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Textile Research

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Effects of Different Structural Parameters on Carpet Physical Properties


Emel Önder and Ömer Berk Berkalp
Textile Research Journal 2001 71: 549
DOI: 10.1177/004051750107100613

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JUNE 2001 549

Effects of Different Structural Parameters on Carpet Physical Properties


EMELONDERAND OMERBERKBERKALP
Mechariical Fncrrlty, Depnrtriierit of Textile Engineering, lsttlrtbiil Techriicnl Uriiversity, Istnnbul, Tirrkey

ABSTRACT
This paper deals with some of the physical properties of face-to-face woven carpets
with different structural parameters. Based on appearance retention, abrasion resistance,
and tuft withdrawal tests, effective parameters of carpet quality are determined by
variance and regression analyses, and the changing characteristics are emphasized in order
to direct attention to weaknesses, which are important for total carpet performance.

Both mechanical and optical characteristics make up [8] explained the energies leading to a carpet’s resil-
the physical properties of a carpet and ultimately influ- ience: a pile returns to its original state if the energies
ence its performance significantly. Mechanical properties preventing the recovery are smaller than the elastic en-
are used to explain walking comfort and abrasion-related ergy released during yarn bending. Dynamic-compres-
wear, and optical properties are used to explain, carpet sion properties of carpets are characterized by several
appearance. unique features: the stress/strain compression curve is
A carpet need not retain its original appearance to be nonlinear, there is hysteresis (i.e., energy dissipation)
acceptable in use, but the nature andmte of any apparent during a compression-release cycle, and the compression
change has an important influence on the qssessment of modulus and energy dissipation per cycle are affected by
wear performance. The effects of wear can be character- the magnitude of the pressure displacement involved [7].
ized in terms of texture and’color differences, most Two other features related to carpet mechanical prop-
notably phenomena such as pile flattening, reduction in erties are inelastic mechanisms and fatigue mechanisms.
tuft clarity, shading, soiling, and loss of color. The ability Interfiber and interyarn frictional sliding during yarn
to resist these changes varies between carpets due to the bending and viscoelastic properties of pile yarns are two
vast number of manufacturing variables, for instance, important inelastic mechanisms influencing the flattening
fiber composition, yam processing route, carpet struc- of carpets. Using a rheological model, Carnaby and
ture, tuft morphology, and pile dimensions [21]. Wood [3] pointed out that the inelastic properties of
Current standardized tests for appearance retention fibers become prevalent with increasing compression-
involve different kinds of testers, like the hexapod tum- release cycles. A carpet’s fatigue mechanism is one of
bler tester [4], the WIRA dynamic loading tester [5,6, 131, pile loss from the carp‘et’s surface due to abrasive wear.
the WRONZ carpet wear simulator [3], an abrasion simu- If the fatigue regions are not partial and distributed along
lator recently developed by Pourdeyhimi et 01. [ 171, and the pile length, the pile weight left after walking on the
subjective panels for grading the extent of change in carpet depends on the number of repetition cycles, the
tested samples from the original [I]. A reliable, repro- pile density, the linear density of the fibers, and the
ducible rating method would ultimately require all sub- percent of damaged fibers.
jective elements to be measured objectively. To meet the In this study, we examine the effects of important
demands for objective measurements of carpet appear- structural parameters on a carpet’s wear and texture
ance characteristics, many instrumental methods have retention and on the magnitude of tuft withdrawal forces
been developed over the past decades, including micros- using standardized test methods. The methods currently
copy [22], photography [22], densitometry [ 121, gonio- used in the industry are still expensive, and in addition,
photometry [3], glass bead filling [2], and image analysis there is a lack of experienced specialists, so evaluation
[lo, 14-16, 18-20, 231. Of these methods, image anal- results are highly variable. Our purpose is to show the
ysis has shown great potential as an automated approach general tendencies for the performance characteristics of
for quantitative and comprehensive evaluation of carpet widely used machine made carpet constructions.
appearance.
Research on the mechanical properties of carpet first Materials and Methods
focused on resilience, which depends on the compression In order to indicate some of the physical properties, we
and recovery behavior of each pile. El-Shiekh and Hersh examined a set of twelve face-to-face woven carpets

Textile Res. J. 71(6), 549-555 (2001) 0010-5 175/%2.00

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550 TEXTILE
RESEARCH
JOURNAL

varying in pile material, pile height, and weft density. amining the flattening and crushing of the pile, the loss of
We focused on three main carpet properties-appearance tuft definition (distinctness) and thickness, and the de-
retention, abrasion resistance, and tuft withdrawal force. gree of pattern clarity. The reference scale started at 5 ,
Other structural parameters, three-shot weave, warp corresponding to no or a very slight change, and ended at
density, Ne 14/3 PETkOtton warp, Ne 1414 PETICOttOn 1, corresponding to a severe change. Comparisons were
filling, and 4800 X 2 dtex jute weft, and conditional made by a panel of five trained observers, and the indi-
parameters such as the production process and indoor vidual ratings of the panel members were averaged to the
climate were held constant. The carpets’ construction nearest 0.1 grade to obtain a score for each carpet at each
parameters are given in Table I. wear level. However, changes in color (tone, depth,
The pile materials of the wool and acrylic carpets were brightness) were assessed against the standard large gray
staple fiber yarns, Nm 15/3 and Nm 1 0 3 2 , respectively, scales.
whereas that of polypropylene carpets was 1800 dtex The pile thickness of the unworn and worn carpet
continuous filament yam. All three carpet pile yams had specimens was measured with a WRONZ pile-thickness
approximately the same final yam count of Nm 5 . Fur- probe [ 111. Measurements were replicated ten times on
thermore, the plied twist levels of the two staple fiber each test specimen for each wear level.
yams were close to a,,,= 90. Conversely, polypro- The abrasion resistance characteristics of carpets were
pylene piles had a lower twist of 99 tpm. The fineness determined on a WIRA carpet abrasion machine [27]. Two
values of wool, acrylic, and polypropylene fibers were 38 tests were made for each specimen, and abrasion resis-
microns, 10 denier (36 microns), and 9 denier (38 mi- tance was estimated by the number of rubs required to
crons), respectively. But there were no other similar yam reveal the backing.
characteristics, since the experimental study involved The withdrawal force to remove tufts (or pile) from
industrial conditions, and commercial carpets were ex- the carpets was determined by a tensile testing machine
amined for physical properties. - with a 500 N load cell and an accuracy of 5%. One end
The appearance retention of carpets was tested in a of a tuft was gripped and pulled upwards out of the
hexapod tumbler tester and evaluated at two levels: for structure, and the force required to break the bond be-
short term, 1500 revolutions, and for long term, 8000 tween the tuft and the backing structure was recorded [ 13.
revolutions, each according to IWS test method 247 [9]. Ten tests were made of each carpet type.
Afterwards, specimens were evaluated according to
ASTM 2401-D67: wear was assessed visually and the Statistical Analysis
change in carpet thickness was measured. Two speci-
mens for each carpet construction were tested in the Test results were evaluated statistically, and SPSS and
hexapod. Grapher 2.OD were used for all statistical procedures.
The fatigued specimen was placed alongside an orig- Variance and regression analyses were used to correlate
inal carpet specimen of similar size, ensuring that both change in carpet thickness with the level of wear. The
lay in the same direction relative to the pile lay and that, data set was analyzed as’a whole in order to assess the
if the carpet was patterned, a similar pattern area was significance of pile material, and then a variance analysis
compared. The change in surface structure imparted vi- for each carpet group (wool, acrylic, and polypropylene)
sual and tactile changes that could be analyzed by ex- was made in the form of a factorial design, considering

TABLE
I. Carpets’ construction parameters.
Sample Pile twist, Pile density per m2, Pile height, Pile weight, Total weight,
no. Pile material Pile no. Single/Plied, tpm warp X weft mm g/m2 g/m2
I Wool Nrn 1513 389 ZnOl S 500 x 500 7 1232.0 2252.5
2 Wool Nrn 1513 389 Z 2 0 1 S 500 x 500 9 1545.6 2572.5
3 Wool Nrn 1513 389 a 2 0 1 S 500 X 600 7 .2010.0 3043.0
4 Wool Nrn 1513 389 a 2 0 1 S 500 X 600 9 225 1.6 3269.5
5 Acrylic Nm 10.5/2 277 a 2 0 4 S 500 x 500 7 1276.0 228 1.5
6 Acrylic Nrn 10.512 277 Z 2 0 4 S 500 x 500 9 1367.5 2375.0
7 Acrylic Nrn 10.512 277 Zn04 S 500 X 600 7 1312.7 23 18.4
8 Acrylic Nrn 10.5/2 277 Z 2 0 4 S 500 X 600 9 1568.2 2572.0
9 Polypropylene 1800 dtex 99 z 500 x 500 7 1265.3 2272.5
10 Polypropylene 1800 dtex 99 z 500 x 500 9 1515.6 2527.5
I1 Polypropylene 1800 dtex 99 2 500 X 600 7 1400.0 2406.0
12 Polypropylene 1800 dtex 99 z 500 X 600 9 1525.7 2536.0

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JUNE 2001 55 1

the weft density at two levels (500 and 600 picks per m), cially the denser types, kept their pattern clarity. On the
pile height at two levels (7 and 9 mm), and wear at three other hand, color changes in the carpeJs are influenced by
levels (0, 1500, and 8000 revolutions in the hexapod) as fiber dullness or brightness, color shade (light or dark),
independent variables and the thickness change of the and pattern type. For these reasons, these results showed
pile as a dependent variable. no relationship between wear induced changes in surface
Although two nominal values of unworn pile height structure and color.
were considered, 7 and 9 mm, respectively, in effect, On the other hand, in polypropylene carpet specimens,
actual pile heights varied slightly in a range due to the we saw a remarkable tuft flattening after 8000 revolu-
shearing process in finishing. In order to determine the tions in the hexapod tumbler. The major deficiency of
real thickness loss, measurements of the origiFl pile polypropylene is appearance retention: the carpet as-
height were taken into account in the analyses. sumes a matted appearance in high-traffic areas [26].
Using multivariate regression, we developed three pre- Conversely, the wool carpets, due to their superior resil-
dictive models relating the tuft thickness of each carpet ience properties [25], did not show significant flattening.
group to the varying conditions explained above. Fur- The acrylic carpets also lost their appearance without any
thermore, data from each of the three groups of carpets flattening.
could be regressed individually to estimate the thickness Variance analyses for each pile material group, shown
change over wear levels of 1500 and 8000 revolutions of as the main effects of pile height and number of revolu-
the hexapod. tions in the hexapod, were significant at the level of a
Mean abrasion resistance valuei of two carpet speci- 5 0.05, but the main effect of weft density was insig-
mens were assessed for each carpet group and subgroups nificant. This might be explained by the respective range
of pile height and weft density. A similar variance anal- of factor levels: weft density did not change over as great
ysis was also made of the tuft withdrawal force data. a range as the others. If we had chosen levels of weft or
pile density further apart (instead of 500 and 600 picks
Results and Discussion perm), they might well have contributed to the thickness
loss. Table 111 and Figure 1 show the mean values of tuft
RETENTION
APPEARANCE EVALUATIONS
OF CARPETS
thickness changes, based on data collected from mea-
Mean values of visual assessments of carpets for ap- surements at two weft density levels. Meanwhile, only
pearance retention are given in Table 11. In the table, the two-way interactions-weft density X number of
there was no significant change in surface structure and revolutions and pile material X number of revolutions of
color after 1500 revolutions of the hexapod tumbler for polypropylene carpets-were significant.
all carpet types. After 8000 revolutions of the hexapod Here, we see that mean thickness loss values of wool
tumbler, changes in the surface structure of carpet spec- carpets with respect to the original pile height in mm
imens graded as a 3 or 4 corresponded to only a slight or after 1500 and 8000 revolutions in the hexapod tumbler
moderate change in structure. Thus, these carpets, espe- were about 0.43 and 2.00 mm, respectively, for the 7 mm

11. Visual assessment grades of carpets.


TABLE

Wool. Wool. Acrylic. Acrylic, PP. PP,


500 x 500" 500 X 600 500 x 500 500 X 600 500 x 500 500 X 600

Pile Height: 7 mm
After 1500 revolutions
Color 4 (0.26) 4.2 (0.22) 4 (0.24) 4 (0.24) 3.6 (0.16) 3.8 (0.34)
Surface structure 4(0.31) 4.2 (0.16) 4 (0.20) 4 (0.39) 4 (0.19) 3.8 (0.26)
After 8000 revolutions
Color 2.6 (0.40) 2.6 (0.43) 3.2 (0.47) 2.8 (0.38) 2.8 (0.25) 3.2 (0.16)
Surface structure 3.2 (0.49) 3.6 (0.35) 3.2 (0.17) 3.4 (0.24) 3 (0.32) 3.2 (0.31)
Pile Height: 9 mm
After 1500 revolutions
Color 4.2 (0.23) 4.2 (0.3I ) 4.2 (0.4) 4 (0.25) 3.8 (0.27)
Surface structure 4.2 (0.26) 4.2 (0.24) 4 (0.32) 4 (0.19) a.;o!;O:s) 4 (0.19)
After 8000 revolutions
Color 2.6 (0.28) 2.8 (0.31) 3.2 (0.29) 3.4 (0.41) 3 (0.39) 3 (0.30)
Surface structure 3.2 (0.26) 4 (0.26) 3.2 (0.19) 3.4 (0.26) 3 (0.20) 3 (0.22)

a Ends per m X picks per rn. Each standard deviation given in brackets, is obtained from five individual assessments.

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552 RESEARCHJOURNAL
TEXTILE

TABLE
111. hlean tuft thickness changes of cut pile carpets after hexapod tumbler testing.’

0 RevolutioTs 1500 Revolutions 1 8000 Revolutions

Pile material I1 hlean S I1 hlean T I2 hlean S

Wool 7 mrn 16 8.09 0.31 I5 7.66 0.88 15 6.09 * 0.42


9 mm 20 10.08 0.26 20 9.83 0.27 20 8.31 0.56
Acrylic 7 mrn 17 1.74 0.44 20 7.56 0.5 1 20 5.9s 0.53
9 mm 16 9.79 0.43 20 8.87 0.50 20 7.36 0.75
PP 7 nim 20 8.68 0.51 20 7.13 0.43 20 5.93 0.75
9 mm 20 10.42 0.33 15 9.05 0.50 20 6.76 0.51

‘11 = number of observations. s = standard deviation. Pooled estimates of variance of each column are 0.1696. 0.2951. and 0.3933.

12
T),.= - 1.858R2 + 0.0012W + 2.137HP
10

a T,, = -1.971R, - 0.1681V+ 1.613Hp


- - 0.524RI + 8.017 , (2)
f 6
x
-
5
4
T p = -3.201 R, - 0.0684\V + 1 .297Hp
2

where T,,., To, and T,, respectively denote the tuft thick-
0
wool. 7 m WOOI. s mn acryk. 7 mn a c r y k . 9 m PP. 7 nm PD. 9 mn
ness of wool, acrylic, and polypropylene carpets in mm.
material. pde height (m) Degrees of freedom for Equations 1, 2, and 3 were 102,
108, and 110, and their squared multiple regression co-
FIGURE
I. hlean tuft thickness changes of cut-pile carpets efficients ( r 2 )were 0.89, 0.82, and 0.88.
after hexapod tumbler tcsting. Here, the variables R, and R , were used to define the
conditions after 1500 and SO00 revolutions on the hexa-
pod tumbler, respectively. \V represented carpets of 600
pile height, and 0.25 and 1.74 nim, respectively, for the picks per rn, and H, denoted carpets of 9 mm pile height.
9 mm pile height (see Table 111). Therefore, especially If a special condition being considered for predicting tuft
for 1500 revolutions in the hexapod tumbler, the mean thickness matched any of the variables in the formula,
thickness loss of 9 mm pile height wool carpets was less then the matching variable took the value 1; otherwise it
than that of 7 mm pile height wool carpets. But the mean was zero. Calculation results were well suited to corre-
values of acrylic and polypropylene carpets of longer sponding actual values, so Equations 1, 2, and 3 can be
pile height were more than carpets of shorter pile height used to estimate the tuft thickness changes in similar
for both 1500 and 8000 revolutions in the hexapod. carpet constructions at different wear levels.
Using multivariate regression, we developed the fol- Results of simple regression analyses are given in
lowing equations for each group of carpets to estimate Table IV and in Figures 2, 3, and 4. Here, y represented
the tuft thickness change resulting from our hexapod the predicted tuft thickness of the carpet after the hexa-
wear treatment [24]: pod and s represented the original pile height. Each

TABLE
IV. Results of simple regression analysis.”

TY@C 11 2 Regression equation

Wool carpets tuft thickness after 1500 revolutions 36 0.85 y = 1.IO.r - 1.28 (4)
tuft thickness after 8000 revolutions 36 0.79 y = 1.05s - 2.34 (5)
Acrylic carpets tuft thickness after 1500 revolutions 33 0.82 = 0.71~ + 2.08 (6)
tuft thickness after 8000 revolutions 33 0.59 y = 0.72~ + 0.45 (7)
Polypropylene carpets tuft thickness after 1500 revolutions 40 0.57 y = 0.62.r + 2.50 (8)
tuft thickness after 8000 revolutions 40 0.15 y = 0.30.r + 3.46 (9)

12 = number of observations, r z = squared multiple regression coefficients.

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4
JUNE 2001 553
12.0 -, 12.0 1
i I
-1
1500 rpm

/. ..
7
-
E
E
'0
.- 1500rpm

. .... .
x
m
0

0) ' 8000 rpm


a .
& 8.0

7
m ' * *
* , :8000 rpm
..
u) . 9
0
t
0
Y

. ' . ....
._
r
;
r
'* : , m .
1
I- I 0

4.0 7 -
4.0 1 I '
8.0 12.0 8.0 12.0
Tuft thickness before Hexapod(mm) Tufl thickness before Hexapod (rnrn)

2. Simple regression lines for wool carpets,


FIGURE 4. Simple regression lines for polypropylene carpets.
FIGURE

1 regression equation was derived based on the data in-

-1
12.0
cluding 11 observations given in Table IV combined from
four sets of values for carpets of different weft densities
E and pile heights.
E 1500 rprn
v
Wool carpet thickness loss predictions from Equations
4 and 5 were 0.47-0.27 mm after 1500 revolutions and
1.93-1.84 mm after 8000 revolutions. Table V shows
these values together with the calculated means obtained
from measurements given in Table 111. Equations 6 and 7
for acrylic carpets estimated losses slightly less than the
mean value but indicated the general tendency. Hence,
these equations are well adjusted with the data.

. Conversely, for polypropylene carpet data, after 1500


revolutions of the hexapod, the shorter the unworn pile

4.0
II I I
1 I
I I
height, the less the loss under wear: estimated values
(0.80 versus 1.46 mrn) approached mean values (0.95
6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 versus 1.37 rnrn). Equation 9 with its low correlation
Tuft thickness before hexapod (mm) coefficient did not represent a reasonable model, but we
obtained comparably good results. Therefore the models
3. Simple regression lines for acrylic carpets.
FIGURE in Table IV, except for Equation 9, are meaningful for

TABLE
V. Thickness loss with respect to original length (mm)."

7 mm Pile height 9 mm Pile height


Thickness loss with respect to original pile
height, mm Estimated Mean loss Estimated Mean loss

Wool carpets R1500 0.47 0.43 0.27 0.25


R8000 1.93 2.00 .I34 1.74
Acrylic carpets R1500 0.16 0.18 0.76 0.92
R8000 1.72 1.76 2.29 2.23
Polypropylene carpets R1500 0.80 0.95 1.46 1.37
R8000 2.62 2.75 3.84 3.66

Estimated values are obtained from the equations given in Table IV, mean losses are obtained from Table 111.

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554 TEXTILE
RESEARCH
JOURNAL

estimating actual tuft thickness changes obtained from force for (Y 5 0.05, and only the main effect of pile
our experimental study. height and the two-way interaction of pile height X weft
A test duration of 1500 revolutions in the hexapod was density changed it significantly.
considered appropriate to determine a change in appear.- Tuft withdrawal forces were generally higher for car-
ance after only a short period of use (e.g., 9 months-I pets with longer pile height (see Table VI). Longer piles
year). The 8000 revolution test was considered to repre- might develop higher frictional resistance to being pulled
sent a period of 4-5 years wear in an average household out of the carpet. However, despite the availability of a
of 2 adults and 2 children [9]. From this point of view, all certain interlacing pattern constructed between pile and
carpets showed good appearance retention over the short ground yarns, differing float lengths of dead piles in the
period of wear, but for the longer time period, pile backing related to the color design of the carpet led to a
material differences became a critical factor in appear-
great variation in total pile lengths, and thus in nieasure-
ance retention.
ment values for the same test specimen. This apparently
limited recognition of the main effects of construction
RESULTSOF ABRASION
RESISTANCE parameters; for instance, the increased weft density of
Abrasion resistance was the property for which the polypropylene carpets did not greatly contribute forces.
pile material characteristics became more determinant.
Our results also showed that, as evident in Figure 5 , weft
density played an important role in the- abrasion resis- VI. The mean value of tuft withdrawal force
TABLE
tance of all three groups of carpets, and pile height was for each carpet type.”
less effective. Tuft withdrawal force, g

Pile height, 7 mm Pile height. 9 mrn


40030
hlaterial type II hlean 5 II hlean s
35000
\Vool, 500 X 500h 10 350.0 99.4 10 9S9.0 402.5
3 m
Wool, 500 X 600 10 861.0 290.6 10 640.0 140.5
-~ 2 c o o o
$ 2 m Acrylic, 500 X 500
Acrylic, 500 X 600
10
10
651.0
970.0
235.9
317.5
10
10
723.0
9740
314.6
301.1
PP, 500 x 500 10 614.0 182.3 10 1162.0 259.1
5
C
1 m PP. 500 X 600 10 475.0 176.6 10 682.0 313.9
loo00
’11 = nurnher of obwvations, s = standard deviation. Pooled
estimates of \ariance of each column are 6206567 and
0 99153.13. Ends per m X picks per rn
wool, 7mm wool, 9mm acrylic. acrylic. pp. 7mm pp. 9rrm
7mm 9mm

Conclusions
FIGURE5. Abration resistance results of carpets: average number
of rubs to reveal backin:.
In this study, we have shown that beyond pile mate-
rial, other carpet structural parameters such as pile height
In wool carpets, evidence of lack of abrasion was a and weft density influence the effective floor life of
partial revealing of backing on each carpet specimen. In carpets.
carpets made of synthetic fiber Yarns, this Phenomenon Since good appearance retention is one of the most
took place simu~taneouslyall Over the Surface; i n partic- important and desirable attributes of overall carpet per-
ular, fibers of polypropylene piles initially flattened and formance, it is often regarded as being more critical than
then melted with rubbing as would a thermoplastic. They even long term durability. From this point of view, pile
retreated to reveal the backing. Abrasion resistance re- nlaterial and pile density rrlust be considered as critical
sults were better for denser carpets. Moreover, increased construction parameters.
pile height normally retarded abrasion. By using three multiple regression models, developed
for commercial three-shot Wilton carpets made from
RESULTSOF TUFTWITHDRAWAL
FORCE wool, acrylic, and polypropylene piles, we can predict
the tuft thickness values under varying conditions of
An analysis of variance (AXOVA)for all the data numbers of revolutions in the hexapod, pile height, and
showed that differences between pile materials did not weft density. Moreover, simple regression expressions
cause a great variance in the level of tuft withdrawal can model the experimental data set, relating worn tuft

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JUNE2001 555

thickness to unworn tuft thickness, and these expressions rics,” P. W. Harrison, Ed., The Textile Institute, Manches-
help us to interpret tuft loss. But these models are inferior ter, 1970, p. 159.
at higher levels of wear, just because the feet of the 9. IWS Test Method, Thl: 247, September 1992.
hexapod tumble randomly against a carpet specimen, 10. Jose, D. J.. Hollies, N. R. S., and Spivak, S. M.. Instru-
mental Techniques to Quantify Textural Change in Carpet,
leading to a greater variation in worn pile heights.
J. Texrile hsr. 77, 591-597 (1986).
We have observed that a carpet’s abrasion resistance is
I I . Lappage, J., Bedford, J., and Crook. D., The WRONZ
mainly determined by the pile yarn characteristics, but no Carpet Pile Thickness Gauge. J. Teirile hist. 75 (3). 229-
matter what kind of pile used, an increased amount of 234 ( 1 984).
tuft noticeably improves this property. Thus, a carpet’s 12. hlukhopadhyay, S. K., Sengoul. A., and Wilding, M. A.,
abrasion resistance can be improved simply by choosing An Optical hlethod of hleasuring Appearance Changes in
appropriate structural parameters to increase pile density. Carpet, J. Textile bzst. 93 (3). 429-435 (1993).
Our findings about the tuft withdrawal forces of car- 13. Onions, W. J., An Assessment of hlethods of Test of
pets imply that this property basically depends on the Carpets for Flattening, Change of Appearance and Long-
carpet’s construction parameters, especially the interlac- term Wear, J. Textile I m r . 58, 487 (1967).
ing design pattern, rather than pile material characteris- 14. Pourdeyhimi. B., Sobus, J., and Xu, B., Evaluating Carpet
Appearance Loss: Periodicity and Tuft Placement, Textile
tics such as friction, but further investigation is needed to
Res. J. 6-1 ( I ) , 21-32 (1991).
find parameters that affect the general tendencies of a
15. Pourdeyhirni, B., Nayernouri, A., and Xu, B., Evaluating
carpet’s tuft withdrawal force more precisely. Carpet Appearance Loss: Pile Lay Orientation, Textile Res.
In ternis of quality, the advantages of wool, _acrylic, J. 64 (3), 130-135 (1991).
and polypropylene carpets must be combined with ap- 16. Pourdeyhimi, B., Sobus, J., and Xu, B., Evaluating Carpet
propriate construction parameters. Describing the nature Appearance Loss: Surface Intensity and Roughness, Tex-
of relationships and the correlation between independent tile Res. J. 63 (9), 523-535 (1993).
and dependent carpet variables will make a greater con- 17. Pourdeyhimi, B., Ranianathan, R., and Javadpour, S., A
tribution to estimates of carpet performance in use. New Carpet Wear Simulator, Tatile Res. J. 61 (9), 528-
Hence, carpet manufacturers crtn easily decide the right 533 (1991).
structural parameters in their designs to attain high carpet IS. Presley, A. B., Evaluation of Carpet Appearance Loss:
Structural Factors, Textile Res. J. 67 (3). 174-180 (1997).
quality.
19. Sohus, J., Pourdeyhirni, B., Gerde, J., and Ulcay. Y., As-
sessing Changes in Texture Periodicity Due to Appearance
ACKNOWLEDGMENT Loss in Carpets: Grey Level Co-occurence Analysis, Tex-
We wish to thank Giimiipuyu A.S. for providing us rile Res. J. 61 (lo), 557-561 (1991).
the carpet samples and the use of their laboratory. 20. Sohus, J., Pourdcyliimi, B., Xu, B., and Ulcay, Y., Evalu-
ating Loss of Texture Definition in Carpets Using Mathe-
matical hlorphology: Covariance, Texrile Res. J. 62 ( I ) , 26
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