The Dimensional Stability of Carpets in Installations: Part I: Stability to Mechanical Actions

Dimensional stability of floor coverings to forces encountered under end-use conditions has not been investigated extensively, although problems of wrinkling and puckering of carpets in stretch installations arise frequently. Mechanical actions from the stretching procedure during installation and from pedestrian traffic are a major source of forces which carpets must resist. A test method validated prior to adoption by the British Standards Institution was used to characterize a large number of carpets for dimensional stability to mechanical actions. A number of properties measured by this method were found to be highly correlated. Several carpet construction characteristics—total weight, gage, and stitch density—were found to have little relationship to stability to mechanical action. Woven carpets were found to have better stability than tufted carpets, with the stability of tufted carpets being highly dependent upon primary and secondary backing type. Generally, woven backings provided more stability than nonwoven backings.