FloorTek Expo 2009 Preview - August/September 2009

The FloorTek Expo, set for September 22 to 24 at the NorthWest Georgia Trade & Convention Center in Dalton, Georgia, is the only international flooring trade show dedicated to manufacturing technologies. It’s sponsored by the American Floorcovering Alliance and takes place every two years.

Card–Monroe Corp. is introducing its new ColorPoint series of tufting machines that offer breakthrough technology by placing up to six colors or more anywhere in a carpet pattern with pinpoint accuracy with no buried ends and varying amounts of cut and loop. The company will also be showing samples from its Virtual Weave cut pile machine, which tufts carpet with a flat-woven look and feel. CMC will also unveil a new development that creates a large variety of loop pile textures in tufted carpet.

American Superba, an equipment manufacturer for yarn heatsetting and dyeing, will feature the latest model of the MAT3 Accumulator, as well as the latest innovative control system, the Argmax, which can improve efficiency.

Eagle Parts & Machinery is one of the country’s top distributors of machines that sew artificial turf. In addition, it sells sewing equipment used in tufting, coating, finishing, samples, and area and custom rugs. It also sells cutting knives, shears and carvers for custom rugs and other areas, as well as binders, sergers, fringers, butt-seamers, lapp-seamers, and hand held sewing machines. It also carries machines that sew synthetic materials for landfill underlay and erosion barriers. 

Mahlo will be exhibiting the newest 12th generation of automatic weft straightening and pattern repeat/distortion measurement technology, with upgrade capabilities for older systems. Mahlo will also be featuring the QMS-12 Quality Control System for the on-line measurement of coating add-on, thickness and moisture. In addition, a unique solution for straightening carpet tile and other sensors for carpet temperature, discharge of static electricity and width measurement will be demonstrated. 

Measured Solutions of Greenville, South Carolina provides quality control instrumentation, spinnerets, a spinneret inspection system, cleaning equipment and an in-line viscosity measurement system for the synthetic fiber industry, including staple fiber and filament (BCF) yarn. Items of special note for testing BCF yarns include the Dynafil MEU for measuring bulk properties including shrinkage and crimp, as well as entanglement, and the Statimat ME automated tensile and denier tester. Measured Solutions also represents Rothschild Instruments with its line of tensiometers, friction meters, static voltmeters, cohesion meters, and entanglement testers. Products of interest include the Favimat Robot, which is an automated denier, tensile, and crimp tester.

PAF Sales LLC represents Best Technologies Study & Research, based in Italy, a technology driven company within the textile industry. Its products are broken into three different families: Yarn Break/Motion Systems, Quality Monitoring Systems, and Yarn Feeder/Constant Tension Systems. Within the Yarn Break/Motion Systems, PAF will feature systems for heatsetting, warping, air entanglement, tufting, winding and more. The systems have both hardware and software packages. Within the Quality Monitoring Systems, PAF will show packages for online tension monitoring, online yarn defect monitoring and online twist monitoring. Each of these systems also has both hardware and software packages. Within the Yarn Feeder/Constant Tension Systems, PAF will feature robust feeder control, which includes the feeder, all the way through a software package.

CIMS specializes in packaging and material handling for the carpet industry. The CIMS 1296 stretch wrapping machine has become the industry standard for wrapping yarn cases. For the past several years CIMS has focused on roll wrapping and methods to secure the roll flap. Its automatic stretch tapers are rapidly replacing adhesive tapes and other methods to hold the carpet flap in place for internal processing. The company’s automatic stretch film roll wrappers reduce labor costs and material costs while improving overall plant safety. One of the company’s newest developments is a step toward full width poly wrapping automation by optimizing film width selection and length dispensing on existing semi-automatic full width roll wrappers. This new product reduces the amount of film needed to wrap a roll of carpet with standard poly wrap by removing the film selection and dispensing decision from the operator and using laser measurements combined with programming algorithms to best match the film dispensed to the roll dimensions. 

Tuftco Corp. will be focusing on tufting machines that produce carpet comparable to Axminster woven fabrics, but also go somewhat beyond traditional weaving capabilities with textural effects, in addition to color placement. One of these is the ColorTron machine, which is patented technology developed by Tuftco and introduced earlier this year. Masland has used the equipment to create Masland Avenue products. With this product, the gauge is programmable, as opposed to being fixed as in traditional tufting processes. The machine is also offered in a cut and loop version, which allows for any particular tuft to be sewn as cut or loop, in any particular color. Also, the texture pattern of cut and loop does not necessarily have to follow the color pattern. The machine is designed for a maximum output at six colors, but can tuft up to 24 colors for quite elaborate design possibilities.

Fleissner supplies process lines for continuous dyeing of tufted floorcoverings. Its Dye Liquor Applicator design offers greater performance because the application system operates on the pouring overflow principle and pours the dye liquor uniformly onto the carpet as an even film without pile contact. This minimizes variations in dye application. It also allows color changes in seconds, thus giving the capability of dyeing small lots. 

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