Pore Sizes in Carpet

Two techniques, liquid extrusion with water and optical microscopy on embedded carpet samples, are used to assess pore size distribution and location within the pile of a cut pile carpet manufactured from a polypropylene backing, crosslinked styrene butadiene rubber adhesive, and nylon pile. The results from the two techniques agree where the resulting data overlap and are complimentary in other pore size ranges. The carpet is able to absorb 6.1 times its weight in water. When the water content is reduced to roughly 50-60% by mechanical extraction, free water is probably situated in pores with an effective capillary diameter of up to 200 micrometers. The occupied pores are distributed throughout the carpet pile thickness and largely within the yams. This in formation may be used to develop an economical technique for drying carpets.