Floortek Expo 2016 Preview - Oct 2016

By Darius Helm

This year’s FloorTek show, to be held at the Dalton Convention Center in Dalton, Georgia from October 18 to 20, will showcase all of the latest soft surface production technologies, along with suppliers and services. The three-day event will also include a range of demonstrations and educational opportunities.

The expo is produced by the American Floorcovering Alliance, and it features exhibitors from across the globe. The exhibit hall will be open all day for the first two days, and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the third day.

Card-Monroe
Booth 231
Card-Monroe will be showcasing its patented ColorPoint Loop machine. ColorPoint enables the production of carpet with multiple colors, multiple pile heights, and a variety of textures and tip-sheared effects with no limits and scale of patterns. No buried ends and pinpoint stitch accuracy leads to increased clarity and high definition patterns.

Groz-Beckert
Booth 207B
Groz-Beckert USA, which recently opened a full service office in Dalton, Georgia stocking all tufting gauge parts, has added two new tufting hooks to its inventory. The SC series is its new Tungsten insert hook; and the patent-pending Loop Control hook, introduced in response to demand for a hook that controls the new low DPF yarns. The LC hook reduces the chance of knife and hook contact without a yarn present, which reduces heat and lessens the likelihood of glass transition. It also improves yarn placement, reducing defects in low DPF carpet products.

Ornek Heat Set USA
Booth 109
Ornek will display its carpet yarn MD60 Frieze Heat Set Machine, along with other new heatset and space-dye technologies. According to Ornek, the MD60 offers “the highest production capacity with the lowest energy consumption.”

Oerlikon Neumag
Booth 131
With a focus on solutions for the sustainable manufacture of carpet yarns, Oerlikon Neumag will showcase a range of equipment, including its BCF S+ and Sytec One systems for the BCF market, with Sytec One positioned for specialty products and demanding production processes because of its single-end technology. The firm’s RoTac3, the latest tangling unit for the BCF S+ with a three-end system will also be on display.

Last year, Oerlikon opened a local service center in Dalton, Georgia focused on repairs, service and spare parts.

Propex
Booth 325
Propex will focus on its Artis line of polyester woven backings for carpet tile with at least 85% post-consumer content. According to the firm, Artis offers improved first-quality yield, increases effective capacity, eliminates excess yarn weight and provides greater pattern definition, dimensional stability, and ability to tuft, mend and match broadloom.

Artis Tru is Propex’s best choice for dimensional stability and no show-through, and it comes in several pick counts, colors, cap colors and widths.

Saurer Volkmann
Booth 131
Saurer will introduce new components to improve runability on twisting machines, as well as new ways to save energy on existing systems. The firm will also have experts on hand to discuss new machine parts, technical support and service related issues provided by its Charlotte, North Carolina facility. Also, its acquisition of Verdol means technical service, machine parts and repair needs for that equipment as well. Experts in twisting technical yarns for sports turf and industrial yarns for fabrics will also be available.

Eltex U.S.
Booth 303
The firm’s Eltex Eye is a flexible system for yarn fault detection on tufting machines, designed to improve quality and efficiency by reducing mending and down time, using Compact yarn sensors, generally fitted between the feed rollers and needles. The compact design enables sensors to be fitted on machines with a gauge as dense as 1/10th of an inch. According to the firm, the system detects 100% of tufting yarn breaks and end outs. And faulty yarns are specifically identified. All events are logged in real time and can be used for statistics and diagnostics.

Gilbos
Booth 118
Gilbos will display its SmarTwist system, which enables in-line twisting and heat setting on Power-Heat-Set and Superba lines. The multi-purpose twisting system for BCF yarns allows each module to produce two ends of 2-ply or 3-ply yarn in a single step. The yarn has an alternate twist direction S/Z with a small tack point between the twisted zones. According to the firm, the system “allows high speed twisting with maximum bulk and no singles twist, twisting directly from extrusion packages, thereby avoiding intermediate storage and handling while offering endless styling possibilities.”

Modra Technology
Booth 118
Modra, represented in the U.S. by Gilbos of America, will demonstrate its Hollow Needle Tuft equipment, which makes rugs and carpets up to 16’ wide. The firm will also launch a brand new machine, the Mtuft Mini, for making small non-patterned samples in cut and loop constructions.

Power-Heat-Set of America
Booth 132
Power-Heat-Set, which manufactures overheated steam heat setting machines for carpet and rug yarns, will introduce its new TwinAccu, a twin accumulator design with new GVA heat setting machines or as a retrofit to existing machines. TwinAccu offers effective accumulation time five times that of rope-style accumulators as well as a reduction of M & R components compared to previous accumulator styles.

Tuftco
Booth 200
Tuftco will showcase its iTuft servo pattern attachment, which offers high-tech modular simplicity to create a “consistent and stable platform,” according to the firm. The technology delivers precisely controlled yarn feeds at up to 25 times per second. The iTuft’s 1e, 2e and 4e all share a common plug and play unit consisting of a servo motor and controller base accessible from the floor.

Also, Tuftco’s iBalance software uses complex algorithms to analyze individual yarn ends and suggest adjustments to maximize creel efficiency. And its user interface desktop application allows styles and pattern parameters to be set up in the office in advance without interrupting production equipment.

Tuftco’s iTron combines iTuft modular servo technology with the firm’s patented hollow needle yarn delivery system to produce multi-colored textured patterns in cut and cut loop constructions with up to 12 colors and 24 shades.

Van De Wiele
Booth 123
Van De Wiele will be presenting the BXE, a BCF extrusion line for carpet yarns that produces yarn from different polymers with the highest bulk on the market, according to the firm, due to a new multi-wrap texturing device without lamellas.

The booth with also showcase Superba’s heat setting machinery, including the TVP3S, its newest heat setting line, as well as the new MF400 friezing machine and B401 automatic winder.
Also, videos in the space will offer a preview of the Vandewiele-Cobble Myriad tufting machines, available next year, in which each pile yarn goes over a separate roll controlled by a servo motor across the complete width without repeats. A cut loop system and sliding needle bars further extend design possibilities.

The firm will also showcase the RCE02 Rug & Carpet Expert, which is the latest double rapier face-to-face carpet weaving machine, equipped with a new Jacquard machine and Smart Frames, which allows combinations of cut pile, flat weave, double flat weave, double points and filling effects.

Tinci
Booth 433
Guangzhou Tinci Materials Technology Co., a high-tech specialty chemicals manufacturer, will showcase new high-efficiency water-based thickening auxiliaries for all texture printed products. The firm also offers technical support capabilities.

Related Topics:Interface, Floortek Expo, Tuftco

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