JP2011050589A - Method for regeneration of tile carpet - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for regeneration of a tile carpet, placed on the floor surface or the like of an office building or a commercial building, in which the tile carpet is recovered to an almost similar state to an unused state at low cost and with easy work. <P>SOLUTION: The method includes a carpet removing process of removing the tile carpet placed on the floor surface from the floor surface, a printing process of printing original tile carpet patterns in sublimation ink on the used tile carpet obtained in the carpet removing process, and a placement process of placing regenerated tile carpet obtained in the printing process on the floor surface. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for regenerating a tile carpet, and more particularly, to a method for regenerating a tile carpet suitable for restoring the original state of a tile carpet laid on the floor surface of an office building or a commercial building.

When an operator moves into a tenant building or the like for a predetermined period and then moves out, it is required to move out after restoring the ceiling surface, floor surface, etc. to the original state.
In this case, for example, when removing dirt on the ceiling surface, a method called sealing magic has recently been adopted by the applicant of the present application and the like, and has gained popularity. Normally, paint is used to smear dirt, but the ceiling material is forced to be repainted three to four times. However, when sealing magic is used, it is possible to apply four times as much as the paint, so it is possible to apply 12 to 16 times.

Even if construction is done once every 10 years, it is not necessary to replace the ceiling material for more than 120 years. The fact that no replacement is required leads to industrial waste control.
On the other hand, with regard to restoration of the original state of the floor surface, in most cases, a new tile carpet is re-laid.

  However, re-laying the tile carpet every time it moves out is wasteful in terms of resources and generates a large amount of industrial waste. Therefore, it is desired to recycle the tile carpet in use. .

As a method of reclaiming and using the tile carpet, it is conceivable that the tile carpet is first cleaned with a cleaning liquid, but it has been difficult to recover to a satisfactory state by such cleaning.
On the other hand, dyeing while a carpet such as wool is laid is partly performed by a technique introduced from the United States, but dyeing for tile carpets is not performed in the United States or Japan. Originally, it was a product characterized by easily replacing only dirty parts, so it did not need to be dyed. And even if it is dyed, the tile carpet may contain a pile part, so the dye does not fully penetrate, the dye does not get on nylon, and the pile part is coated for the purpose of antifouling effect. However, there is a problem that uneven coloring occurs, and there is a problem that the dye is peeled off by subsequent carpet cleaning.

  As another method of recycling, the tile carpet is separated into an upper layer having a surface pile layer and a resin backing layer in which the surface pile layer is implanted, and only the upper surface pile layer is replaced. (Patent Document 1).

  However, this method has problems that the work is complicated and the cost is high.

JP 2007-159949 A

  In view of such a conventional situation, the present invention makes it possible to recover a tile carpet laid on the floor surface of an office building or a commercial building to a state almost similar to a new product at an inexpensive and easy operation. The purpose is to provide a method for recycling tile carpets.

In order to achieve the above object, a method for regenerating a tile carpet according to the present invention includes:
A carpet peeling process for peeling the carpet laid on the floor surface from the floor surface;
A printing step of printing the pattern of the original tile carpet with sublimation ink on the used tile carpet obtained in the carpet peeling step;
And a laying step of laying and arranging the recycled tile carpet obtained by the printing step on the original floor surface.

  According to such a regeneration method according to the present invention, even a tile carpet that has been used for a long period of time and has become dirty or has been faded, it has become possible to regenerate it in a state almost similar to a new one. . Moreover, the work is easy. This contributes to resource saving and enables reproduction at a low cost.

The printing process may be performed using a sublimation transfer printer using transfer paper, or may be performed by spraying sublimation ink directly on the tile carpet.
Here, in this invention, you may comprise the washing | cleaning process which wash | cleans the used tile carpet peeled between the said carpet peeling process and the said printing process.

In the cleaning process, a chemical solution may be used, water may be washed, and dust may be knocked off in some cases.
By providing the cleaning step in this way, it is possible to cope with strong dirt.

  According to the method for regenerating a tile carpet according to the present invention, even when the tile carpet has been used for many years, 85 to 90% of the total can be recovered to a state close to a nearly new product before use. Even if another pattern different from the original shape is desired, a new pattern can be printed with sublimation ink based on the information. Furthermore, it is also possible to change the color shade.

  Further, if a plurality of tile carpets are arranged at a time and printed by a sublimation transfer printer, the cost can be reduced.

Hereinafter, a method for recycling a tile carpet according to the present invention will be described.
In the following description, the description is applied to a tile carpet used in an office building or the like.

  The tile carpet currently on the market usually has a size of 50 cm × 50 cm, and is composed of a surface layer and a base material layer, and the surface layer has a loop pile yarn. Nylon, polyester, polypropylene, and the like are often used as the fiber material for the surface layer, and a vinyl chloride resin is frequently used as the base material layer. The surface of the tile carpet having such a structure is formed in a checkered pattern made of dark blue and light blue.

The tile carpet regeneration method according to the present invention is a method of reusing and reusing used tile carpets instead of replacing them with new ones.
That is, a carpet peeling process for peeling a tile carpet laid on the floor surface of an office or the like from the floor surface, and a printing process for printing the pattern of the original carpet with sublimation ink on the used tile carpet obtained in the carpet peeling process. And a laying step in which the recycled tile carpet obtained by the printing step is laid on the original floor surface.

In the carpet peeling process, the contractor lifts the tile carpets one by one and peels them from the floor base.
The tile carpet peeled off from the floor base in this way is washed as necessary before proceeding to the next printing step. The cleaning process may be performed in earnest using a cleaning liquid or the like, or may be an operation of tapping to remove dust. In short, it may be selected as appropriate in view of the degree of dirt.

The gist of the present invention resides in the subsequent printing process using sublimation ink.
In this printing process, printing is performed using sublimation ink that vaporizes when heated. Then, predetermined information is printed on a transfer paper by an ink print printer, and the transfer paper and a cloth to be printed (a tile carpet in the present embodiment) are superposed and heated by a hot press, whereby the vaporized ink is made into a fiber. It is allowed to enter into the molecular structure and dye. This sublimation transfer printing is often used to print an appropriate pattern on a thin fabric such as a banner or a T-shirt, and since it is conventionally known, detailed description thereof is omitted. This sublimation transfer printing is known to be good for polyester materials. In most cases, nylon is not covered.

  Here, many tile carpets are made of nylon instead of polyester, but the present applicants have found an optimum temperature that enables printing from a set temperature of 0 ° C. to 400 ° C. with respect to nylon. In such sublimation transfer printing, for example, original data is acquired, and printing on a fabric is enabled based on this data.

  In the present invention, in order to efficiently print tile carpets, information is obtained from unused tile carpets, and tile carpets to be reproduced are arranged as basic units by arranging, for example, 60 sheets × 3 rows. Production costs are reduced by printing.

  By such sublimation transfer printing, the tile carpet printed with the same information as the new one is overcoated with new information even when some dirt remains on the surface of the used tile carpet. There is no exposure on the surface. Also, a checkered pattern that is the same as a new one can be formed. Therefore, if these regenerated tile carpets are laid again on the floor surface, it can be brought into a state substantially the same as the floor surface on which the new tile carpet is laid.

  Furthermore, the regenerated tile carpet does not lose its color even when exposed to wind and rain, and the same texture can be maintained over a long period of time, as in the case of a T-shirt manufactured by sublimation transfer printing.

Further, the sublimation ink printing is not limited to the method of raising the transfer paper and copying it onto the tile carpet, but the sublimation ink may be directly sprayed onto the used tile carpet.
Thus, even when printing is performed by directly spraying sublimation ink, a high-quality recycled product can be obtained.

Therefore, if the tile carpet is regenerated by such a method, it contributes to the reduction of industrial waste, which has become a very big social problem. For example, the floor area of an office building in Tokyo is about 90 million m ² , but if there is a restoration work once every 20 years, 4.5 million m ² of waste will be produced every year in Tokyo alone.

4.5 million m ² means 18 million pieces of tile carpet waste. It is equivalent to 23,400 tons in weight. It becomes possible to contribute to the suppression of such industrial waste. It can be said that the invention has social significance.

  As mentioned above, although one Example of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to the said Example at all. For example, in the above embodiment, the regeneration of a tile carpet made of nylon has been described. However, the present invention can be applied to tile carpets made of other materials such as polyester and polypropylene in addition to nylon. Further, the size and shape of the tile carpet are not limited.

Claims (2)

A carpet peeling process for peeling the tile carpet laid on the floor surface from the floor surface;
A printing step of printing the original tile carpet pattern with sublimation ink on the used tile carpet obtained in the carpet peeling step;
A laying step of laying the recycled tile carpet obtained by the printing step on the original floor surface;
A method for recycling a tile carpet, comprising:   The method for regenerating a tile carpet according to claim 1, further comprising a cleaning step of cleaning the used tile carpet peeled between the carpet peeling step and the printing step.