Methods and apparatus for locking the facing edges of carpet backings directly together at the seam during a face seaming operation with a hot melt adhesive tape

A carpet seaming iron of the kind used for making a face seam between two pieces of carpet by heating a layer of hot melt adhesive on a carpet seaming tape positioned beneath the carpet backings at the seam and extending along the length of the seam, said iron comprising,

• baseplate means having a lower surface engagable with the hot melt adhesive layer on the tape for heating the hot melt adhesive to a molten condition as the iron is moved along the tape,
• handle means for manually moving the iron along the tape and beneath the carpet backings at the seam,
• surface means on the upper surface of the iron and engagable with the undersides of the carpet backings for progressively lifting the backings from the tape at the front of the iron, as the iron is moved along the tape, and then lowering the backings onto the layer of molten adhesive at the back of the iron and,
• groove means formed in the lower surface of the baseplate means and including a longitudinally extending, center groove having a length, depth, width, and alignment effective to form, in the layer of molten adhesive produced behind the moving iron, a raised center bead of a sufficient height and stiffness to coat the side edges of the carpet backings with hot melt adhesive as the undersides of the carpet backings are lowered onto the layer of molten adhesive and to thereby cause said side edges of the backings to be locked directly together through the adhesive interposed between said side edges.