Rotationally determinate, positionally ambiguous striped carpet tiles

#This invention relates generally to carpet tiles and other textile face modular flooring and to methods of designing modular flooring tiles having striped patterns and color schemes that allow for random position placement of the tiles on a floor without visibly disrupting the pattern and so that no tile looks out of place.

#In part for ease of installation, modular carpet has traditionally been installed in aligned rows and columns, with the edges of each tile aligned with the edges of adjacent tiles (“conventional carpet tile installation method”). Conventional carpet tile has also historically been a product that sought to mimic the appearance of broadloom carpet and to hide or at least de-emphasize the fact that the product was modular. Achieving this result has required, at minimum, that carpet tiles or modules be placed in a flooring installation with the same orientation that the modules had at the time they were produced. This is because conventional production techniques, particularly including tufting techniques, cause the carpet pile to lean or have a nap direction. This property of conventional carpet modules causes a tile within a field of tiles to have a different appearance, particularly under certain lighting and viewing conditions, if it is oriented in a different direction than the tiles with which it is placed. Other considerations, such as the presence of a pattern that spans more than one tile in the web from which the tiles are cut, have also sometimes required that not only the rotational orientation of tiles in an installation be the same but for the tiles to be located in particular relative positions. Indeed, schemes for insuring or facilitating placement of modular carpet in predetermined relative positions (as well as rotational orientation) have been developed. One such approach is suggested in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,197,400 and 6,203,879, both to Desai.

#Textile face modular flooring designers have recently begun to design flooring and flooring installations that do not seek to mask, but rather celebrate, the modularity of the flooring. For instance, modules are installed “quarter-turned” with each tile position rotated 90° relative to each adjacent tile. In other instances, module edges are emphasized to achieve an installation appearance similar to that of ceramic tile separated by grout.

#FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a one embodiment of a carpet web pattern of this invention.

#FIG. 2 illustrates a web bearing the pattern of FIG. 1 with longitudinal and horizontal partition lines to create tiles.

#FIG. 3 illustrates tiles cut from a carpet web bearing a pattern of this invention and installed on a floor in one configuration using the conventional carpet tile installation method.

#FIG. 1 illustrates a carpet web pattern 10 consistent with one embodiment of this invention. FIG. 1 shows one “repeat” of the pattern 10. Generally, a carpet web will be formed with the pattern 10 repeating along its length, i.e. with multiple pattern repeats. FIG. 2 illustrates one way of partitioning a web bearing pattern 10 into carpet tiles. In FIG. 2, longitudinal partition lines 12 and horizontal partition lines 14 partition the web pattern 10 into individual, square carpet tiles 16. Note, however, that the web need not be partitioned into square tiles, but rather the tiles may be cut into other rectilinear shapes, such as rectangles.

#The carpet tiles preferably are not all cut from a single pattern repeat. Thus, the length of a single pattern repeat is preferably not an even multiple of the span of the tiles cut from the web. In this way, at least some of the tiles will comprise a part of the pattern from at least two repeats and the horizontal partition lines will fall in different locations on adjacent repeats of the pattern, causing the tiles cut from one repeat to differ from those cut from the next repeat.

#The pattern 10 includes longitudinal stripes that extend along the length of the web. The stripes are oriented parallel to each other and preferably have varying widths across the web. For example, in FIG. 1 stripe 18 is wider than stripe 20. Because the stripes do not have a uniform width, little precision relative to the pattern 10 is required when making longitudinal cuts when cutting the web into tiles. Rather, if adjacent edges of two tiles placed on a floor form a particularly wide or narrow stripe, such stripe will not look out of place given the variety of stripe widths already incorporated into the pattern. Precision is required during cutting, however, to ensure that the web is cut so that the sides of the stripes are generally parallel to the longitudinal partition lines 12 that define the tile edges (see FIG. 2).