Carpet and Rug Fiber Guide

Today carpet and rugs can be made from many various types of fibers, some are natural while others are synthetic, but each has its benefits.

Cotton

A product of the cotton plant, the fibers form within the cotton boll or the seed pod. Once processed and spun, cotton fibers are soft and lightweight. They also suck up moisture and dry quickly. Cotton can be used as a binding thread to help form the backing and fringes found in area rugs. It can also be used as the body or main fabric in some area rugs.

Rayon or Viscose

Rayon is made of cellulose, found in the walls of all plant cells, and is the main substance of wood. Spun rayon is very much like silk and was known for many years as artificial silk. The first rayon fiber was produced in 1884 by Count Hilaire de Chardonnet, known as the Father of Rayon.

Production involves collecting wood chips and putting them through several chemical processes that eventually yields viscose. The viscose is pushed through a spinneret, a metal plate with many small holes. The viscose strands shoot out of the spinneret into an acid bath where they harden into fibers. The size of the holes in a spinneret determines the fiber's denier or thickness.

Nylon

The overwhelming choice for broadloom or wall-to-wall carpet fiber in North America, treated nylon ranks first in durability, stain resistance and resilience. The first commercial production of nylon was begun in the United States in 1939 by the du Pont de Nemours Company (Du Pont).

The raw materials of nylon are petroleum, natural gas, air, and water. These elements are combined by chemical processes into long-chain polymers that constitute the fiber-forming substance known as polyamides. The polyamide is melted, spun and drawn after cooling to give the desired properties for the floor covering fiber.

Polyester

Polyester was introduced into the world of carpeting in the 60's. The widest used synthetic fiber, polyester is used in making a wide array of items from carpets and apparel to park benches and milk bottles.

Noted for its soft, luxurious hand or feel, polyester also has excellent color clarity and retention. It's also resistant to water-soluble stains and is easily cleaned although it is not as resilient as nylon. When used in thick, dense cut pile Saxony or textured styles, it's an excellent value. Well-constructed products made of polyester with high a twist will have excellent performance characteristics.

Polypropylene or Olefin

Polypropylene or Olefin fibers are petroleum products, derived from propylene and ethylene gases. Polypropylene fiber is characterized by its resistance to moisture. It is strong, abrasion-resistant, quick drying, colorfast, mildew-resistant, and soil- and stain-resistant. Its fibers have the lowest density of all manufactured fibers giving olefin textiles a very lightweight quality. Polypropylene is inexpensive and due to its lightweight nature, not very resilient to long-term wear.

Wool

Wool has natural fiber elasticity that can stretch up to 40% and bounce back again and again, so wool carpet retains its shape even under heavy traffic. Wool has a waxy outer membrane that covers the fiber's core, keeping water from penetrating easily. 80% of all stains are water-based and won't soak into wool, they remain on the wool carpet's surface allowing you to wipe them up. The wool's scaly characteristic keeps soil particles on the surface, allowing for much better results when vacuuming and cleaning.

Static is reduced by wool's natural ability to retain up to 30% of it's weight in moisture. Wool has a naturally low PH, resisting mildew, mold, and fungal attack in almost every climate. Wool fibers can withstand high temperatures, and therefore it does not readily catch fire. Wool tends to smolder slowly instead of bursting into flames. By comparison, man-made fibers will melt and combust.

Staple vs. Continuous Filament

All of these fibers come in either continuous filament or staple, except for wool (which is obviously not grown by sheep in a continuous filament). A well-built staple yarn, whether wool or synthetic, goes through blending, carding, pin drafting, spinning, twisting and heat setting. Continuous filament fibers are already in yarn form when they arrive at the mill and are twisted and heat set. The heat setting locks in the twist in the yarn bundle. A tighter twisted product will have less bulk but will hold its shape far longer. Some yarns are air-entangled rather than twisted. This process gives the yarn a more natural look, more hand, and more value. Air-entangled yarns are usually found in Berber products and loop pile constructions in carpeting.