Carpet Tiles

Basics

Carpet tiles are becoming more and more popular. Besides their modularity, carpet tiles also offer a wide range of design possibilities.
Constructions for printing can vary from tufted low-loop pile constructions up to high-pile twist and cut-pile constructions.
For contract business, loop-pile constructions out of PA6.6 with about 600 g/m² pile weight are most popular.
Prints must have a good light and shampoo fastness, because carpet tiles are mainly used for offices and public buildings.
A number of printing technologies and processes are available - each one with advantages and disadvantages.

In this case, the carpet is tufted on a non-woven Polyester primary backing with about 120 g/m²
To enhance stability, a pre-coat should be applied
After the CHROMOJET or COLARIS printing process, the carpet goes to the backing line either in full width or split into 2 m wide rolls
After the final carpet tile backing, the rolls are cut using either a tie-cutter or a camera-controlled knife cutter with rotating knives (especially used for carpet tiles with a backing out of non-woven Polyester fleece)
If a camera-controlled cutter is used, it is also possible to print very geometric designs and cut them according to the design
If a tie-cutter is used, only 'random designs' can be used

In this case, the tufted carpet is printed after its final backing. For easier handling, slabs of about 102 x 102 cm are cut out after the backing process.
These slabs are positioned onto the CHROMOJET, and normally a set of 4 tiles are printed onto each slab.
After the printing process, each slab is positioned on a tie cutter, and the tiles are cut exactly according to the print registration.
This process is more labour-intensive, and the printing line must be adapted to handle these slabs.

Before printing pre-cut tiles, a number of conditions and limitations must be considered:

In case a higher pile is used, it might be difficult to achieve solid colors on the edges
Variations of the color shade at the edge of the tile have been experienced, resulting from loose fibers and from uneven density at the edges
We have also experienced stability problems on certain backings, like bitumen or other thermoplastic compounds
This method is generally not really recommended

In this case the tiles are pre-cut with an oversize of about 1 cm (i.e. 51 x 51 cm; 61 x 61 cm...)
After the tile is printed, it must be cut a second time in a tie cutter, using a special cutting tool which registers the tile precisely
This method produces perfect tiles, but it is labour-intensive (putting individual tiles onto the CHROMOJET printer; post-cutting each tile, ...)

Carpet Tile Printing Machines
	CHROMOJET⁸⁰⁰	COLARIS
Technology	valve jets with 50 or 76 dpi	inkjet with 400x400 up to 800x3200 dpi
Print on roll-to-roll	2,200 mm wide	2,200 mm wide
Penetration	excellent / full	good
Speed	up to 1.5 m/min depending on number of jets per color	up to 4 m/min depending on printheads per color and print resolution
Dye and ink	acid, pre-met; special dyes	acid ink
Number of basic colors	14 process colors + 2 spot colors	6 up to 12
Recommendation	for pile products from 300 to 1,500 g/m²	for low to medium pile constructions from 200 to 800 g/m²