Have you ever wondered how they make carpet ?

All synthetic fibers are generally manufactured in the same way, in a process called fiber extrusion.

The polymer chips are blended and heated to a liquid form or a substance known as polymer, which resembles a thick syrupy substance. The polymer is then forced or extruded through a piece of equipment known as a spinnerets. Spinnerets contain hundreds of tiny holes. The fibers are then cooled in the cooling tower and become solid filaments. Generally, the shape of the hole in the spinneret is engineered with a unique shape to produce a modified cross section in the fiber. This shape affects the visual and performance characteristics of the fiber.

A good way to picture this process is by relating a spinneret to a shower head with separate jets of water pushing through each hole and then becoming a solid. Each hole in the spinneret produces a " filament " of fiber.

Solid filaments are ready to be stretched, drawn, bulked and then moved to the special yarn facility where is being cut.

All carpet yarn is manufactured from either a Staple or Continuous Filament fiber  (BCF). Staple fiber is a series of short, 6 to 7 inches in lenght, strings spun together to form one continuous filament. Several of these are twisted together to form a strand of yarn. BCF fiber is a continuous filament manufactured as one long string.

Filament yarns require more different processes before they become a carpet. This includes twisting, heat setting, air entangling, blending, spinning, tufting, dying and coating. Air entangling for example is the process of combining multiple ends of yarn by high pressure air into the bundle. This procedure increases color flexibility and gives a way to make larger bundles of yarn. All processes create yarns that produce carpet products with distinctly different looks and characteristics.