Carpet today represents the epitome of a highly competitive, high speed, machine driven manufacturing process directed toward achieving the lowest possible price per square yard cost. However, each step of the way toward higher production and lower costs has brought reductions in the products ability to perform.

With textile flooring, it is almost impossible to define quality, since it all looks the same. Ken Macqueen a dealer in Salt Lake City, recently sent me an article from “The Salt Lake Tribune” business section titled, “ The Savvy Consumer from the Good Housekeeping Institute.” The subtitle was “Know How to Test a Carpet Before Buying One.”

One of the things it says is, four or more twists are good and the fibers should be twisted tightly all the way to the top so they’ll resist soil, matting and crushing. We can all take issue with some of the stuff in this article, but the twist part is accurate. I’m not convinced of the soiling issue relative to twist, but the matting and crushing point is right on.

The race to do things faster and cheaper has compromised the integrity of this very important aspect of the yarn. If you question this, take one of your samples and perform a very simple test: Isolate a yarn, making sure it is standing upright, and lightly press down on the tip to see whether the plies or twists start to separate. If they do, you don’t have a high performer or a resilient yarn. In other words it will ultimately mat and crush on the floor.

Years ago the autoclave heat setting process was used routinely to heat set nylon carpet. In this process, nylon yarn is loaded into a stainless steel pressure vessel, a vacuum is pulled on the vessel and a successive cycles of moist steam are injected into the vessel.

It is from the length of this time-temperature cycle that the most effective heat setting of nylon yarn takes place. Autoclave heat set nylon is still the best performing heat set yarn system available since it provides the greatest level of resiliency and appearance retention.

Autoclave heat-set yarn will rarely separate or open up. This system also allows the time for the internal restructuring of nylon molecules to take place, which builds in the superior twist retention, crush resistance and ultimately superior performance of a product. Autoclave is a batch process. It is slower, more labor intensive, more costly and it can’t be rushed.

The industry, in the search for faster production rates and lower costs, years ago went to continuous systems. The Superba system, introduced in the late 70's immediately reduced labor costs. This system sped up yarn processing but, when it wasn’t fast enough and it was sped up, it also had a negative affect on the yarn, creating fiber that did not perform as well, that did not have the resiliency and, ultimately, failed to retain the appearance the consumer enjoyed at the onset of the carpet’s in her home.

Continuous heat setting processes, raised the complaint level on textile floor coverings. But, since the percentage of claims was lower than the cost savings and volume of carpet produced, it was an acceptable loss. Never mind the fact we turned off a whole slew of carpet buyers and there shouldn’t be any acceptable losses.

Autoclave heat setting is still the best system available. It is used little today, but it is employed by those who want the very best performance from the carpet. With this process, you can use less weight in a product and increase the performance and appearance retention dramatically. But since it’s slow, labor intensive and more costly it’s unpopular.

I predict, with the new world of customization coming in industry , this system will survive and even regain favor. As smaller mills look for their niche and commercial customers look for something special, it will be delivered by those who can provide what they want, not a cookie cutter product, but one which looks exquisite, performs extraordinarily and possesses the value in which customers are willing to invest.

As we move toward customized products, which is happening in every businesses, opportunities in the industry will expand and the end user will be advantaged tremendously. Companies, businesses and individuals who participate in this move will reap huge profits and have virtually no claims.