Glossary

ABSORPTION – Capillary, osmotic, or chemical action by which fibres, yarns or fabrics become intermixed with liquids or gases.

ACRYLICS – Acrylic and modacrylic carpet fibres. Acrylic fibre contains at least 850/o by weight of acrylonitrile units. Modacrylic fibre contains between 35 and 850/o by weight of acrylonitrile. Acrylic fibres are available only as staple. The spun yarns have the closest resemblance to wool of any synthetic.

ADSORPTION – Physical or chemical attachment of thin layers of molecules onto the surface of liquids or solids with which they are in contact. An example is the initial adsorption of dyestuff molecules from the dissolved phase onto the fibre surface, which comprises the first step in the dyeing process.

AFFINITY – Attractive force between substances or particles causing them to combine chemically. An example is the affinity of acid dyes for nylon fibre.

AMERICAN ORIENTAL – Woven American carpets of Axminster or Wilton weave in Oriental colors and patterns.

ANTISTATIC – Ability of carpet to dissipate electro- static charge thus reducing build up of static electricity.

ATTACHED CUSHION – Cushion permanently bonded to the back of carpets and rugs by the manufacturer.

AVERAGE STIFFNESS – Force required to stretch fibres one percent in length, expressed in grams per denier. Related to Young’s Modulus.

AXMINSTER – A carpet weave. Pile tufts are individually inserted from coloured yarns arranged on spools making possible an enormous variety of colors and patterns.

BACK SEAMS – installation seams made with the carpet turned over or face down. Opposite of “face seams” made with the carpet face up. Both of course are on the back of the carpet.

BACKING – Materials (fabrics or yarns) comprising the back of the carpet as opposed to the carpet pile or face.
(1) Primary back-in tufting, a woven or nonwoven fabric in which the pile yarn is inserted by the tufting needles. Usually woven or nonwoven polypropylene or woven jute for carpet and often cotton duck for scatter rugs.
(2) Secondary back-Fabric laminated to the back of carpet to reinforce and increase dimensional stability. Usually woven jute or woven or non- woven polypropylene.
(3) Backings of woven carpets are the “construction yarns” comprising chain warp, stuffer warp, and shot or fill which are interwoven with the face yarn during carpet fabric formation.

BALUSTER (BANISTER) – One of a set of small pillars that support a handrail (or balustrade) on a stairway.

BASEBOARD – A board skirting the lower edge of a wall.

BCF – Bulked continuous filament. Continuous strands of synthetic fibre formed into yarn bundles of a given number of filaments and texturized to increase bulk and cover. Texturizing changes the straight filaments into kinked or curled configurations.

BEAM – Large, horizontal cylinders or spools. Warp yarns are wound on beams and located on line in back of the weaving operation.

BEARDING – Long fibre fuzz on fabrics. Caused by fibre snagging and inadequate anchorage.

BENT NEEDLES – 1. Needles in the tufting machine permanently pushed out of place causing a streak or grinning, running lengthwise because of off-standard tuft spacing across the width. 2. A needle in the Jacquard that is out of alignment with punched holes in pattern cards.

BINDING – A strip sewed over a carpet edge for protection against unravelling.

BIRDCAGE – Colloquial name for the end of a stair rail where the banisters are curved in a spiral to form a newel post.

BLEEDING – Removal of colour from carpet or other fabrics by a liquid, usually water, and subsequent staining of areas adjacent to the wet area, or of other materials in contact with the wet area.

BLEND – A mixture of two or more fibres or yarns.

BOBBIN – A spool-like device made of various materials, shapes, and constructions with a head at one or both ends and a hole through its length or barrel for placement on a spindle or skewer. It is used to hold yarn for spinning, weaving, or sewing.

BODY – The solid, firm or full feel of a fabric.

BONDED URETHANE CUSHION – A carpet cushion made from urethane trim, generated from urethane foam product manufacture, which has been granulated and bonded to form a porous foam material and fabricated into foam sheets.

BRAIDED – Reversible oval or round rugs produced from braided strips of new or used material.

BREAKING STRENGTH – Maximum stretching force that can be applied to fabric, yarn, carpet or other material before it breaks. Sometimes expressed as pounds force to break a standard sized test specimen in the ASTM Grab Test.

BROADLOOM – A term used to denote carpet produced in widths wider than six feet. Was at one time used to identify “high quality.”

BRUSSELS – A term formerly, but now rarely used to describe a loop pile or round-wire carpet woven on the Wilton loom.

BRUSSELS PITCH – 252 or 256 dents per 27 inches in width.

BUCKLING – (Also Puckers) A carpet that does not lay flat on the floor and contains ridges. Can be caused by uneven beam tension, dimensional instability, and putting together mismatched carpet. Failure to stretch wall-to-wall installations sufficiently will also contribute buckles.

BULLNOSE – Colloquial name for Step Return.

BURLING – A hand tailoring operation to remove any knots and loose ends, insert missing tufts of surface yarns, and otherwise check the condition of the fabric. Also a repair operation on worn or damaged carpet is reburling.

CAM LOOM – A loom in which the shedding is per- formed by means of cams. A velvet loom.

CARPET – The general designation for fabric used as a floor covering.

CARPET CUSHION – A term used to describe any kind of material placed under carpet to provide softness when it is walked on, Not only does carpet cushion pro- vide a softer feel underfoot, it usually provides added acoustical benefits and longer wear life for the carpet. In some cases the carpet cushion is attached to the carpet when it is manufactured. Also referred to as “lining,” “padding” or “underlay,” although “carpet cushion” is the preferred term.

CARPET SQUARES (Tiles) – Loose laid or self adhesive backed squares of carpet.

CELLULOSE – A carbohydrate of complex molecular structure which forms the basic framework of plant cells and walls. Used as a basic raw material in making rayon.

CHAIN – 1. The binder warp yarn that works over and under the filling shots of the carpet. 2. Axminster loom-refers to the endless chain that carries the tube frames.3. Dobby loom-refers to the endless chain of pattern selector bars.

CHAIN BINDERS – Yarns running warp wise (length- wise) in the back of a woven carpet, binding construction yarns together in a woven construction.

CHENILLE – A pile fabric woven by the insertion of a prepared weft row of surface yarn tufts in a “fur” or “4caterpillar” form through very fine but strong cotton “catcher” warp yarns, and over a heavy woollen backing yarn.

COCKLING – A curliness or crimpiness appearing in the cut face pile as a result of a yarn condition.

COMBINATION – A term which refers to yarns or fabrics: 1. A combination yarn is composed of two or more yarns having the same or different fibres or twists; e.g., one yarn may have a high twist; the other, little or no twist. 2. A combination fabric is one which uses the above yarns.

COMMERCIAL MATCHING – Matching of colors within acceptable tolerances, or with a colour variation that is barely detectable to the naked eye

CONSTRUCTION – Carpet construction is defined by stating the manufacturing method (tufted, woven, etc.), and the final arrangement of materials achieved by following specifications.

CONTINUOUS FILAMENT – Continuous strand of synthetic fibre extruded in yarn form, without the need for spinning which all natural fibres require.

COTTON – A soft, white, fibrous substance composed of the hairs clothing the seeds of an erect, freely branching tropical plant (cotton plant).

COUNT – 1. A number identifying yarn size or weight per unit length or vice versa depending on the particular system being used. 2. Count of fabric is indicated by the number of warp ends and filling ends per inch.

COVER – Descriptive of how the underlying structure is concealed by the face yarn.

CRAB – A hand device usually used for stretching carpet in a small area where a power stretcher or knee kicker cannot be used.

CREEL – The rack located adjacent to a tufting machine which holds the cones of pile yarn which sup- ply yarn to the needles of a tufting machine.

CREELING – The process of mounting yarn packages on the yarn package holder in the creel.

CRIMP – in fibre, a non-linear configuration, such as a saw tooth, zigzag or random curl relative to the fibre axis. In woven fabrics, non-linear yarn configurations caused by three-dimensional displacements such as the zigzagging of warp yarn over fill yarn. Most synthetic fibres, both staple and filament, used in carpets is crimped. Fiber crimp increases bulk and cover and facilitates interlocking of staple fibres in spun yarns.

CROCKING – Term used to describe excess colour rubbing off as the result of improper dye penetration, fixation, or selection.

CROPPING – The passage of carpet under a revolving cylinder fitted with cutting blades to obtain a level surface and a uniform height of pile.

CROSS DYED – Multicoloured effects produced in a fabric with fibres of different dye affinities.

CROSS SEAMS – Seams made by joining the ends of carpet together.

CUSHION-BACK CARPET – A carpet having a cushioning lining, padding or underlay material as an integral part of its backing.

CUSTOM TUFTED – Carpet or rugs in which pile yarns are manually tufted with hand machines or by narrow width tufting machines.

CUT – A length of fabric, such as carpet.

CUT PILE – A fabric, the face of which is composed of cut ends of pile yarn.

DEAD – (Pile yarn) – The pile yarn in a Wilton carpet which remains hidden in the backing structure when not forming a pile tuft.

DEEP DYE – Modified synthetic fibres with increased dye affinity relative to regular dye fibres. By combining deep dye fibres with regular dye fibres, a two colour effect can be achieved within one dye bath.

DEFLECTED NEEDLE – Needles in the tufting machine that are pushed aside by a warp end in the backing cloth causing a streak or “grinning” running lengthwise because of off-standard tuft spacing across the width. The real mechanism of most so-called needle deflection is the pushing aside of backing fabric warp yarns by tufting needles during tuft insertion. When the needles withdraw, warp yarns move back to their original positions, thus pushing tuft rows off gauge and creating wide gaps between them.

DELUSTERED FIBERS – Synthetic fibres in which brightness or reflectivity is reduced, usually by incorporation of a fraction of a percent of white pigment such as titanium dioxide. Fiber producers’ designations include dull, semi dull and semi bright, whereas bright fibres are nondelustered.

DENIER – A yarn count unit. It is the weight in grams of 9000 meters. Denier is a direct yarn numbering system; the higher the denier, the larger the yarn.

DENSITY – The weight of pile yarn in a unit volume of carpet. U.S. government FHA density (D), expressed in ounces per cubic yard, is given by the formula

DENT – 1. The space between wires of reed or heddles or harness through which the warp ends at,,,,; drawn. 2. The space between two chains in a fabric.

DIFFERENTIAL DYEING FIBERS – (dye-variant fibres) – Fibres, natural or man-made, so treated or modified in composition that their affinity for dyes becomes changed; i.e., to be reserved, dye lighter or dye darker than normal fibres, dependent upon the particular dyes and methods of application employed.

DIMENSIONAL STABILITY – Tendency of a fabric to retain its size and shape; may be brought about by chemical treatment or mechanical means; e.g., a secondary backing adds dimensional stability to carpet.

DOBBY – A ‘carpet loom device that selects the rotation in which one or more of a group of harnesses are raised over a filling shot. Can float an end over as many filling shots as desired. Produces geometric patterns in woven carpet.

DOMESTIC – Describes carpet made in the United States.

DOPE DYED – (See also Solution Dyed and Spun Dyed) – Synthetic fibres coloured by addition of pigments to polymer melts or solutions prior to extrusion by the fibre producer.

DOUBLE BACK – (See also Secondary Backing) – Woven or nonwoven fabric laminated to the back of carpet with latex or other adhesive. Double-backed carpets have enhanced dimensional stability and strength.

DRAW – The manner and rotation in which the warp ends are placed in the loom heddles and reeds.

DRAWING-IN or DRAWING-UP – The process of placing the warp ends through the heddles and reeds of the loom.

DROP MATCH – A pattern in printed, high-low, cut- loop, or figured woven carpet which repeats diagonally. Each corresponding pattern element drops down a certain distance, usually a half pattern repeat in length, instead of simply repeating horizontally across the width as in set match.

DRY FOAM – A detergent solution containing only a small amount of water is mechanically worked into the surface of the carpet and the loose soil is removed by a vacuum.

DRY ROT – A condition caused by attack by micro- organisms on fibres, textiles, carpets or other materials, characterized by less of strength and integrity. Attack on carpet backings permits carpet to break and tear easily. Cellulosics such as jute are susceptible whereas polypropylene and most other synthetics are virtually immune.

DUTCHMAN – installer’s term for a narrow strip seamed onto standard width carpet to fit oddly dimensioned areas. Proper planning will minimize the need for this practice.

DYE BECK – A large vat for piece dyeing carpet by immersion in aqueous solutions of dyes and chemicals. Fitted with a reel for circulating carpet in and out of the dye liquor, inlets for steam and water, drains, and temperature controls.

DYEING – Colouring fibres, yarns, fabrics, carpets or other materials by addition or incorporation of small amounts (usually one percent or less) of highly coloured materials known as dyes and pigments. Chapter 13 explains the various methods of colouring carpets, including piece dyeing, continuous dyeing, space dyeing, skein dyeing, stock dyeing, printing, and solution dyeing.

DYESTUFF – (or Dye ) – A highly coloured substance capable of permanent physical or chemical attachment to textile fibres; coloration of fibres occurs upon attachment of small quantities. Most dyes are applied from water solutions or dispersions.

ELECTROSTATIC FLOCKING – A method used for producing flocked fabrics, including flocked carpet. Flocking consists of attaching short lengths of fibres to fabric substrates with adhesives. In electrostatic flocking, precision cut fibres are aligned in an electro- static field perpendicular to the substrate, thus creating a plush-like surface.

END – 1. An individual warp yarn in woven fabric. 2. An individual pile yarn in tufted carpet. 3. A roll end, or short length of carpet; or a remnant.

EXTENDED LENGTH – The length of pile yarn in one running inch of one tuft row in tufted carpet. Sometimes called take-up.

FACE SEAMS – Sewed or cemented seams made without turning the carpet over or face-down. They are used during installations when back seaming is impossible.

FADEOMETER – Device for determining the effects of light on the properties of yarns, fibres, fabrics, carpets, plastic, and other materials. It uses a standard light source such as a xenon arc lamp to simulate approximately the spectrum of sunlight. Generally used for measuring fade resistance of carpet colors which are rated according to the number of hours of fadeometer exposure required to produce visible loss of colour.

FADING – Loss of colour. Caused by actinic radiation such as sunlight or artificial light, atmospheric gases including ozone, nitric oxide, and hydrogen sulphide, cleaning and bleaching chemicals such as sodium hypo chlorite, and other household and industrial products, chlorine chemicals or swimming pools, and other factors. Commercial installations in areas where such exposures occur require extreme care in selection of colourfast carpet.

FASTNESS – Retention of colour by carpets or other materials, usually with reference to specific exposures, e.g., light fastness and wash fastness. Dyestuff, fibre type, and dyeing method all influence the ability of coloured carpets and fabrics to withstand the effects of colour destroying agents.

FELTING – A nonwoven fabric formation process comprising entanglement of fibres by mechanical or other means. The product is called felt. Felts made by needle entanglement of solution dyed fibres such as polypropylene are used as outdoor carpet. Unlike weaving and tufting, felting does not employ yarns but converts fibre directly to fabric.

FIBER CUSHION – Separate carpet underpad consisting of needle-felted animal hair, jute, other fibres, or fibre blends. Hair and jute blends are common. Some padding felts are rubberised and may have one or two rubber faces.

FIBERS – Natural or man-made objects having very high aspect ratios, that is, having lengths hundreds to thousands of times greater than their widths. Useful textile fibres have high tensile strengths, flexibility, and resistance to heat, light, chemicals, and abrasives.

FILAMENT – A single continuous strand of natural or synthetic fibre.

FILLER – A low cost material used for extending rubber, plastic, or other polymers. Fillers are generally powders of very small particle size. Carpet latex laminating compounds and foams contain large amounts of fillers. The most common filler in carpet latex is finely powdered calcium carbonate, often called whiting, produced by grinding limestone.

FILLING YARN – in weaving, any yarn running across the width of the fabric perpendicular to the warp yarns. In woven carpet, filling yarns are part of the group of construction yarns which also include chain and stuffer warp and form the backing. Woven carpet fill and chain warp yarns interface to secure the pile yarns. Filling and other construction yarns usually are fibrillated polypropylene, jute, kraftcord, or similar materials.

FILM YARN – Yarn produced by slitting extruded films into narrow strips. Slit film polypropylene yarns are woven into fabrics used as primary backings in tufted carpets.

FINISHING – A collective term denoting processing of carpets and textiles subsequent to tufting, weaving, and dyeing. Carpet finishing processes include shearing, brushing, application of secondary backing, application of attached foam cushion, application of soil retardant and antistatic chemicals, back beating, steaming, and others.

FLOCKING – Short, chopped fibre or flock is adhered, usually by electrostatic processes, to a base fabric, resulting in a short pile material with a velvety texture.

FLUFFING – Appearance on carpet surface of loose fibre fragments left during manufacture; not a defect but a characteristic which disappears after carpet use and vacuuming. Sometimes called fuzzing or shedding.

FRAMES – Racks at back of the Wilton loom holding spools from which yarns are fed into the loom, each frame holding separate colors; thus a 3-frame Wilton has three colors in the design.

FREE FORM – A floor area bounded by walls and of nonrectangular shape. Sometimes called “form-fit area.”

FRIEZE – (Pronounced “free-zay”) – A tightly twisted yarn that gives a rough, nubby appearance to carpet pile, and carpet having this characteristic.

FULL ROLL – A length of carpet, roll goods usually approximately 100 feet long. Also called a shipping roll by carpet manufacturers. Shipping roll standards vary and may be as short as 30 feet depending upon carpet thickness and manufacturers’ quality criteria. In the United States almost all roll goods are twelve or fifteen feet wide, with twelve-foot predominant.

FUZZING – Hairy effect on fabric surface caused by wild fibres or slack yarn twist, by fibres slipping out of yarn in either service or wet cleaning. It is corrected by shearing in manufacturing and by the professional cleaner. Carpet of continuous filament yarn is fuzzed by filament snagging and breaking.

GAGE OR GAUGE – The distance between two needle points expressed in fraction of an inch. Applies to both knitting and tufting.

GAUGE WIRE – A standing wire used with an extra filling yarn to control the height of the pile on a carpet weaving loom.

GAUGE/PITCH – The number of ends of surface yarn counting across the width of carpet. In woven carpet, pitch is the number of ends of yarn in 27 inches of width; e.g., 216 divided by 27 = 8 ends per inch. In tufted carpet, gauge also means the number of ends of surface yarn per inch counting across the carpet; e.g., 118 gauge = 8 ends per inch. To convert gauge to pitch, multiply ends per inch by 27; e.g., 1/10 gauge is equivalent to 270 pitch, or 10 ends per inch x 27. One-eighth gauge is 8 ends of yarn per inch x 27 216 pitch.

GREIGE GOODS – (Pronounced “gray goods”) – Un-dyed carpet or other textile materials.

GRINNING – Visibility of carpet backing through the face, often between two adjoining tuft rows. May be caused by low pile yarn weight, off-gauge tufting machine parts, tuft row deflection, inadequate blooming of pile yarn, or installation over sharp curves such as stair nosings.

GROUND COLOR – The background colour against which the top colors create the pattern of figure in the design.

HAIR – Animal fibre other than wool or silk.

HAND – The tactile esthetic qualities of carpets and textiles. Factors determining how carpets feel to the hand include weight, stiffness, fibre type and denier, density, backing and latex.

HARNESS – Part of a weaving loom comprising frames holding the heddles through which the warp yarns pass, and used to raise and lower them to form the shed in which the shuttles moves to insert fill yarn.

HEAT SETTING – Process for stabilization of carpet yarns by exposure to heat. Conventional autoclave heat-setting treats yarns in relaxed skein configuration with pressurized stearn, usually at temperatures in the 240 – 30011 F range, often 27011 F for nylon. Some continuous heat-setting machines employ dry heat. The principal benefits are twist retention in plied yarns in cut-pile carpet and general stabilization of yarn configuration.

HEATHER – A multicolour effect provided by blending fibres of different colors prior to spinning carpet yarn.

HEDDLE – Part of a weaving loom comprising one of the sets of parallel wires, blades, or cords (often with eyelets in their centers through which warp yarns pass) that with their mounting compose the harness used to guide warp threads and raise and lower them in weaving.

HEDDLE FRAME – Part of a weaving loom in which the heddles are mounted.

HESSIAN – Plain woven jute fabric with approximately equal numbers of warp and fill yarns per unit dimension.

HIGH DENSITY – A term for materials or structures having above average weight per unit volume.

HIGH DENSITY FOAM – Attached carpet cushion made from compounded natural and/or synthetic latex foam having a minimum density of 17 pounds per cubic foot and a minimum weight of 38 ounces per square yard.

HIGH LOW – Multilevel carpet style comprising high and low loop pile areas or high cut-pile and low loop areas. The latter is also called a cut and loop style.

HOT MELT – Adhesive material sometimes used for laminating secondary backing to tufted carpet; also used as the adhesive component of carpet seaming tape. Hot melt adhesives are compounded from thermoplastic polymers and plastics. They may be melted and solidified repeatedly by application of heat.

JACQUARD – An apparatus on a carpet weaving loom that produces patterns from coloured yarns. The pattern information is contained on perforated cards. The holes in the cards activate the mechanism that selects the colour to be raised to the pile surface. Wilton looms have jacquard pattern devices.

JAMB – The side of a door frame, doorway, or window; usually the side on which the opening for the lock is placed.

JERKER BAR – Part of a tufting machine comprising a movable guide or eye board through which the pile yarns are threaded. It controls tension on the pile yarns on their path to the tufting needles, removing slack on the upstroke of the needle bar and contributing to yarn feed control.

JUTE – A natural cellulosic fibre made from certain plants of the linden family which grow in warm climates such as found in India and Bangladesh. Jute yarns are used for woven carpet construction (backing) yarns and twine. Woven jute fabrics are used in tufted carpet as primary and secondary carpet backing. The latter are similar to burlap fabrics commonly used for carpet wrap and sewn burlap bags.

KNEE KICKER – A carpet installation tool consisting of a pinned plate connected to a short section of metal tubing. The end opposite to the plate has a padded cushion which the installer strikes with his knee to stretch carpet which is gripped by the pinned plate. Knee kickers should be used only in areas which are so small that power stretchers cannot be used. In general, adequate stretching of carpet installations cannot be achieved with knee kickers.

KNITTING – A fabric formation process comprising interlacing yarns in a series of connected loops with needles. Some carpet is produced by knitting, but is a very small fraction of total carpet. In carpet knitting, as in weaving, pile and backing are produced simultaneously. Multiple sets of needles interlace pile, backing, and stitching yarns in one operation.

KRAFTCORD – A yarn made from twisted kraft paper. Kraftcord is used as a construction (backing) yarn in woven carpets.

KUSTERS DYEING – Continuous dyeing using the kusters dye applicator and range. This is described in more detail in the text-under continuous dyeing.

LATEX – A water emulsion of synthetic rubber,. natural rubber, or other polymer. In carpet, latex is used for laminating secondary backings to tufted carpet, back- coating carpet and rugs, and for manufacturing foamed cushion. Almost all carpet latex consists of styrene-butadiene synthetic rubber (SBR) compounded with large quantities of powdered fillers. The latter are most often whiting, which is calcium carbonate.

LATEXING – A term used to describe the application of a natural or synthetic latex compound to the back of carpet.

LENO WEAVE – A woven fabric construction in which paired. warp yarns twist around one another between fill yarn picks. It is similar to woven gauze bandage construction. Leno construction renders the yarns relatively immobile within the fabric, making possible very open weaves which are relatively stable. Woven polypropylene secondary backings for tufted carpets are generally of leno weave construction.

LEVEL LOOP – A carpet style having all tufts in a loop form and of identical height. May be woven or tufted.

LINING – Same as Carpet Cushion

LOOM – Machine which produces woven fabrics. In weaving, lengthwise yarns (warp) are interlaced with yarns (fill) inserted at right angles to them by the shuttle (or other device such as gripper or rapier).

LOOP PILE – Carpet style having a pile surface consisting of uncut loops. May be woven or tufted. Also called “round wire” in woven carpet terminology.

LOOPER – A tufting machine part used in tufted carpet production. It is a thin flat metal hook that removes pile yarn from the tufting needle at the bottom of the down stroke.

LOW ROWS – A quality defect sometimes found in woven carpet comprising rows of tufts having pile heights below specification. This condition occurs in Axminster weaving when the face yarn spools are almost empty.

LUSTER – Brightness or reflectivity of fibres, yarns, carpets or fabrics. Synthetic fibres are produced in various lustre classifications including bright, semi- bright, semi dull, and dull. Bright fibres usually are clear (have no white pigment) whereas the duller designations have small amounts of white pigments such as titanium dioxide. Lustre of finished carpet also depends upon yarn heat-setting methods, dyeing, and finishing. In high traffic commercial areas duller carpets are often preferred for soil hiding ability.

MARKERS – Coloured yarns woven into the backs of woven carpets to aid installers in achieving correct pattern match and pile direction.

MATCH, SET OR DROP – Pattern match designates the arrangement and dimensions of the repeating units comprising the design of patterned carpet, including woven patterns, prints, tufted high lows, and others. A typical pattern repeat might be 36 inches wide by 24 inches long. In set match, this rectangular pattern unit is arranged in parallel rows across the carpet width. In a half drop pattern, the start of each pattern repeat unit is transposed to the midpoint of the side of the adjacent unit. In the example, each adjacent unit starts 12 inches down the side of the neighbouring one. In quarter drop match, each unit in the example would start six inches past the neighbouring pattern unit’s starting point. Thus, pattern repeat units in drop match repeat diagonally across the width, and in set match they repeat straight across the width perpendicularly to the length. Pattern repeat dimensions and match are significant to specifiers and purchasing agents because they influence the amount of excess carpet (over measured area) needed in multiple width installations.

MATTING – Severe pile crush combined with entanglement of fibres and tufts.

MENDING – Hand repair of carpet after tufting and weaving to replace missing tufts, remove knots and loose ends, etc.

METALLIC FIBER – Synthetic fibre made of metal, metal coated plastic, or plastic coated metal some- times used in small amounts in carpet to dissipate static electricity, thus preventing shock.

MILL END – A shoot piece of carpet roll goods having a length less than that of a full shipping roll or short roll but greater than a remnant. Quality standards differ among mills, but a mill end length specification of nine to twenty feet is typical. MIL-A unit of length equal to 0.001 inch. Often used for specifying the thickness and/or width of filaments, ribbons, films and foils.

MITER JOINT – A junction of two pieces of carpet (or other material) at an angle. Most miter joints involve pieces at right angles to one another with their ends out at 45 degrees to form the joint.

MODACRYLIC FIBERS – See Acrylics.

MOLDING – A wooden or plastic strip attached to the bottom of a baseboard or wall to cover the joint between wall and floor.

MONOFILAMENT – A yarn composed of a single continuous strand of synthetic polymer.

MORESQUE – A multicolour carpet made from Moresque yarns. Moresque yarns are produced by ply. twisting two or more singles yarns of different colour or shades. Moresque yarns thus have a “barber pole” appearance. Moresque carpets in suitable colors are good soil hiders in high traffic areas.

MULTIFILAMENT – Synthetic yarns composed of a multiplicity of continuous fibrous strands extruded together, usually from the multiple holes of a single spinneret. Multifilament carpet yarns are texturized to increase bulk and cover, and are called “bulked continuous filament” yarns or simply BCF yarns.

NAP – Carpet or rug pile surface.

NARROW CARPET – Woven carpet 27 or 36 inches wide.

NATURAL GRAY YARN – Unbleached and undyed yarn spun from a blend of black, brown, or gray wools.

NEEDLE – 1. Tufting-An eyed needle which inserts yarns into primary backing to form tufts. 2. Needlepunching-Barbed felting needles which entangle and compress fibrous fleeces into needled felts such as those used for outdoor carpet. 3. Knitting-Hooked needles that form the loops of knitted fabric.

NEEDLE BAR – Tufting machine part that holds the needles and carries them up and down. Also, that part of a knitting machine on which needles are mounted.

NEEDLE BOARD – Part of a needle loom or fibre locker in which a multiplicity of downward pointing barbed felting needles is mounted. It is attached to a beam that moves up and down. On the down stroke, felting needles penetrate a fibre batt or fleece, compressing it into a felted fabric.

NEEDLE LOOM – A machine for producing needled felt fabrics, also called needle-punched fabrics, which are sometimes used as outdoor carpet. The needle loom converts fibre directly to fabric by entangling and com- pressing fleece with barbed felting needles. Additional explanation is found under Needle, Needle Board, and Needle-Punching. (NOTE: “Needle Loom” also denotes certain narrow weaving looms used in tape production having a needle instead of a shuttle as the fill insertion device. These have no application to carpet.)

NEEDLE-PUNCHING – A method for manufacturing felt fabrics in which fibre batts or fleeces are compressed by the entangling action of barbed needles. Needle- punched carpet made from solution-dyed polypropylene is often used as outdoor carpet. Needle- punched nylon carpet is often printed and foam backed for indoor use.

NOIL – Short fibre removed during combing of wool or other natural fibre, particularly during worsted yarn production. It may subsequently be separately spun in- to yarn using the woollen system or other method capable of handling short fibre.

NONWOVEN – Any fabric manufactured by a method other than weaving but particularly those fabrics com- posed of fibres held together by chemical, mechanical, adhesive, or fusion means. In popular usage knitted fabrics are not considered to be nonwovens.

NOSING – The front dividing line of a step, where the top of a riser joins the front of a tread.

NYLON – Synthetic thermoplastic of the polyamide family. It may be melt extruded into filaments useful for carpet yarn. Nylon is by far the dominant fibre in tufted carpet pile yarns. Two chemical types, nylon-6,6 and nylon-6, are used in carpet. Nylon-6,6 is poly (hex- amethyleneadipamide) and nylon-6 is polycaprolactam.

OILY YARN – Yarn containing excessive oil on its surface, usually from excessive oiling of rings on spinning and twisting machines. Although not visible during carpet production, it may appear as soiled or dark lines of yarn when the carpet is in service. The problem is insignificant in piece-dyed carpet which is washed during the dye cycle, but appears in carpet made from stock-dyed or solution dyed yarn which is not subjected to wet processing after weaving or tufting.

OLEFINS – Any long chain synthetic polymer com- posed of at least 85% by weight of ethylene, propylene or other olefin units. Polypropylene yarns are used in carpets.

ORIENTAL RUGS – Handwoven rugs made in the Middle East and the Orient.

OUARTER – OUND – Wooden or plastic molding having a cross-section comprising a 90 degree arc of a circle. It is used at joints between walls and floors, or between larger moldings and floors.

OUTDOOR CARPET – Carpet which may be used outdoors without rapid fading or deterioration. The principal requirements are resistance to sunlight and water. Most outdoor carpet pile yarns are solution dyed polypropylene containing ultraviolet stabilization additives. Coatings and backing materials are synthetics that are water and rot resistant.

PACKAGE DYED – Yarn dyed while wound on perforated tubes or wire forms. The package dye machine forces dye liquor through the yarn on the dye package. (Discussed further in Chapter 13)

PADDING – Same as Carpet Cushion.

PATTERN – Artistic decorative design on the surface of carpet. It may be printed, woven with coloured yarns, or sculptured in multiple pile heights.

PATTERN STREAKS – Visually apparent streaking in patterned carpet resulting from linear juxtaposition of pattern elements in one direction. It is usually most visible in the length direction. It is not a carpet defect, but is inherent in certain designs. Contract specifiers should view rolls of carpet laid out on a floor to evaluate geometric or other busy patterns for this characteristic which may be objectionable in long corridors and other large areas but not visible in small rooms.

PICKS PER INCH – in woven carpet and fabric the number of fill yarns per inch of length.

PIECE DYED – Carpet dyed by immersion into an aqueous dye bath. (Discussed further in Chapter 13)

PIGMENT – Highly coloured insoluble powdered substance used to impart colour to other materials. White pigments, e.g., titanium dioxide, are dispersed in fibre forming polymers to produce delustered (semi dull and dull) fibres.

PIGMENTED YARNS – Same as solution dyed or dope dyed yarns.

PILE CRUSH – Loss of pile thickness by compression and bending of tufts caused by traffic and heavy furniture. The tufts collapse into the air space between them. It may be irreversible if the yarn has inadequate resilience and/or the pile has insufficient density for the traffic load.

PILE DENSITY – See Density.

PILE HEIGHT – The length of the extended tufts measured from the primary backing top surface to their tips. Pile tufts should be gently extended but not stretched during this measurement. This specification is usually expressed in fractions or decimal fractions of an inch in the U.S. and sometimes in millimetres elsewhere.

PILE SETTING – Carpet cleaners’ term for the pro- cess of erecting the damp and dishevelled pile after shampooing by means of a pile brush or pile lifting machine.

PILE WIRE – Part of a carpet weaving loom consisting of a metal strip or rod on which the pile tufts are formed.

PILE YARN – The yarn which forms the tufts of the carpet. Also called “Face Yarn.”

PILF – The visible wear surface of carpet, consisting of yarn tufts in loop and/or cut configuration. Some- times called the face or nap.

PILL TEST – Carpet flammability test described in federal regulations CPSC 1-70 and CPSC 2-70. It measures flammability as a function of the size of burn produced by timed burning tablet (Methenamine). Also used on the back of carpet. All carpet sold in the United States must pass the CPSC 1-70 flammability test.

PILLING – A condition of the carpet face (which may occur from heavy traffic) in which fibres from different tufts become entangled with one another forming hard masses of fibres and tangled tufts. Pills may be cut off with scissors.

PITCH – See Gauge.

PLIED YARN – A yarn composed of two or more single yarns twisted together. Many 2-ply yarns are used in carpet. In cut-pile carpet (e.g. saxony) plied yarns must be heat-set to prevent untwisting under traffic. Multiple continuous filament yarns made by fibre producers are sometimes air-entangled rather than twisted together.

PLUSH FINISH – A smooth carpet surface texture in which individual tufts are only minimally visible and the overall visual effect is that of a single level of fibre ends. This finish is normally achieved only on cut-pile carpet produced from non-heat-set singles spun yarns by brushing and shearing.

PLY – A single end component in a plied yarn, or the number which tells how many single ends have been ply-twisted together to form a plied yarn, e.g., 2-ply or 3-ply.

POLYESTER – A fibre-forming thermoplastic synthetic polymer used in some carpet fibre. Essentially all polyester carpet fibre is staple and the yarns are spun yarns. Polyester for carpet is made from terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol and is known chemically as poly (ethylene terephthalate).

POLYMERS – High molecular weight chemical com- pounds formed by repeated linking of smaller chemical units called monomers. Polymers from which fibres are made are long chain molecules in which the monomers are linked end to end linearly. Synthetic polymers used for carpet fibre include nylon-6, 6 and nylon-6 (polyamides), polyester, polypropylene, and polyacrylonitrile (acrylics). In popular terminology, polymers are also called plastics or resins.

POLYPROPYLENE – Synthetic thermoplastic polymer used for molded items, sheets, films, and fibres. FTC (U.S. Government) classification is Olefin. The polymer is made by stereo specific polymerization of propylene. Most polypropylene carpet fibre is solution dyed and sometimes contains ultraviolet stabilizers for outdoor use. Printable modifications are available but not extensively used. The carpet fibre is available as both bulked continuous filament yarns and staple for spun yarn production.

POWDER – A carpet cleaning preparation consisting of absorbent granules impregnated with dry cleaning fluids, detergents, and other cleaners. The dry powder is sprinkled on the carpet, worked into the pile with a brush, left to absorb soil for a short time, and finally removed with the absorbed soil by vacuuming.

POWER STRETCHER – A carpet installation tool used to stretch carpet in overpad tackless strip installations. It consists of a pinned plate which grips carpet, tubular extensions, a padded end which in use bears against an opposing wall or other structure, and a lever system which multiplies the installer’s applied stretching force. All contract installations should be power stretched unless the area is so small that this is impossible. If (and only if) power stretching is impossible, knee- kickers may be used.

PRIMARY BACKING – A component of tufted carpet consisting of woven or nonwoven fabric into which pile yarn tufts are inserted by the tufting needles. It is the carrier fabric for the pile yarn and should not be con- fused with secondary backing which is a reinforcing fabric laminated to the back of tufted carpet subsequent to the tufting process. Most primary backing is either woven or nonwoven polypropylene, although woven jute is still sometimes used. Some synthetic primary backings have nylon fibre attached to their upper surfaces to make them union dyeable with nylon pile yarns.

PRIME URETHANE CUSHION – Separate carpet underpad made from virgin polyurethane foam. The sheet of foam is cut from large “loaves.” As opposed to prime cushion, rebonded polyurethane is made from recovered scrap.

PRINTED CARPET – Carpet having coloured patterns applied by methods analogous to those used for printing flat textiles and paper. These include flatbed screen printing employing woven fabric screens, rotary screen printing with perforated sheet steel screens, Stalwart printing employing sponge rubber pattern elements on wooden rollers, and modern computer programmed jet printing. (See Chapter 14)

PUCKERING – An installation defect in carpet seams in which one side is longer than the adjoining carpet edge. The excess carpet gathers into wrinkles or pleats at the seam.

QUARTER – A woven carpet term that designates the width of narrow carpet. It is one quarter of a yard, or nine inches. At one time most woven carpet was made on narrow looms. Widths such as 27 inches and 36 inches were commonly called three-quarter and four- quarter carpet, respectively.

QUARTER DROP-MATCH – See Match.

RANDOM SHEARED – A carpet texture created by shearing either level loop or high-low loop carpet lightly so that only the higher loops are sheared. The sheared areas are less reflective than the unsheared loops which appear brighter and lighter in colour. Random shearing of high-low loop carpet produces a texture somewhat similar to cut and loop.

REED – Part of a carpet weaving loom consisting of thin strips of metal with spaces between them through which warp yarns pass. The motion of the reed pushes fill yarn tightly into the fabric.

REED MARKS – Woven fabric (or woven carpet) defects consisting of lengthwise streaks caused by rubbing of reed elements against warp yarns.

REMNANT – A short piece of carpet roll goods usually less than nine feet long.

REPEAT – The dimensions of the basic pattern unit in any type of patterned carpet including printed, woven, high-low tufted loop, cut and loop, etc. See Match for further discussion.

RESILIENCE – Ability of carpet pile or cushion to recover original thickness after being subjected to compressive forces or crushing under traffic.

RESIST PRINTING – A technique for producing coloured patterns wherein carpet is first printed with colourless chemicals which alter the dye affinity of the printed areas. The printed areas in nylon carpet, for example, may be altered to be light dyeing and/or cationic dyeable relative to the untreated regular acid dyeable nylon. Subsequent piece dyeing in a dye beck with appropriate selected dyestuff s produces a coloured pattern. In this fashion numerous colour ways may be produced from a single print run.

RESTRETCH – A carpet installation term used to de- scribe carpet stretching performed subsequent to original installation to remove wrinkles, bubbles, or loose fit. Most restretching is caused by failure of the installer to adequately stretch the carpet during original installation. Restretching should be performed with power stretchers and not with knee kickers. This is true of all stretching operations in overpad tackless strip installations.

RISER – The vertical or front surface of a step, rising from the back of a tread.

ROTARY BRUSHING – A carpet cleaning technique in which a detergent solution is worked into the pile by a motor-driven rotating brush. Loosened soil and spent solution is often subsequently removed by vacuum.

ROUND WIRE OR LOOPED PILE – A Wilton or velvet carpet woven with the pile yarn uncut

ROVING – An intermediate stage in the production of spun yarns consisting of a loose assembly of staple fibres with little or no twist. Roving is smaller than sliver but larger than yarn.

ROWS OR WIRES – In woven carpet this is the number of pile yarn tufts per running inch lengthwise. Called rows in Axminster and wires in Wilton and velvet carpet. Analogous to “stitches per inch” in tufted carpet.

RUBBER – A term sometimes applied to carpet cushion made from foam or sponge, and to both separate and attached cushion.

RUG – Carpet cut into room or area dimensions and loose laid.

SAXONY – A cut-pile carpet texture consisting of heat- set plied yarns in a relatively dense, erect configuration, with well defined individual tuft tips. Saxonies are denser and have more erect tufts than shags. Their tip definition is more pronounced than in singles plush, which is another dense cut-pile carpet style. Saxonies have generally displaced singles plush styles from the market place, and many dealers call their smoother finished saxonies “plushes.”

SCALE DRAWING – A drawing, such as a building blueprint, having its measurements in fixed proportion to the actual dimensions of the room, floor, or building depicted. A typical scale might be “one quarter inch to the foot.” On such a drawing, each quarter inch of linear dimension represents one foot of linear dimension in the actual structure.

SCRIBING – An installation term for the method of transferring the exact irregularities of a wall, floor, or, other surface onto a piece of carpet by a tracing technique. The carpet is then cut to fit exactly.

SCULPTURED – Any carpet pattern formed from high and low pile areas, such as high-low loop or cut-and- loop.

SEAMS – See Back Seams; Face Seams; Cross Seams; Side Seams.

SECONDARY BACKING – Woven or nonwoven fabric reinforcement laminated to the back of tufted carpet, usually with latex adhesive, to enhance dimensional stability, strength, stretch resistance, lay-flat stiffness, and hand. Most secondary backings are woven jute, woven polypropylene, or nonwoven polypropylene. The term is sometimes used in a broader sense to include attached cushion and other polymeric back coatings. Because secondary backing is visible, whereas primary backing is concealed under the pile yarn in finished carpet, most dealers and installers refer to the secondary backing simply as “backing.”

SECONDS – Off-quality, defective, or substandard carpet normally marketed at substantial price discounts as “seconds” or “imperfects” by manufacturers. If manufacturers’ first quality standards are high, seconds may represent excellent values.

SELF-TONE – A pattern of two or more shades of the same colour. When two shades are used in a pattern or design, it is called “two-tone.”

SELVAGES – Carpet edges at @ides of rolls.

SERGING – A method of finishing edges of area rugs cut from roll goods by use by heavy coloured yarn sewn around the edges in a close overcast stitch.

SET or DROP-MATCH – See Match.

SETTING – The process of preparing a pattern for the Axminster loom by winding the specified coloured yarns on a spool in the sequence required for weaving.

SEWING POLE – Any piece of wood or other material, more or less rounded, over which carpet may be laid in order to facilitate sewing and other related operations. Most installers prefer a wooden pole about 4 inches in diameter that has been slightly flattened on one side.

SHADING – Apparent colour difference between areas of the same carpet caused by normal wear and the resulting random difference in pile lay direction. It is a characteristic of all cut-pile carpet and is most pronounced in singles plush. It is not a manufacturing defect. The physical cause is the difference between cut end, lustre and side lustre of fibres. The sides of fibres reflect more light and appear brighter and lighter in colour than the ends which absorb more light and appear to be duller and darker in colour.

SHAG – A carpet texture characterized by long pile tufts laid over in random directions in such a manner that the sides of the yarn form the traffic surface. Modern shags are made from plied heat-set yarns and are either cut-pile or cut-and-loop styles.

SHEARING – Carpet manufacturing process for producing a smooth carpet face, removing fuzz, or creating random sheared textures. Carpet shears have many steel blades mounted on rotating cylinders which cut fibres on carpet surfaces in a manner analogous to a lawn mower cutting grass. Depth of shearing may be indicated by a modifying word, e.g., defuzz and tip- shear suggest a shallow cut of the shear, whereas a full shear would imply a deep cut as, used for producing mirror-finished plush.

SHED – A weaving term describing the space between warp yarns (created by alternate raising and lowering of the loom harness) in which the fill yarn is carried by the shuttle or other fill insertion device.

SHOOTING or SPROUTING – Emergence of long pile tufts above the normal pile surface. The condition is often correctable by cutting the sprouted tufts even with the pile with a scissors or knife before or after installation.

SHORT ROLL – A length of carpet roll goods shorter than a full shipping roll and longer than a remnant.

SHOT – A weaving term for fill yarn, the yarn inserted at right angles to the warp across the fabric width. In woven carpet, it is the number of picks of fill yarn per row of pile tufts.

SHUTTLE – Part of a weaving loom which carries fill yarn back and forth across the fabric width. In conventional looms it contains a spool of fill yarn called a bobbin.

SIDE SEAMS – Seams running the length of the carpet. Sometimes called length seams.

SKEIN DYED YARN – Pile yarn dyed while in the form of large loosely wound skeins. (See Chapter 13)

SLIVER – An intermediate stage in the production of spun yarns from staple fibre. It is a large, soft, untwisted strand or rope of fibres produced by carding or pin drafting.

SOIL RETARDANT – A chemical finish applied to fibres or carpet and fabric surfaces which inhibits attachment of soil to fibre.

SOLUTION DYED – Fiber coloured by pigments dispersed in the polymer melt or solution prior to extrusion into synthetic fibre. (See Chapter 13, also see Dope Dyed and Spun Dyed.)

SPACE DYED – Yarn dyed two or more colors which alternate along the length. See Chapter 13 “Dyeing” for variations, methods, and applications of space dyed yarns in contract carpet.

SPECIFIC GRAVITY – Ratio of the density (weight per unit volume) of a material to the density of water under standard conditions. Arithmetically, densities and specific gravities expressed in metric units are approximately equal. Carpet fibre specific gravities range from 0.91 for polypropylene (lighter than water) to 1.38 for polyester (about 38 percent denser than water).

SPIKE ROLL – Part of a tufting machine that pulls the primary backing and tufted carpet through the working area of the machine. It consists of a pinned driven roll that grips the cloth. The relationship of spike roll rotational speed and strokes per minute of the needle bar determines the number of stitches per inch in the tufted product.

SPINNING – A term for yarn or fibre production. To the fibre manufacturer, spinning is synonymous with extrusion of polymer through the small holes of the spinneret into synthetic fibre. To the conventional textile yarn mill, spinning is the conversion of staple fibre into spun yarn. See Chapter 11 “Pile Fibres and Yarns” for further details.

SPLUSH – A tufted carpet style, no longer popular, combining characteristics of both shag and plush textures. Most splushes were made from non-heat-set singles yarns (similar to yarns used in plush) but were constructed with long pile length on wide gauge machines at relatively low stitch rates (similar to shag construction). The combination of singles yarns and low density tuft placement resulted in matting, pilling, and generally poor wear performance. It is definitely not a contract style.

SPONGE CUSHION – Rubber foam material which is chemically blown to form a cushion product.

SPROUTING – Protrusion of individual tuft or yarn ends above pile surface. May be clipped with scissors. See Shooting.

SPUN DYED – Same as Solution Dyed and Dope Dyed. See Chapter 13 “Dyeing” for further discussion.

STAIN – Foreign material (soil, liquids, etc.) on carpet that is not removable by standard cleaning methods. See section on “Carpet Maintenance”.

STAPLE FIBER – Short lengths of fibre which may be converted into spun yarns by textile yarn spinning processes. Also simply called staple. Staple may also be converted directly into nonwoven fabrics such as needle-punched carpet. For carpet yarns spun on the common modified worsted systems, most staples are six to eight inches long. See Chapter I 1 “Pile Fibres and Yarns.”

STATIC SHOCK – Discharge of electrostatic potential from carpet to person to conductive ground, e.g., a doorknob. Shoe friction against carpet fibre causes production of electrostatic charge. Various static control systems and finishes are used in contract carpet to dissipate static charge before it builds to the human sensitivity threshold. See Chapter 6 “Static Control.”

STAY TACKING – A carpet installation term for temporary nailing or tacking to hold the stretch until the entire installation is stretched over and fastened onto the tackless strip. An important technique in large con- tract installations which are too large to stretch in one step.

STEP RETURN – A term for that part of a staircase tread which extends over the riser. Also known as a bullnose or extended nosing.

STIFFNESS – Resistance of materials, such as carpet, to bending.

STITCH LENGTH – Total length of yarn from which a tuft is made. It is numerically equal to twice the pile height plus the associated back-stitch behind the primary backing.

STITCHES – Stitches per inch. Number of yarn tufts per running inch of a single tuft row in tufted carpet.

STOCK DYED YARN – Coloured spun yarn produced from fibres dyed in staple form. The term does not include yarns spun from solution dyed staple. See Chapter 13 “Dyeing”.

STOP MARKS – Width wise mechanical pile imperfections in tufted carpet. Usually caused by improper stop and start techniques by the machine operator.

STREAK – Any lengthwise narrow visual defect in carpet. Dye streaks may be caused by a single pile end having different dye affinity from the others. Other streaks may be yarn defects such as tight twist, stretched yarn or yarns larger or smaller than the others.

STRETCH – A carpet installation term for the amount of elongation of carpet when it is stretched over cushion onto tackless strip. Generally one to two percent.

STUFFER – A backing yarn in woven carpet. Stuffers are normally large warp yarns (lengthwise yarns) which increase weight, strength, hand and stiffness.

SWATCH – A small carpet sample. Carpet specifiers should retain swatches to verify colour, texture, weight and other quality factors when carpet is delivered.

TAK DYEING – A continuous dyeing process for producing random multicolour patterns which are usually less sharply defined than printed patterns. Colour dye liquor is applied to the carpet in a controlled pattern (of droplets. (See Chapter 13)

TEMPLATE – A paper or cardboard pattern used by installers as a guide for cutting carpet for areas having complicated or unusual shapes.

TENSILE STRENGTH – The greatest stretching forces a yarn, fabric, or carpet can bear without breaking.

TEXTURE – Visual and tactile surface characteristics of carpet pile including such esthetical and structural elements as high-low or cut-and-loop patterning, yarn twist, pile erectness or lay-over, harshness or softness to the touch, lustre, and yarn dimensions.

TEXTURIZING – See Bulking.

THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY – Ability of a material to transmit heat. It is the reciprocal of resistivity. Good insulators, including some carpets, have high resistivity (R-value) and low thermal conductivity.

THRESHOLD – The raised board beneath a door. Also known as sill or saddle.

TIMING – Operational sequence of the moving parts of looms and tufting machines.

TIP SHEARING – Light, shallow shearing to add surface interest to carpet texture or simply to clean up and defuzz during carpet finishing.

TONE ON TONE – A carpet pattern made by using two or more shades of the same hue.

TOP COLORS – in printed or woven coloured patterns, top colors are the ones forming the pattern elements, as distinguished from background or ground colors.

TOTAL WEIGHT – Weight per square yard of the total carpet pile, yarn, primary and secondary backings and coatings.

TRAFFIC – The passing to-and-fro of persons with special reference to carpet wear resulting therefrom.

TREAD – The horizontal part of a step on which the foot treads.

TUFT BIND – Force required to pull a tuft from the carpet (usually measured in ounces).

TUFTED CARPET – Carpet manufactured by the tufting process, which comprises insertion of pile tufts by a row of eyed needles which penetrate a primary backing fabric, thus forming tufts from the yarn threaded through the eyes of the tufting needles. More than ninety percent of all carpet sold in the United States is tufted.

TUFTS – The cut or uncut loops of a pile fabric.

TWIST – A yarn term describing the number of turns per inch and direction of twist of either the singles or plies around their axes. Twist direction is either right or left handed, also called Z or S-twist. Carpet yarns usually have rather low-twists, in the 2.5 to 6.0 turns per inch (TPI) range, with the majority in the 3.5 to 5.0 TPI range.

TWIST CARPET – Pile texture created with tightly twisted yarns in which the ply twist is substantially greater than the singles twist, causing the yarn to curl. Most twist styles are cut-pile, and the unbalanced hard twist causes a nubby texture (See Frieze.)

TWO – ONES – A design or pattern obtained by using two shades of the same colors.

VELVET CARPET – Woven carpet made on a loom similar to a Wilton loom but lacking the Jacquard motion. Velvet carpets are generally level loop or plush in solid or tweed colors.

VELVET FINISH – A smooth surface texture on dense plush carpet.

VINYL – Colloquial term for the synthetic polymer poly (vinyl chloride). Also called PVC. PVC is used as a carpet back-coating for marine and outdoor use, vinyl foams have been used as attached cushion. Many walk-off mats have solid sheet vinyl backings.

WARP – A weaving term for yarns in woven fabrics and carpets which run lengthwise. Warp yarns are usually delivered to the loom from a beam, a large spool with hundreds of ends wound on it, mounted behind the loom. Woven carpets usually have three sets of warp yarns, which may be wound on three loom beams. These include stuffer warp for lengthwise strength and stiffness, pile warp which forms the carpet surface tufts, and chain warp which interfaces with fill yarn to lock the structure together.

WARP PILE – In carpet weaving, the warp yarns forming the pile. See Warp.

WEAVING – A fabric formation process, used for manufacturing carpet, in which yarns are interlaced to form cloth. The weaving loom interfaces lengthwise (warp) and width wise (filling) yarns. Carpet weaves are complex, often involving several sets of warp and filling yarns. (See Axminster, Wilton and Velvet.)

WEFT OR WOOF – Yarns which run width wise in woven cloth or carpet, interlacing with the various warp yarns. See Filling Yarn.

WILTON – A type of woven carpet and the loom used to manufacture it. Wilton looms have Jacquard pattern mechanisms which use punched cards to select pile height and yarn colour. The carpets are often patterned or have multilevel surfaces.

WIRE HEIGHT – It is the height of the pile tufts in woven carpet.

WIRES – Parts of carpet weaving looms composed of thin metal rods or blades on which the pile tufts are formed. Round wires produce loop pile carpet, and flat wires with sharp edges produce cut-pile (plush) textures.

WOOLEN YARN – Spun yarn, composed of any natural or synthetic fibre, manufactured by the woollen system spinning process. Compared to worsted system or parallel spun yarns which are common to most tufted carpets, woollen yarns are soft, bulky, and hairy. Staple for woollen spinning is short, in the 3.5 to 5.5 inch range.

WORSTED YARN – Spun yarn, composed of any natural or synthetic fibre, manufactured by the worsted or parallel spinning process. Most yarns for tufted carpet are parallel spun. Staple for worsted spinning is long, often in the 6 to 8 inch range. In worsted yarns, the fibres are relatively parallel, and the yarns are relatively smooth and compact in structure.

WOVEN BACKING – A tufted carpet term for primary or secondary backing manufactured by the weaving process. Secondary backings are usually woven jute or woven polypropylene. Primary backings are usually woven (or nonwoven) polypropylene.