Manufacturing Process of Carpets

Handmade Carpets 

Carpet is a textile floor covering that is distinguished from the more general term RUG by being fixed to the floor surface and extending wall to wall. Hand-made carpets are traditionally more expensive than those made by machine, and hand-made carpets are very different from machine made carpets. As it is quite relevant from their names, hand-made carpets are woven by hands while machine –made carpets undergo treatments by various machine.

Process

 Sorting Wool and Washing

 To pick out unwanted particle, carefully sorted out the wool. Wool is either imported or is brought from nearby markets. Wool often caries dust, grease which is removed by washing it thoroughly and is then sun dried for two-three days. The Tibetan wool has a strong good fibre length is imported in scoured form ,good lustre and a high resilient value .The New Zealand wool is of 36 micron , 100 mm barb length and is identified as type 128 . British wool meeting regulatory standards have also started being available if a customer so desire.

 Carding 

The carding process allows the fibre stand to flow smoothly when spinning. This is also the stage for blending different wools and to ascertain the ratio of different origins. Traditionally, carding was performed by hand and machine carding was introduced when the industry grew. However hand carded product is still available if a customer desires.

Spinning

 The carded wool is spun into yarn by using a charkha or a spinning wheel. The thickness of the yarn depends on the quality of the carpet and generally a 3 ply yarn is used.

Dyeing 

The traditional pot dyeing method has been largely replaced by dyeing in closed Chambers. Dyes containing harmful substances such as AZO are banned and dye –stuffs from renownedinternational manufactures are used. These days have a high degree of fastness. Depending on the weather, the dyed yarn has to be dried in the sunlight for one to three days. Pot dyeing and vegetable (natural) dyeing are still being used by some manufactures

Knotting

Knotting is an art. Weavers who weave on a regular basis have a very good speed in knotting. They tend to develop this speed over a span of time. One or more weavers work on a loom depending on the size of the carpet. Each weavers makes individual knots row after row. The designs are chartered out on a graph and a map reader or another weaver instructs the graphic designs to the ones knotting the carpet. The dyed yarn is made into balls and scissors, iron rod, levers, comb beaters are used as tools.

 Trimming 

The finished carpet is taken off from the loom and the designs are trimmed by scissors. Washing and Dying The trimmed carpet is washed with the fresh water and chemicals. The washed carpet is dried in the sunlight up to four or five days.

Final Touches 

The dried carpets are given final touches by re-trimming and stretching., wherever necessary. The purpose is to bring the fabric wovenin level  at the surface.