GB2267641A - Washable image-bearing floor mat including pre-dyed nylon yarn - Google Patents

Abstract

A washable floor mat is composed of rubber or plastics backing material and a pile upper surface layer. The upper surface layer is composed of a woven primary backing having yarns, including one or more pre-dyed nylon yarns, tufted into it by means of a gripper Axminster weaving machine so as to form an image-bearing design derived from the pre-dyed yarn(s) which is wash-fast. The failure of the grippers to grip the nylon yarns can be overcome by using the latter in significantly thicker format, preferably at a thickness equivalent to 4,500-10,000 decitex.

Description

Washable floor mat including pre-dyed nylon yarn The present invention relates to washable floor mats, especially mats of the type known as dust control mats which are composed of a rubber or plastics backing layer and a fibrous upper surface layer. Mats of this type have been available commercially for many years. They are conventionally placed at the entrances to shops and offices and similar locations with the aim of absorbing dirt and moisture from the shoes of people walking over them.

Periodically they are removed and washed in commercial washing machines to remove the absorbed dirt before being reused. They therefore need to be able to withstand repeated washing without significant deterioration.

Conventional dust control mats of this type have a tufted pile fabric upper surface, frequently formed of a nylon yarn, tufted into an intermediate tissue layer onto which is subsequently bonded the rubber or plastics backing layer by a vulcanisation or curing technique. Frequently the pile fabric occupies the central area of the upper surface with a margin or narrow border of uncovered rubber or plastics surface of the backing. It is known to dye the nylon pile after tufting so as to form a variety of patterns or designs in the form of coloured images on the fabric surface of the mat. However, the nylon coloured in this way is not totally wash-fast, bleach-fast or light-fast so that the coloured designs tend to fade away or wash out of the mat on repeated washing.

More recently, pre-dyed nylon yarns having a greater degree of wash-fastness have become commercially available, for example from Du Pont and BASF. The pre-dyed nylon yarns available from BASF are nylon-6 coloured using organic pigments which are mixed into the nylon whilst the latter is still in its melt stage. The coloured nylon can then be extruded into fibres which contain the pigments locked into the physical body of the yarn and these pigments remain stable during all subsequent yarn processing, giving rise to a coloured yarn which is totally wash-fast, bleach-fast and light-fast. We have used these yarns in making dust control mats including mats bearing coloured stripes or mixed colours. However, because the yarns are pre-dyed rather than being dyed after incorporation into the mat, it has not hitherto been possible to produce image-bearing designs or patterns on the mats using the original colours of such yarns, and if image-bearing designs are imposed by over printing after formation of the mats they are not wash-fast.

We have now found a way of producing such image-bearing designs or patterns of good wash fastness using the original colours of such yarns.

According to the present invention there is provided a washable floor mat composed of a rubber or plastics backing material and a pile upper surface layer including a pre-dyed nylon yarn, wherein the pile upper surface layer is composed of a woven primary backing having yarns including one or more pre-dyed nylon yarns tufted into it by means of a gripper Axminster weaving machine so as to form an imagebearing design derived from the pre-dyed yarn(s).

The gripper Axminster weaving machine may be a conventional machine of the type used in Axminster carpet weaving for many years. Basically, it is composed of a combination of a weaving loom providing sets (usually 3) of warp yarns and a single weft, fed by a rapier, grippers in the form of clamps one for each end of yarn, and a Jacquard selector in the form of a programmable system, e.g. of punched cards, which enables any one of a number of yarns (for example up to 8 or more) to be selected according to a predetermined sequence. The grippers insert cut pile pieces, as tufts cut from the yarns, into a woven primary backing woven by the loom and the selector enables a yarn to be selected at will for each cut piece from the variety of yarns' loaded into the machine.

Although such a gripper Axminster weaving machine has traditionally and successfully been used with woollen yarns and yarns of mixtures of wool and synthetic fibres in carpet making, we have found that problems can arise in using nylon yarns in such a machine because of the failure of the grippers to grip the nylon yarns. We have however found that the gripping failure can be overcome according to an important and preferred feature of our invention by using the nylon yarns in a significantly thicker format than has hitherto been conventional in tufting of dust control mats.

Specifically, we have found that good results are achieved if the nylon yarns are used at a thickness equivalent to at least about 4,500 decitex, preferably at least about 5,000 decitex. In practice we would not recommend using a yarn having a thickness equivalent to more than about 10,000 decitex, although this limit is less crucial and could be exceeded.

The commercially available pre-dyed nylon yarns conventionally have a thickness in their single (one-ply) form equivalent to about 1,000 - 2,200 decitex.

Accordingly, it is not normally sufficient to use the yarn in one-ply or two-ply form, such as has hitherto been conventional in nylon yarns for tufting dust control mats.

Instead, depending on yarn thickness we prefer to use threeply, four-ply or even greater ply yarn. We have had successful results with a 1,238 dtex yarn used as a four-ply yarn giving a thickness equivalent to 4,952 dtex (three-ply yarn of this type being not quite thick enough) and with a 2,166 dtex yarn used as a three-ply yarn giving a thickness equivalent to 6,498 dtex (two-ply yarn of this type being not quite thick enough). The yarn can be produced by normal plying techniques, repeated to achieve the appropriate number of plies, or by air-entangling two ends and then plying them together.

A further problem which can arise when using the gripper Axminster weaving machine to provide the imagebearing design in the fibrous surface of the washable floor mat is the choice of material for the woven primary backing.

Traditionally, Axminster carpet weaving has employed jute as the material for the weft yarn on the woven primary backing.

However, whilst jute is satisfactory as the backing for carpets which are seldom washed and are frequently laid under tension, it has disadvantages which make it unsuitable for dust control mats and other washable floor mats which are frequently washed. Jute absorbs water and swells when wet, so that it would cause floor mats to cockle as they are not laid under tension. Moreover, if kept damp, as may frequently happen with dust control mats, jute tends to rot.

Substitute materials, such as polyester and polypropylene, have in recent years been used to replace some of the jute in the primary backing of carpets but neither of these materials are satisfactory as full replacements for jute in the context of washable floor mats having a rubber or plastics backing and a image-bearing pattern on their fibrous nylon surface. The polypropylene cannot withstand the temperatures (e.g. 1700C) which have to be used when the woven primary backing is bonded into the rubber or plastics backing. The polyester is naturally white or pale in colour and cannot readily be dyed in a wash-fast manner, so that if used undyed its pale colour is visible beneath ('grins through) the nylon pile surface and at the edges of the nylon surface where the fabric meets the rubber border of the mat and thus detracts from the appearance of the mat, whereas if it is used dyed the dye comes off the polyester during washing and deposits on the nylon yarn, causing colour changes or staining.

We have overcome this problem according to a further important and preferred feature of the invention by using as the woven primary backing a mix of undyed synthetic (e.g.

polyester) fibres and dyed natural fibres (e.g. cotton), the natural fibres being dyed with a dye which will not be taken up by the nylon yarn, i.e. will not stain nylon. A preferred dye is a sulphur dye. Good results have been obtained with a 50/50 polyester/cotton mix, although it is possible to vary the proportions for example from 30/70 to 70/30 provided that the proportion of undyed polyester or other synthetic fibre is not so great that it grins through the nylon surface fibres but is great enough to give the strength and stability desired during the manufacturing process and in the finished mat. Suitably, the mix is composed of staple fibres homogeneously mixed together.

The sulphur dyes preferably used on the cotton fibres are not fully wash-fast but, although they come off the cotton fibres to some extent during the repeated washing of the mats, they are not taken up by the nylon fibres (nor by the polyester fibres) so that there is no colour change or staining of the nylon fibres. If the sulphur dye used is a dark dye, for example black or a very dark colour, the overall appearance of the cotton/polyester mix is a grey colouration, which does not grin through the nylon surface fibres and which remains basically unchanged during repeated washing.

We have found that good results are achieved if the thickness of the polyester/cotton mix in the woven primary backing is equivalent to from 1,500 to 3,000 dtex, for example three plies of 675 dtex material.

Another problem which can occur with gripper Axminster weaving machines in making washable floor mats is that the tufts of yarn placed into the woven primary backing may not be adequately bonded by the rubber or plastics backing when the woven primary backing is bonded into that backing.

Preferably, therefore, according to yet another important and preferred feature of the invention the operation of the weaving is modified to provide a kardax weave, that is to say a weave in which the bottom of the loop of the tuft is on the bottom of the woven primary backing, the side from which the rubber or plastics backing penetrates to bond the primary backing into it, rather than one of the warp yarns passing beneath the bottom of the loop of the tuft.

The pre-dyed nylon yarns used in the washable floor mats according to the invention may be dope dyed, pigment dyed or solution dyed, but they are preferably wash-fast.

Yarns of this type are commercially available from BASF under the trade mark ZEFTRON. Preferably nylon-6 is used although nylon-6,6 can also be used. The wash-fastness may be achieved in known manner. Other pre-dyed nylon yarns which can be used, although they may not be totally washfast, are available commercially from Du Pont under the trade mark LUMENA. Preferably all the nylon yarns used are pre-dyed and wash fast although this need not be so.

The rubber or plastics backing may be a conventional material applied to the woven primary backing bearing the tufted nylon yarns in a conventional manner and cured or vulcanised in a conventional way. The image-bearing designs in the nylon yarn may be of any pattern or colour range and may be achieved by programming the selector in known manner, as is conventional with Axminster carpet weaving using a Jacquard selector. They may be graphic designs such as logos or slogans or symbols.

By the use of the present invention, especially by the incorporation of all the preferred features, it is possible to obtain washable floor mats having bright and colourful image-bearing designs in a variety of colours in their pile surfaces that are totally wash-fast and can be guaranteed as such for up to ten years despite repeated and regular washing in commercial washing machines. These designs use the original colours of the nylon yarns rather than being overprinted.

Claims (6)

Claims

1. A washable floor mat composed of a rubber or plastics backing material and a pile upper surface layer including a pre-dyed nylon yarn, wherein the pile upper surface layer is composed of a woven primary backing having yarns including one or more pre-dyed nylon yarns tufted into it by means of a gripper Axminster weaving machine so as to form an image-bearing design derived from the pre-dyed yarn(s).

2. A mat according to claim 1, wherein the nylon yarns have a thickness equivalent to 4,500 - 10,000 decitex.

3. A mat according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the woven primary backing is a mix of undyed synthetic fibres and dyed natural fibres, the natural fibres being dyed with a sulphur dye which does not stain nylon.

4. A mat according to claim 3, wherein the primary backing is a mix of undyed polyester fibres and dyed cotton fibres, the cotton being dyed with a sulphur dye.

5. A mat according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the tufting is in the form of a kardax weave.

6. A mat according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the pre-dyed nylon yarns are wash-fast yarns pre-dyed with organic pigments whilst still in their melt stage.