By, Kathryn Hunchar, Meyer Design Inc. Project Designer
Last month, fellow Meyer Design Project Designer Lindsey Bloor and I were lucky enough to travel to LaGrange, Georgia, compliments of Interface Carpet. Pleasantly greeted by springtime weather we were able tour Interface's Mill and headquarters, which included marketing space, show space, tufting mill, reclamation center and backing plant.
Interface's carpet manufacturing process from start to finish is extremely well oiled, efficient and practically waste free. They purchase branded nylon fiber from three well-known fiber manufacturers.
Interface takes the fiber per color and puts them on spools which are organized on portable creels (photo #1), which are then arranged based on the "recipe" for each individual carpet style & color way. The fiber is threaded from the creels to the tufting machine (photo #2) in which an upholstery version of carpet is created (photo #3).
From here an anti-microbial, moisture resistant coating called Interscept is put on the back of the tufted material (photo #4). Then the material is transported on large a-frames to the backing plant. Each order is custom made and processed individually, which largely helps minimize waste.
Once the material is at the backing plant it is run through machines that layer on the backing in liquid form. Interface offers two primary backing types – GlassBac & GlassBac RE. The GlassBac offers a 40% pre-consumer/post-industrial recycled content and the GlassBac RE offers 49-74% recycled content with a minimum of 18" post-consumer recycled content. The liquid backing layer is then sent through large machines which sets the backing and then cools it to prepare the carpet to be cut & packaged in order to be sent to the job site. (photos #5)
Not only did we get an in-depth tour of the technical side of the process, but we also got a sneak peak at all of the new and upcoming trend setting products that are about to hit the market. While we couldn't take pictures of everything, stay tuned because there is lots of new and exciting products coming to the world of carpet tile!
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| Photo #1. Spools on portable creels. |
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| Photo #2. Tufting machine. |
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| Photo #3. Upholstery version of carpet. |
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| Photo #4. Intersecpt sealant. |
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| Photo #5. Backing and cooling machine. |
