Carpet Dyeing in the 1990s. Part 1 – Fibre and Yarn Dyeing

All too often, carpets are fitted and forgotten, every day taking punishment from thousands of pairs of feet clad in muddy shoes in a department store or smothered in the debris of domestic life. The only in-service care they receive is typically an occasional ‘once over’ with a vacuum cleaner. The fact that they can absorb such treatment and still retain their good appearance is a tribute to the work of carpet technologists over the years, and not least carpet dyers. In the first part of this feature, James Park reviews some of the commercial facts of life for the carpet dyer and examines in more detail the technology of carpet fibre and yarn coloration