Bulked continuous carpet filament manufacturing from polytrimethylene terephthalate

A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament from a plurality of polymer flakes, the method comprising:

• providing an extruder;
• using the extruder to at least partially melt the plurality of polymer flakes into a polymer stream and at least partially purify the polymer stream;
• providing a static mixing assembly downstream of the extruder, the static mixing assembly having a length;
• adding a first molten polymeric masterbatch to a center of the polymer stream at a first location before the static mixing assembly or along the length of the static mixing assembly between an upstream end and a downstream end of the static mixing assembly;
• adding a second molten polymeric masterbatch to the polymer stream at a second location before the static mixing assembly or along the length of the static mixing assembly between an upstream end and a downstream end of the static mixing assembly;
• using the static mixing assembly to mix the polymer stream with the first molten polymeric masterbatch and the second molten polymeric masterbatch to create a colored polymer stream;
• and
• forming the colored polymer stream into bulked continuous carpet filament.

A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament from a plurality of polymer flakes, the method comprising:

• providing an extruder;
• using the extruder to at least partially melt the plurality of polymer flakes into a polymer stream and at least partially purify the polymer stream;
• providing a static mixing assembly downstream of the extruder;
• adding a liquid colorant to the polymer stream downstream of the extruder and before the static mixing assembly or along a length of the static mixing assembly between an upstream end and a downstream end of the static mixing assembly;
• using the static mixing assembly to mix the polymer stream with the liquid colorant to create a mixed polymer stream;
• forming the mixed polymer stream into bulked continuous carpet filament;
• splitting the polymer stream into a plurality of individual polymer streams downstream from the extruder;
• and
• providing, for each stream of the plurality of individual polymer streams, a respective secondary extruder and a respective static mixing assembly, wherein adding the liquid colorant, using the static mixing assembly, and forming the mixed polymer stream into bulked continuous carpet filament occurs with respect to each stream of the plurality of individual polymer streams.