Carpet tiles and systems and methods of making same
AssigneeShaw Industries Group, Inc.
InventorsJoey Davis, Jill Suhm, Mark Honeycutt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A carpet tile has a greige good structure, a reinforcement material, and an adhesive layer. The greige good structure has a primary backing component and a plurality of fibers attached to the primary backing component. The adhesive layer has an adhesive composition and a reinforcement material that is embedded within the adhesive composition. The adhesive layer is applied to a second surface of the reinforcement material. The adhesive flows through the reinforcement material to contact the greige good structure
Claims37
A carpet tile comprising:
- (a) a greige good structure comprising:
- i) a primary backing structure having a face surface and a back surface;
- and
- ii) a plurality of fibers attached to the primary backing structure and extending from the face surface of the primary backing structure;
- and
- (b) a layer of reinforcement material having a first side and a second side, wherein the first side of the layer of reinforcement material is positioned against the back surface of the primary backing structure;
- and
- (c) an adhesive layer having a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface, wherein the adhesive layer comprises an adhesive composition that is applied to the second side of the layer of reinforcement material, wherein the adhesive composition of the adhesive layer extends through the reinforcement material from the second side of the layer of reinforcement material to the first side of the layer of reinforcement material,
- wherein the layer of reinforcement material has an open structure that permits flow of the adhesive composition through the reinforcement material from the second side of the reinforcement material to the first side of the reinforcement material during lamination of the reinforcement material and the adhesive layer onto the greige good structure.
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A method of making a carpet tile, comprising:
- (a) applying a layer of reinforcement material onto a back surface of a primary backing structure of a greige good structure, the greige good structure further comprising a plurality of fibers attached to the primary backing structure and extending from a face surface of the primary backing structure;
- (b) extruding an adhesive composition onto a second side of the reinforcement material;
- and
- (c) causing the adhesive composition to flow through the reinforcement material from the second side of the reinforcement material to a first side of the reinforcement material, opposite the second side of the reinforcement material, such that the adhesive composition on the second side of the reinforcement material contacts the back surface of the primary backing structure of the greige good structure;
- and
- (d) cooling the adhesive composition to define an adhesive layer in which the reinforcement material is at least partially embedded within the adhesive composition,
- wherein, after cooling the adhesive composition, the adhesive composition has a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface, wherein the first surface of the adhesive composition and the first side of the layer of reinforcement material are in contact with the back surface of the primary backing structure of the greige good.
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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.