Kristi enjoyed her time as a guest of Tandus Centiva, touring their carpet production facilities in Dalton, Georgia. Dalton is known as the commercial carpet capital of the US. Most of the large commercial carpet manufacturers are located in this small north Georgia town. It is always fascinating to visit production facilities to see how products we use everyday on projects are actually made. Kristi is ready for the tour here – protective glasses, safety vest, and headset to hear the guide.
The design and technical engineering behind manufacturing carpet textiles is really amazing and a bit overwhelming. Who would ever want to thread those machines with all those servos! It would certainly take a lot of patience and skill. They do their best to keep the machines running and continuously threaded by attaching/fusing the next thread colors to the previous threads, this avoids re-threading.
Here is a “blanket” of carpet coming off a machine. At this point it has a loose scrim backing holding it together. Soon it will head for its real backing.
The carpet gets a stain protection/face treatment first – which looks like foam. Then it will get its backing, which locks in the threads.
Here are some of the finished products. Ready for us designer types to have some fun!
Thank you again to our host Tandus Centiva for a wonderful trip and a great overnight in Chattanooga, TN and day trip to Dalton.