Technical Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a base fabric that forms the woven floor of the carpets manufactured by tufting method in houses, hotels, airplanes, landscaping areas, vehicles, and vehicles used in the defense industry.

The present invention can be used in the weaving of wall-to-wall or tile manufacture carpets used in houses or hotels, in aircraft floor coverings, vehicle interiors, landscape areas and in the production of grass floors used in sports fields, and the production of carpets or flooring used in the defense industry.

State of the Art

The fabrics used in the state of the art are made of Polypropylene raw material, and the disadvantages of this material are disclosed below.

Polypropylene is a high-cost input product due to production conditions (compared to polyester raw material). Furthermore, the investment costs of the appropriate machine park required for the production of fabric made of polypropylene raw material are very high. (Compared to polyester fabric production Machine Park)

Fabric that is produced from polypropylene raw material cannot be subjected to stenter treatment at desired temperatures, and particularly in printed carpets, due to the chemical structure of polypropylene. A product with the desired quality scale cannot be manufactured for the carpets to be manufactured for the printed carpet market, which is a big market. The final product varies in size in terms of width-length measurements, especially for carpet tiles because the stability (width-length changes) in base fabrics produced from polypropylene is not in the desired extent. Furthermore, with regards to the PP Primary Carpet Backing, which is used in the state of the art;

Fabric made of polypropylene tape yarn cannot be resistant to ultraviolet rays due to raw material properties. Therefore, stabilizers must be added to the product formula during the production of tape yarn as auxiliary raw materials that increase the resistance to UV rays (Ultraviolet). This causes an increase in product costs. On the contrary, the low UV resistance directly affects the quality of the products exposed to the sun. Deformation, strength loss, and tears occur in a short time in carpets produced with fabrics with low UV resistance. Tufting is performed with yarns produced from polyester and/or polyamide on the first carpet base produced from polypropylene in printed carpets. The carpet must be passed through the stenter at 170-190° C temperature after the dyeing process so as to have a high print quality in printed carpets. However, the carpet cannot be run through the stenter at these temperatures due to the nature of polypropylene. The polypropylene fabric begins to deform when these temperatures are reached, however, polyester yarns are resistant to these elevated temperatures.

Therefore, the print quality of the printed carpet, which cannot be run through the stenter at said high temperatures, cannot be maintained at the desired level. Printing quality is tried to be increased with alternative solutions. In that case, this results in an increase in product costs.

Another constraint in carpets made of polypropylene fabric and polyester and/or polyamide yarn is recyclability. Today, the increasing demand for products that can be recycled and/or produced from recycled products also reduces the recyclability possibility of carpets produced from these two different raw materials (polypropylene base+ polyester and/or polyamide yarn). The decrease in demand for products that do not have recyclability property means cost loss for manufacturers.

Fabrics produced from tape yarn made of polypropylene raw material have a smooth surface depending on the property of tape yarns. And the yarns are bright. Finally, the fabric produced also has a smooth and shiny surface. This brightness shines by reflecting the light through the weaving yarns in the produced carpets. The density of weaving should be increased so as to eliminate this situation. More weaving yarn is used so as to do this. As a result, it increases production costs.

The production process is completed by covering the fabric that is subjected to tufting and run through the stenter, with a second carpet base, which is the third layer following the base fabric and the tufted thread, and/or a felt base and/or other different products so as to ensure base retention at the final phase. This coating process is performed with a substance called latex. It is required to use more latex in produced carpets using this fabric (compared to polyester base) to ensure adhesiveness because the propylene base is smooth. As a result, this process causes an increase in production costs as well.

Brief Description and Objects of the Present Invention

The first carpet base fabric designed to be used in wall-to-wall carpets and/or carpet tiles produced by the tufting method, particularly in printed production is a woven fabric formed by combining weft and warps produced from staple fibers and/or filament yarns by means of plain weave knitting method.

The inventive polyester fabric (polyester fabric produced with filament and/or staple fiber weft and warps) is highly resistant to UV rays due to its chemical structure. The final product is naturally resistant to UV rays. It is not required to use UV stabilizers, which are auxiliary raw materials that had to be included in the formula in the prior art and provide a cost advantage to the producer by directly affecting production costs. The inventive polyester fabric (polyester fabric produced with filament and/or staple fiber weft and warps) is resistant to high temperatures (170-190), which is necessary for the quality of dye fixation, particularly in printed carpets. Therefore, the poor printing quality due to the high temperature in printed carpets using fabrics made of polypropylene will not be seen when polyester fabrics are used. The desired temperatures can be reached, and the desired printing quality can be achieved in the stenter.

The use of polypropylene in carpets woven with polyester and/or polyamide yarns prevents the final product from being recyclable. However, the use of inventive polyester fabric (polyester fabric produced with filament and/or staple fiber weft and warps) ensures that carpets produced with fabrics and yarns produced from the same raw material are recyclable.

The surfaces of the first carpet base fabrics that are woven from yarns with reduced surface smoothness obtained from the dull yarns to be produced from the raw material obtained by adding TI02 to the product formula during the polymerization process of the polyester raw material have a rougher and dull appearance.

Since the carpets to be produced will have more dullness, this ensures that less weaving yarn is required in some quality carpets. This will allow for the reduction of production costs.

Furthermore, said polyester fabric (polyester fabric produced with filament and/or staple fiber weft and warps) will have a rougher surface. It will allow the use of less latex during the floor covering. This will allow for the reduction of production costs. Another novelty provided by the present invention is that the yarns and the base can be dyed simultaneously in the printing process of tufted carpets by using the base fabric and yarns with the same property in carpets. Since the two layers can be dyed simultaneously, this will allow for having better quality and homogenous paint effects.

Yet another novelty is that carpets in various colors, designs, and patterns together with different dye raw materials can be obtained by using different combinations of our product polyester fabric (polyester fabric produced with weft and warps consisting of filament and/or staple fiber) and polyester yarns produced from different polyester raw materials.

Description of the Figures

Figure 1. Textured Production Unit

Figure 2. Conical Warp

Figure 3. Weaving

Figure 4. Fixing Unit

Figure 5. Open End Production Unit

Reference Numbers:

101 POY Yarn Bobbin

102 Feed Roller (W1)

103 Drawing Furnace

104 Cooling Channel

105 Friction Unit

106 Online Control Unit

107 Drawing Roller

108 Intermingle System

109 IMG Roller

110 Fixing Furnace 111 Yarn Lubrication Unit

112 Bobbin Winding Unit

301 Creel-Warp Bobbin

302 Yarn Probe

303 Cross Card

304 Conical Warp Drum

305 Bands

306 Lubrication Unit

307 Warp Beam

401. First Weft

402. Second Weft

403. First Warp

404. Second Warp

501. Woven Fabric Roll

502. Roll Unloading Machine

503. Hot Roller

504. Cold Roller

505. Printing Roller

506. Fixed Fabric

507. Roll Winding Machine

508. Hot Oil Heating Boiler

509. Hot Oil Supply-Return Pipes

Description of the Invention

In the detailed description provided herein, the subject of the invention is described by means of examples only for clarifying the subject matter and without constituting any limiting effects. Polyester melt is produced by a chemical reaction as the raw material of the texturized weft and warp yarn used in the invention by using PTA (Pure Terephthalic Acid) which is a petroleum derivative, for the production of POY yarn or Chips, MEG (Mono Ethylene Glycol) and Antimony triacetate (catalyst) and titanium dioxide (matting) as an auxiliary agent.

Closed containers in which the chemical reaction takes place under pressure, heat, and vacuum are called reactors; polyester production is carried out continuously in a plurality of reactors connected in series. The first two reactors are the reactors where the esterification reaction occurs under pressure and heat. PTA, MEG, and catalyst are mixed in the paste preparation tank and the mixture is fed to the first reactor. In the second esterification reactor, titanium dioxide solution is added so as to ensure dulling and to provide surface roughness in the production of semi-dull polyester. The esterification product is transferred to the third and fourth reactor, which are the pre- polymerization stages with pressure differences. The reactions herein take place under vacuum. Polymerization starts in the third reactor and ends in the fifth reactor (final reactor). In the final reactor, polycondensation takes place under high vacuum.

The polyester melt exiting from the final reactor is fed to the liquid polymer direct production positions from the polycondensation plant by means of a gear pump. Each production position can be closed separately by means of a filling valve located in front of the positions or can be transferred to the production unit of the melt chips. Here, it is cooled with demineralized water, cut into chips in the granulator, dried, and stored in the chips stock bunker. And/or the recycled raw material used as raw material in the production of texturized weft and warp yarn used in our invention, beverage bottles made of polyester, medicine bottles, ropes, clothes, carpet fibers are collected, the products are sorted according to their colors and homogeneously separated according to their color. Prior to these stages, plastic waste is suitably sorted out from foreign substances according to the type of product. Large contaminants are removed manually on the separation table. Plastic wastes can be divided into colors among their own types if desired. Light and heavy plastics are separated by floating, are passed in a crushing machine, crushed, and turned into bran. The semi-finished product that is converted into bran is first washed in the washing pool, then it is dried in dryers, and moisture is removed depending on the type of plastic. It must be dried until the humidity rate in plastics is less than 1 %. The dried bran is then fed into the granule extruder after the agglomeration process. The raw material which is turned into a melt via heat by means of the extruder is pressed into nozzles under pressure and comes out of the nozzles in a shape similar to spaghetti pasta, passes through the water pool for cooling, dried after being cut subsequent to the cooling process and turned into granules.

This may also be performed by drying and melting (extruder) the original granules/chips produced and recycled granules. The raw material in the formula in which 0-35% of original granule/chips and 65-100% of recycled granules are mixed or formula in which 0-100% of original granule/Chips and 0-35% of recycling granules is dosed into the crystallizer. These are crystallized in the crystallizer with the effect of hot dry air and mixing and prepared for the drying process.

In the crystallizer, the chips are prevented from forming lumps. At this stage, the crystal structure is smoothed, and the stay in the crystallization and drying sections are determined according to the flow rate. The temperature is 160°C. It flows from the crystallizer to the drying tube. While the dehumidified chips move down, the air is blown upwards. Moisture above 50 ppm is removed with hot dry 170-175°C air. If this step is not performed, the viscosity will decrease due to the high humidity, thereby leading to ruptures during the flow of the yarn through the nozzle. The dried chips reach the extruder so as to be melted. Here, they are transformed into a homogeneous solution by being mixed via electrical heaters. Following this phase, the polyester melt is isolated and transported through jacketed pipelines where heat loss is prevented. The extruder is the system in which the raw material is melted and transformed into melt by being pressurized. The chips in granule form are melted with the help of heaters around the screw by means of the worm screw therein, thereby achieving pressurization. The melt is mixed homogeneously and transferred through the dynamic mixer located at the end of the endless screw. The extruder melts the chips into a melt of a certain viscosity value. Chip temperature at the extruder inlet is approximately 80-100°C. The impurity of the solution must be maintained at all times. This is performed by special filtering systems.

5 The cleaned melt is discharged. Melt pumps feed the polymer melt into nozzle packs with a uniform flow in order to filter the polymer melt and to shape it into filaments by ejecting it through small holes on the nozzle. Subsequent to this stage, the melt that flows with 30-40 bar pressure, reaches the nozzles with 120 bar pressure. When the melt reaches the nozzle, it is first received by a pre-filter. Then it meets thick metal sand 10 and fine metal sand and continues on its way. There is a distributor plate located under this portion. The melt is approximately at 280°C while being ejected from the nozzles. Production manifolds are heated with high temperature resistant oil vapor. The filament yarn flushed in a round and trilobal nozzle sections pass through the cooling cabinets where they are cooled and controlled in a laminar and uniform manner and solidified is by the conditioned airflow, and an oil-water solution of 1 -1.5% is applied to the filaments by means of a dosage application system in spin-finish oil cooling cabinets. After passing through the cold godet drawing units running through the yarn channel following the lubrication process, POY yarns with 250-1200 denier, 100-150% breaking elongation, 1000-6300 g-force breaking strength properties are wound into cardboard 20 bobbins at a speed of 3000-4000 m/min in the winding unit for weft and warp.

POY bobbins shown in Figure 1 are loaded into the creels (101) of the texturing machine and the necessary preparations for the texturing process are initiated. The unfinished drafting process in the POY is completed (the yarn has become fully 25 oriented) with the speed of the first feeding roller (102) being 1.6-2.0 less than the speed of the second drawing roller (107) and by the heating process in the first drawing furnace (103).

The yarn, which exits from the drawing furnace at a temperature of approximately 180- BO 200°C, must enter the friction unit (105) above the glass transition point, that is, above 80-85°C. A cooling unit (104), which is called the cooling channel is positioned after the heater so as to reduce the temperature of the yarn down to said temperature. The main task of the cooling channel (104) is to remove the vibration of the yarn. Thread entering the friction unit (105) without vibration means increased filament ruptures, not performing the orientation process properly, hence, an improper texturing process. The yarn coming to the friction unit (105) is envolumed by the false twisting method and it is tried to be made similar to the natural yarn. Yarns between 150 -900 denier and 24- 144 filaments produced from original raw material/recycled raw material, yarns between 150-900 denier, and 24-144 filaments produced from original raw material/recycled raw material are combined at the output of the friction unit (105) at different levels and enter the IMG (108) process. IMG (108) process is performed so as to run warp yarn and weft yarn in weaving. The yarn is knotted/centered at certain areas by means of the attached IMG (108) nozzle after the drafting roller (107) of the texturing machine. The pressure applied to the IMG (108) nozzle is continuous, the filaments are knotted by escaping from the right and left of the region where the air is blown since the air hole in the nozzle blows exactly from the center. In this process, 70-140 points are made on the yarn per meter and 375-6300 kgrf tensile strength is achieved. The yarns are run through the fixing furnace (110) and the properties gained in friction are tried to be fixed so as to minimize the rotational movement on the yarn during the false-twisting process. The fixing furnace temperature is 160-240 C, i.e. temperatures slightly below the melting temperature. After the fixing process, the cone oil is fed to the yarn at a rate of 1-2.5% in the yarn lubrication unit (111) and wrapped around cardboard or plastic bobbins (112) at a certain tension and in certain quantities so as to prevent static electrification of 300-1500 denier weft and warp yarns with 10-17% low elongation at break.

The production of the raw material of the open-end weft and warp yarn used in the invention, as described in the production of POY, has the same processes from the nozzle to the ejection of the melt. After this stage, the filaments coming out of the nozzles are cooled with a constant temperature and speed of airflow. The hardened filaments are combined with an antistatic material so as to form a cable. The cables are lined up in the creels. The cables lined up in the creels implement the thermo-fixing process in hot drawing units and the elongation and strength properties of the filaments are adjusted. Then it is passed through the crimping unit to allow the fiber to crimp. Following the fixing unit, it is cut in 10-50 mm lengths and baled. Recycled fiber, which is the raw material of Open-End recycled weft and warp yarn used in the invention; fabrics, garments, carpet fibers, etc. products collected for recycling from producers, customers, end consumers, or other sources are homogeneously separated in terms of fiber type and color by classifying according to their colors. Therefore, it is not required to repaint the product. Metal accessories such as buttons and zippers that will cause problems for the machine during recycling are removed from textile products. Then the products such as fabric, clothes, etc. are fed to the shredding unit, which consists of sharp blades for drawing and shredding. The fibers subjected to the drawing and shredding process are shorter than the original fibers due to the deterioration of the fiber structure during the drawing and shredding process. Following drawing and shredding, the raw material is baled.

In Figure 2, the production of weft and warp yarns in the blow room (201) is sorted according to the formula comprising 65-100% of original staple fibers, 0-35% of recycled fibers, or 0-35% of original staple fibers, 65-100% of recycled fibers in bale form. The blow room machine consists of interconnected machines for the purpose of opening, pre-cleaning (202), dust removing (204), mixing (203), and properly feeding material to the card (204). The automatic bale opener (201) is able to process four groups of bales of 130 bales located on each side. The pre-cleaning machine (202) is an integral part of the cleaning process, it functions as efficient dust removal and cleaning machine after the bale opener. The mixer (203) can provide a homogeneous mixture even if the bales are not aligned optimally. Any problems that occur during bale plucking can be eliminated by this mixing process without causing any effect on the following process, the raw material is fed from the blow room (201) to the carding machine (205) by means of the pipes channel. Foreign substances and dust in the original fiber or recycled fiber structure are partially removed at this stage and the fibers are made parallel to form a layer called stuffing. In the carding machines, it is opened until it becomes a single fiber and it is turned into a card sliver (206) with a thickness of 4-8 ktex so as to remove small foreign substances and short fibers in a properly compacted fiber structure and to increase parallelism.

After doubling and folding (207) processes of original fiber in a ratio of 0-35% that is converted into a sliver (206) in carding machine, the recycled fiber in a ratio of 65-100% and/or original fiber sliver in a ratio of 65-100%, recycled fiber sliver in a ratio of 0-35%, the fibers in strip form are thinned and paralleled, and 4-8 ktex strips (209) are obtained in the draw frame, which has a more uniform structure than the carded sliver by means of the drawing system (208) found in draw frame.

These strips (209) obtained in the draw frame process are used in this spinning system based on the open-end fiber feeding principle, fibers that are opened one by one are attached to the open yarn end by twisting to form yarn. The basis of the system consists of transporting the fiber mass by the rotor movement (211) and transferring the same to the open end and obtaining the twisted yarn structure. The fibers fed in the form of draw frame (209) or card sliver (206) are taken into the machine in a controlled manner by feeding rollers (210) and they are carded by the trimming opening roller at the opening unit (210). The fibers are transported here one by one in a separate manner. There is a fiber transport tube whose fibers are suitably oriented between the opening roller (210) and the rotor. Ideally, the fibers that are required to reach the rotor (211) in rows, in a certain amount in the transmission tube such that they are end to end, are oriented by applying 90-180 times drawing (211) since the rotor circumference velocity is higher than the air velocity. As soon as the rotor (211) rotates, the fibers are collected in the rotor groove and added to other fiber layers and then while dubbed fibers in the rotor are added to the open end of the yarn by twisting, the yarns to be used in weaving as warp and weft yarns with 375-6300 gf breaking strength, 10-17% low breaking elongation, 0-2% boiling shrinkage, 5-20 Ne weft and/or 10-50 Ne warp properties, formed by passing through the drawing nozzle come to the winding system after the exit rollers and are wound in cylindrical or conical bobbins (212).

The warp yarns produced in the previous stage are wrapped in the cone warp machine in the required number of warp wires according to the fabric width to be produced and transferred to the warp beam of the desired width.

In the conical warp production process in Figure 3, the yarns coming from the creel (301) are wrapped in the conical warp drum (304) in the form of bands (305). The winding process continues until the density of the yarns in the bands (305) is reached in density required in the warp.

As soon as the winding is completed, the yarns on the conical drum (305) are passed through the wax cylinder in the lubrication unit (306) and transferred to the warp beam (307). According to the warp color report, the bobbins are aligned on the spindles in the creel (307) section. The yarn ends are taken from the brake mechanism (302) by means of a drawer and collected in front of the cross card (303). Herein, the warp yarns are passed between the card teeth to comply with the number of wires passing through the tooth and they are passed through a caliper card according to the number of wires passing through the tooth. The measurement is fixed and the hank is attached to the rods on the conical drum (304) by calculating the bandwidth (305) created here. At the same time, the warps are taken into the cross with the help of the previously prepared cross yarn. Subsequently, the machine is started and the winding of the first band (305) is started. The second cross is taken at the end of the band and these processes continue until all bands are finished. As soon as the winding is finished, the bands are passed through the wax cylinder (306) at the rear section of the machine and connected to the rings in the end cloth at equal tension. Finally, the winding (307) process is performed on the beam. A beam winding can be completed with a bobbin (a bandwidth) (305) of approximately 10% of the total number of wires in the beam during conical warp production. This reduces 70% -90% variations in fabric width where stability is very important. Woven fabric is formed by connecting two groups of yarns (Warp and Weft) at right angles to each other with a specific system called "knitting".

The weft yarns produced in the previous steps and the yarns in the warp beam are combined with the plain weave knitting to form the first carpet base fabric. The fabric is folded and processed in the customer stenter process in a trouble-free manner by means of the fabric folding system at the edge of the fabric.

A woven fabric with plain weave is created with the following; 150-750 denier warp yarn texturized from polyester POY or recycled polyester POY produced in the process in Figure 1 , and/or open end 10-50 Ne warp yarn produced from polyester fibre or recycled fiber in the process in figure 2, the first warp yarn (403) as in Figure 4; 150- 750 denier warp yarn texturized from polyester POY or recycled polyester POY produced in the process in Figure 1 , and/or open end 10-50 Ne warp yarn produced from polyester fiber or recycled fiber in the process in figure 2; the second warp yarn (404) with a warp density of 5-20 wires/ cm, 300-1500 denier weft yarn texturized from polyester POY or recycled polyester POY produced in the process in Figure 1 and/or open end weft yarn produced from polyester fiber or recycled fiber in the process in figure 2 (401), 300-1500 denier weft yarn texturized from polyester POY or recycled polyester POY produced in the process in Figure 1 and/or open end 5-20 Ne 2. weft yarn (402) produced from polyester fiber or recycled fiber in the process in figure 2 with 3-15 wire/cm weft density, plain weave. A table first carpet base fabric with (106-520) cm width is produced with properties Fabric Warp elongation 10-20%, fabric weft elongation 10-20%, fabric warp strength 40-150 kgf/5cm, fabric weft strength 40-150 kgf/5cm, fabric weight 40-250gr/m2, 106, 180, 212, 318, 378, 386, 412, 416, 512, 516, 520.

The fabric shown in Figure 5 is transferred to the fixing machine so as to stabilize the width-length drawing of the fabrics produced in the weaving process. The heat transfer oil resistant to high temperature is heated to 50-190 C degrees in the hot oil heating boiler (508). The heat transfer oil resistant to high temperature is sent to the hot cylinders through insulated pipes (507). The cylinders (503) are heated at a constant temperature with valve system no.3. The woven fabric (501) by exiting from the roll unloading unit (502) is passed through 2 hot rolls (503) at a constant temperature of 135-160 C. 1 side of the fabric is ironed and fixed while passing through the first roller, and the other side of the fabric is ironed and fixed while passing through the second roller. Then the fabric is cooled by passing it over the cylinder (504) cooled with water at 11-14 temperature and kept at a stable temperature between 20-27 degrees, the fabric cooled in the cold roller is passed through the printing rollers (505) and its surface is made rigid. The fixed fabric is wound to the cardboard tube in the roll winding unit (507).