The Backing Business - January 2009

By Darius Helm

The backing industry is largely responsible for the great strides made in the greening of carpet. Most of the recycled and bio-based content in carpet comes from the backing, which accounts for much of the product’s weight. Over the last decade, all the backing elements, including binders, secondary backings, primary backings, cushioning, fillers and scrims, have been redesigned for increased sustainability, and over the same period of time performance has increased. The carpet produced is greener and better.

It’s not necessarily that going green automatically augments performance; rather, the process of going green entails a search for chemistries and constructions that will perform as well as existing systems, and that journey enriches the research process by both focusing on elements of a product whose performance may have always been taken for granted and opening new avenues for exploration. The end result is often a better product.

Examples abound in the backing industry. For instance, replacements for filler in latex, like recycled coal fly ash, turn out to be better binders than traditional calcium carbonate, an abundant mineral that has been used as a filler for decades. Propex’s new primary backing, with significantly reduced weight, performs better than its traditional primary. Backing weights have fallen as R&D departments have found ways to use less material to do more, and that has a huge impact on waste streams. And in general, costs for greener backings are about the same as for traditional backings.

Most backing producers, already suffering through a residential slowdown, report that commercial business is also slowing. However, many of these players have been increasingly targeting one of the fastest growing sectors worldwide—artificial turf.

Artificial turf has come a long way since the Astroturf of the 70s and 80s. It’s becoming increasingly popular in sporting applications, and is even favored by some athletes, who feel they can sprint and cut better than they can on real grass. Artificial turf has also been helped by the huge spending in schools and colleges across the country, as they compete for record numbers of students.

The long term prospects for artificial grass are even better, mainly because of the other market—landscaping. As overdevelopment, particularly in arid regions of the country like much of the Southwest, leads to water restrictions, many public spaces, residences and hotel properties are choosing artificial turf for their landscaping needs. Overseas, particularly in rapidly growing markets like the Middle East, artificial turf is gaining even faster. And as water conservation grows in importance, so will the use of artificial turf.

Raw material costs for the backing industry have plunged over the last four months. However, most experts agree that oil will be back up over $100 within a year or two, so the respite is temporary. In general, the drop in raw material costs has not translated to lower backing prices, largely because raw material price increases were partially absorbed by backing producers. The real problem with lower hydrocarbon costs has been the impact on the reclamation network. Demand for reclaimed materials, already an issue, has been significantly reduced as virgin materials have become more affordable, and many of the smaller recyclers and processors are teetering on the brink. Entities like CARE (Carpet America Recovery Effort) are working overtime to create new outlets for recycled materials to keep the reclamation infrastructure healthy.

THE INDEPENDENT PRODUCERS
Universal Textile Technologies (UTT), long a green leader, has expanded its backings with high bio-based and recycled content beyond the commercial market to serve the residential and hospitality markets.

BioCel has been the firm’s standard high performance offering to the commercial broadloom market for several years, and its composition includes soy polyols, reclaimed coal fly ash and recycled PET, for a total bio based and recycled content from 70% to 80%.

Last year UTT took the technology to the hospitality and high end residential markets with the EnviroCel line, replacing 90% of the polyurethane content, previously derived from hydrocarbons, with soy polyols, using coal fly ash instead of calcium carbonate as a filler, and using PET made from recycled plastic bottles for a secondary backing on three of the four EnviroCel products. EnviroCel’s total bio-based and recycled content ranges from 65% up to 90% for EnviroCel Cushion with its green fiber pad. All of UTT’s products have their content certified by Scientific Certification Systems, a third party certifier widely used in the flooring industry.

EnviroCel Cushion, Laminate and Laminate Plus also use the firm’s Extruded Fiberization technology, which bonds secondary backings to the urethane layers with only three to five ounces of product, and offers greater flexibility and delamination strength. Extruded Fiberization also lowers production costs due to its heat profile, as well as all related transportation costs as a direct result of the dematerialization of the product. As with BioCel, the new EnviroCel products perform at least as well as their more traditional counterparts. In fact, UTT’s backings are used in the artificial turf market in conditions including wind and rain, so performance really isn’t an issue.

Having cemented its success in nylon broadloom backings, the firm is focusing its energy in new markets. UTT is now experimenting with a new system for residential and hospitality modular tile, and has partnered with several mills for beta testing.

The firm is already producing backings for wools in the CYP (computer yarn placement) arena. Woolshire Carpet Mills, which produces New Zealand wool brand carpet, is now offering EnviroCel backings as an option on all its products, due to both its green and performance attributes. Glen Eden, another carpet producer using Wools of New Zealand fiber, also has products using EnviroCel.

UTT is also targeting the artificial turf market, one of the fastest growing markets in the industry. Thanks to demand for green products and all of UTT’s initiatives, 2008 was a growth year and more moderate growth is expected this year.

Dow Flooring is the new umbrella brand for Dow Chemical’s carpet backing business. The firm used to participate in two arenas, latex and polyurethane, but late last year a third chemistry platform was added—thermoplastic polyolefins. All three chemistries have sustainable features.

The polyolefin offering will enable smaller mills that don’t make their backings in-house to compete with the likes of Shaw’s EcoWorx, as well as Mohawk’s Encycle, in the non-PVC modular carpet backing business. Most of those smaller mills have rapidly growing carpet tile businesses, and as they look to expand, they now can choose between adding PVC equipment and investing in extrusion machinery. The technology works on traditional latex equipment.

Dow’s polyolefin offering is initially being rolled out for modular tile but the plan is to design the chemistry for broadloom as well.

The big development in Dow Flooring’s latex business is the firm’s Lomax technology, which pipes methane recovered from Dalton’s landfill to Dow’s latex facility. The pipeline, built in partnership with the city of Dalton and the EPA, delivers 200 billion BTUs per year.

So far, Masland, J&J, Atlas and Blue Ridge have decided to reduce the environmental footprint of their products by signing on with Dow to buy latex made with Lomax technology. On February 1, Mohawk is bringing Lomax technology latex to the residential market, using it in broadloom made with SmartStrand fiber, which is already fairly green because of its bio-based component. The latex Dow produces from methane based energy is priced the same as Dow’s traditional latex products.

On the urethane side, Dow is offering its BioBalance program with its own Renuva soy polyols. Renuva represents Dow’s strategic move away from hydrocarbons to soy based chemistries.

Propex, the biggest independent backing producer in the industry, has come out with a major new development for its PolyBac polypropylene primary backing that should make the industry even greener. PolyBac with the EX3 Advantage, developed in the firm’s Germany facility, uses one third less material, improves performance with better response to tufting needles, and costs the same as standard PolyBac.

It took three years of research and development to redesign the polypropylene tape to provide the required strength with less material. PolyBac with the EX3 Advantage will be available in sample quantities this month and will scale up rapidly. The initial offerings are available in multiple pick counts, and later this year in multiple widths and colors as well.

Dematerialization on such a significant scale reduces environmental impact in several ways. Not only is one third less petroleum based material being used to produce the carpet backing, but 12% less energy is burned in its manufacture. And with 50% more product on a roll, that means less fuel used in transporting the product, 50% longer runs at mills, and less handling in general. It also means less product to be dealt with at the end of the carpet’s life.

Because the new tape is more friendly to the tufting needle, both tufts and tape are less damaged in the tufting process, translating to improved clarity with intricate patterns, tufts with a better, fuller feel, and even better tip definition.

With increased performance, reduced environmental footprint, and the same cost, there’s no reason to believe that PolyBac with the EX3 Advantage won’t become standard over the next few years. Propex is also looking at greening ActionBac, its secondary backing that dominates the residential market and is heavily used in the commercial market.

Another major player in the backing business is Mattex, which started operations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 1995—it added a second operation in Dubai about four years ago—and already commands a double digit marketshare of the global independent carpet backing business. Mattex started doing business in the U.S. through distributors in 2005, and in 2007 the firm established its U.S. operation and began to sell direct. Mattex has warehouses in Chatsworth and Calhoun, Georgia, and leases a warehouse in California.

Mattex’s U.S. business has grown by well over 50% each of the last two years. Last year sales were up around 65%. The U.S. is Mattex’s second biggest market, after the Middle East, and accounts for 20% of sales, having surpassed the firm’s European business last year.

Part of the reason for last year’s strong growth was the artificial turf market, which has been a boon for several backing producers faced with slumping residential sales and a looming commercial slowdown. Mattex, which expanded its loom capacity at both its facilities last year, has also targeted the civil engineering market with geotextiles.

In terms of carpet backings, Mattex offers hundreds of SKUs of polypropylene primary and secondary backings in a range of colors, widths and weights, though most of its business is in primary backings. The residential market made up 50% of Mattex’s U.S. business last year, down from 60% in 2007.

The firm is currently developing a heat stabilized primary backing for modular carpet—polyester is a more popular choice for carpet tile than polypropylene because it has a higher melting point, making it more stable during the manufacturing process. Polyester nonwovens are the dominant primary backing for modular carpet.

Mattex’s next challenge is the greening of its products, and the firm is exploring avenues like solar power to lower its environmental footprint.

Textile Rubber & Chemical (TRCC) produces a range of backings systems, both polyurethane and latex, but it’s the polyurethane programs, including KangaBack, KangaTrac, Epic, KangaHyde and KangaGold, that have the most name recognition.

The firm’s residential offering, KangaBack, has been performing better than the residential market in general, possibly because it’s a product that consumers can install themselves, and it’s available from home improvement centers and flooring retailers. TRCC’s commercial backing business is still strong, and though there are signs of softening, good size orders keep coming in.

The firm’s Epic and KangaTrac backings, both already certified by Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) for post consumer recycled content, now have even higher levels of sustainable content. KangaTrac was already at 18% from the use of glass filler and Epic was at 30% with glass filler and a 100% post consumer PET nonwoven secondary backing. The two urethane backings now feature 10% bio-based (rapidly renewable) content from the use of natural oil polyols, without any impact on performance levels or prices. When SCS recertifies TRCC’s products this year, the polyol use will also be certified.

TRCC also plays in the artificial turf market, with thicker products like 5mm versions of Epic and KangaTrac used globally in both landscaping applications and sports venues.

TRCC has created an extremely innovative and useful backing application. FreeLay, developed over a decade ago by Raiford McDonald, is an acrylic polymer applied to the back of the broadloom or carpet tile to replace the use of adhesive. The polymer creates a strong bond that prevents lateral movement. Many subfloors also require the application of a similar polymer, though polished concrete, VCT, sheet vinyl or any other flat, clean floor need no preparation.

The system is also ideal for carpet going over raised access flooring, and depending on the construction of the flooring may only require adhesive on the back of the carpet.

FreeLay reduces adhesive use—one gallon will cover 40 square yards of carpet, and it’s about the same for subfloor preparation—and air dries in 45 minutes. Both installation and down-time are significantly reduced. Also, FreeLay makes installation more forgiving, since the carpet can always be lifted up and laid back down if it’s wrinkled or bubbling. Carpet removal is also much easier. And as long as the back surface of the carpet is clean, it can be moved or reinstalled on any prepared or appropriate subfloor. For instance, tile installations can easily be redesigned multiple times with no loss of performance, as long as the carpet back and subfloor are clean.

At last summer’s NeoCon, Bentley Prince Street offered all of its broadloom with a FreeLay option. Canada’s Venture Carpet, a modular tile producer, has also signed on with FreeLay. A project last year at Emory University in Atlanta, using Bentley Prince Street carpet, used FreeLay on top of asbestos tile, entirely sealing in the asbestos and thereby eliminating abatement costs.

Omnova, a leading latex producer, has also been working hard in the sustainable arena, and has developed a new latex binder with 20% to 25% bio based content. What makes this development so significant is that the bio based material replaces latex, not filler, without compromising performance.

The new latex is currently being rolled out with a single mill, but after the first quarter Omnova intends to launch the product to the industry. While the firm is still studying the reclamation possibilities, reducing landfilled latex by up to 25% is already a major achievement. The firm is hopeful that bio-based content in its latex can ultimately come close to 50%.

Colbond, which manufactures spunbonded nonwoven polyester primary backings for carpet tile, has also developed its green profile, now offering its backings with 25% to 100% post consumer recycled polyester (PET) content. For now, the higher the recycled content, the higher the price, an equation that depends heavily on the cost of raw materials.

Colbond recently licensed Stabilok from Mohawk. Stabilok was a composite primary backing made of Colbond’s nonwoven attached by a patented needling process to Wayn-Tex’s woven primary, and it was developed for high end patterned broadloom. The program was shelved after Mohawk acquired Wayn-Tex in 2005, but with the new licensing agreement, Colbond has already started sampling the product to the patterned broadloom and artificial turf markets.

THE MILL PRODUCERS
Shaw Industries’ commercial backings are dominated by its EcoWorx broadloom and carpet tile backing, using a thermoplastic construction for full recyclability. EcoWorx is used on all hard backed carpet tile, while EcoLogix and ErgoFlex are used for cushion backed tile.

In August 2007, EcoWorx Performance Broadloom was launched, and EcoWorx Broadloom—without moisture protection—was launched last summer. By the end of 2008, production of EcoWorx Performance broadloom products was already well over a million yards.

Beginning this quarter, Shaw’s EcoWorx for broadloom will include 20% post consumer recycled content, largely from co-product created at the firm’s Evergreen Nylon Recycling facility. Non-nylon reclaimed material used as alternative energy leaves an ash that is put back into the EcoWorx broadloom backings as filler. As capacity ramps up, the post consumer content will also be used in EcoWorx carpet tile.

Shaw has also extended its environmental guarantee for EcoWorx from only products in the U.S., with a 500 square yard minimum, to international installations with 5,000 square yard minimums, as long as the reclaimed product can be delivered to port cities. The minimum yardage is designed to increase efficiencies and decrease environmental burdens by using full containers.

Shaw’s Marine collection of both indoor and outdoor carpet was boosted last October by the introduction of Nu Wave Bac, a patent pending polyurethane composition with recycled content from coal fly ash used as filler. The high performance product has excellent resilience, strength and moisture resistance, and may also find its way into RV applications.

Interface Inc., the parent company of InterfaceFlor and Bentley Prince Street, developed ReEntry 2.0, the reclamation program that reuses face fibers and backings, turning them into new carpet. The program, which takes back both carpet tile and broadloom, really hit its stride last year. More product has been reclaimed since June 2007—close to 90 million pounds—than in the 13 years prior. In all, nearly 170 million pounds have been reclaimed.

The firm’s Cool Blue process, which produces carpet with recycled content from 50% to 74%, has so far run about 120,000 square yards. The firm’s GlasBac and GlasBac RE PVC backings are standard on InterfaceFlor carpet tiles, and the reclamation and reuse of these backings through ReEntry 2.0 makes Interface one of the leaders in the development of sustainable vinyl products.

Even the firm’s standard GlasBac backing contains a minimum of 40% post industrial content, and that’s as low as it goes. All the other products have higher recycled content. Convert carpet tile, with reused face fiber and backing, has a minimum total recycled content of 65% (32% minimum post consumer content), and it can go as high as 72%.

Mohawk’s Encycle backing, introduced in 2007, is a non PVC thermoplastic backing. Soon after Encycle was introduced, Mohawk ran into a few snags as it ramped up production and had to fine-tune the product to attain the performance levels the firm required. According to Mohawk, the backing is now optimized. The plan is for Encycle to gradually replace PVC backed tile over the next couple of years, with a goal of ultimately being PVC free.

Encycle is strictly a carpet tile product, and it goes across all of the firm’s commercial brands, as well as some main street products. On the broadloom side, the firm offers a range of products. Most of the firm’s polyurethane cushioned products come through UTT, along with Textile Rubber. Mohawk makes its own polyurethane cushion for carpet tile.

At the firm’s GreenWorks recycling center, Mohawk has developed a technique to remove calcium carbonate, used as filler, from old carpeting. The technique gives the calcium carbonate near virgin characteristics, enabling it to be reused as post consumer content instead of thrown away.

Tandus’ Conserve carpet tile backing, introduced in 2007, uses 25% less material and comes at a slightly lower price point. Already, carpet tile made with Conserve accounts for about 20% of the firm’s total carpet tile production.

The firm’s ER3 backing is a 100% recycled PVC based backing, though Conserve, which is fully recyclable, does not yet have recycled content. Conserve, which is also PVC based, can be recycled into ER3. For specifiers looking for non PVC products, Tandus has a backing called ethos made from PVB (polyvinyl butyrate) with 76% post consumer content—the PVB is reclaimed from the laminated film within automotive safety glass.

A new development at Tandus is its partnership with Cargill for a soy based component in its backings. ErgoStep features a high density polyurethane cushion with 10% bio-based polyols and a 100% post consumer recycled polyester felt back. The cushion itself offers 18% post consumer recycled content. Total post consumer content for the backing is 30%, and bio-based content is 8.6%.

Beaulieu’s commercial carpet tile backing, Nexterra, helped the firm achieve NSF 140 certification at the platinum level for all of its commercial tile products. Nexterra has high post consumer content, largely from recycled PET bottles but also from post consumer glass. For Nexterra backed products, the total weight of the carpet tile contains 50% to 65% post consumer content.

The firm is working on making its broadloom backings greener, though all contain some post consumer content, largely from glass replacing calcium carbonate filler in latex. Latex binder accounts for about 90% of the backing weight in broadloom, so Beaulieu is focusing its efforts on that element in the backing.

Print the Article