospitality sector.
WILTON WOVEN
Wilton carpets are also well-known for being high quality woven carpets. However, they are formed in a different way to the Axminister carpet. An intricate process is used, hence, making it an expensive carpet. It is fashioned on a Jacquard loom and comes in both loop and cut pile. It is a very flexible, resilient, and strong carpet. These carpets have a more limited color range because the carpet is woven with a continuous strand of yarn all the way through, allowing only 8 colors per carpet. Wilton carpets are further categorized into 2 styles:
Wire Wilton: Wire loom weaving allows carpets to be created in cut, loop or cut and loop constructions, with a variety of textures and up to six colors (frames). Because of the high density of tufts in the pile they are highly durable and hardwearing. Cut pile carpets are made with a very level surface, therefore, minimal cropping or shearing is required. They are also back coated to improve tuft bind.
Face to Face: A face to face Wilton loom can weave two carpets at the same time. The resulting pile is always cut and not loop but, using different yarns, velvet or textured effects can be achieved. The 2 carpets will have a ‘mirrored’ pattern. Primarily, this weaving method is for solid colors or geometric designs, which however, must be produced in cut pile.
FLAT WEAVE
Flat weaves do not have a pile, because they are woven on a loom. Flat-woven carpets are constructed by hand or machine by weaving vertical yarns (warps) through the horizontal yarns (wefts). Since they are not woven onto a backing, these are reversible.
TECHNIQUE OF CONSTRUCTION
Construction refers to how a carpet is created, which makes all the difference. Whether it’s woven or tufted, the construction matters. It determines the overall look, texture, quality, and longevity of the carpet.
A process of weaving material together prepares woven carpets. The face yarns are woven and formed on a loom by interweaving warp and weft yarns. (Warp is defined as the lengthwise or longitudinal thread in a roll and weft is the transverse thread). There are many different weaving patterns and fibers that are used in the construction of woven carpets.
All woven carpets have the backing threads and pile woven at the same time, which means that the tufts are fixed in place. Weaving is a well-known method for producing patterns. Woven carpets are generally slower to produce than tufted carpets. In the Axminister weaving method, each individually colored yarn is selected by the loom, cut and inserted as a ‘U’ shaped tuft wherever needed, often creating intricate patterns. Most of the yarn is on the surface with relatively little on the back.
Axminster Weave Construction
Wilton Weave Construction
BENEFITS OF WOVEN CARPET
- Distinctive design and unparalleled pattern and color match
- Greater comfort underfoot
- Noise reduction
- Improved air quality
- Safety against slips and falls
- Ease of cleaning and maintenance
- Comparatively lower costs over the life of the flooring.
Tufted Carpets
Tufted Carpets are assembled like a sandwich. The face yarns are stitched onto a primary backing that resembles fish netting, usually made from a synthetic material. In some cases, jute is used instead of synthetic material. The little pieces of cut or looped yarn then poke through the backing. A secondary backing is attached by adhesives to the primary backing. The secondary backing is most often a heavy cotton material resembling a canvas.
Tufted carpet also offers a broad range of pattern possibilities, using pre- or post-dyed yarns, varying loop height and cut or uncut pile.
Types :
Tufted carpets are available in two types:
- Hand Tufted
- Machine Tufted
HAND TUFTED
A hand-tufted carpet is typically a much higher-quality carpet than a machine-made one. Hand-tufted carpets are not produced on a loom but are created with a tool called a ‘tufting gun’. Additional patterns can be carved onto the carpet with a tufting gun. A hand tufted carpet can have pretty much anything on a machine made or hand-knotted rug including colorful, geometric, flowered, and patterned.
MACHINE TUFTED
A Machine Tufted carpet is produced in a similar method to a traditional sewing machine. This cost-effective technique produces endless textural and design possibilities, from geometric to unstructured. It allows having different looks on the surface of the carpet, such as plush cut pile, multi-loop, cut and loop, upper pile and carving.
The creation of tufted carpets requires the use of a tufting machine. Hundreds of needles thread the yarn through a lightweight backing, forming loops or tufts of the required length. An adhesive coating is then applied to the reverse side, anchoring tufts in position and a second backing is applied for extra strength.
Machine tufted is further divided into two kinds:
Printed Tufted – Printing involves the application of colored dye using screens, rollers or inkjets onto the face of the carpet. Printed carpets are more cost effective, there is less waste, and it takes the complexity out of tufting a pattern. The dye is chemically bonded into the carpet fibers; thus, the printed designs can withstand high levels of foot traffic with no walk-off risk. The combination of digitally controlled color with precise registration means striking patterns and visual effects can be created. It is not just patterning that printed carpet excels at – the variety of colors available is unrivalled by any other carpet dye method. Digital dye infusion makes it possible to print a huge variety of colors and color gradations onto the chosen carpet.
Solution Dyed – Solution dyeing is a technique used to add color to synthetic fiber. There are many different methods used to dye carpet fibers. Solution dyeing is a process that dyes yarn as it is extruded i.e. coloring the fiber as it is made. Carpet created this way can resist bleach solutions of up to 10% concentration – a property which other processes can only achieve with the application of a topical treatment. Solution-dyed fibers are much more colorfast (resistant to fading or color bleeding) than other fibers.
METHOD OF CONSTRUCTION
The look and performance of a carpet is determined by its construction, which may be loop, cut or a combination of the two. Understanding carpet construction helps in specifying elements that will provide the best performance. Tufted carpet is produced on a giant sewing machine with more than 1200 needles rather than just one, each threaded with an individual color. The pile yarn is stitched onto a pre-made primary backing and the ‘face’ loops of each tuft can be left un-cut to create a loop-pile carpet or cut to create cut-pile carpet. Patterning is achieved by shifting the needles from side to side. Next, a secondary backing is applied to this face cloth to give stability and prevent tuft loss.
We can create a wide range of textures, such as the ones below.
BENEFITS OF TUFTED CARPET
- No limitations on shape or size availability
- Unlimited color choices
- Unlimited custom design possibilities
- Intricate design detail
- Variety of surface options & levels
- Variety of finishing
- No seams in final product
- Durability
CONCLUSION
It is really a personal choice whether one goes for a tufted or a woven carpet. In terms of quality and durability, woven carpets are slightly more superior than tufted carpets. However, with ever evolving technology, tufted carpets come a close second in terms of wear resistance and overall durability.
Printed Tufted carpets rely on color injection, and as a tufted carpet wears, the color may fade and pop less, whereas Woven carpet yarns are pre-dyed, which means the color in the carpet has full penetration which provides a deeper sense of texture.
Most tufted carpets delaminate over a long period of time. The adhesive that joins their primary and secondary backing can deteriorate, and the backing layers begin to separate from each other. In case of a Woven carpet, this is evaded because the product requires no secondary backing, and thus nothing delaminates.
Saying that, there is no limitation to shape and size that one can choose for a tufted carpet and they also provide a variety of surface options and levels (shearing, carving, beveling, recessing and embossing), which are unavailable in woven carpets.
Therefore, each carpet has its own recommended area of use along with its pros and cons. This simply means that each carpet is made for an intended area, and it is up to you to decide whether the carpet meets the requirements of a certain premises.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.