Sliver-knit process

Claim 1

In said process of making a sliver-knit pile fabric wherein sliver fibers are fed to a knitting station, the improvement comprising: a. feeding an elongated, stable, fibrillated backing yarn, having a widthwise dimension, of synthetic material and of substantially longitudinally continuously constant denier less than 1000, and less the denier of a conventional backing yarn for a corresponding sliver-knit pile fabric, to said knitting station; 1. said backing yarn being substantially flat widthwise and having a substantially rectangular cross-section, the width of said backing yarn being substantially greater than its thickness when flattened, 2. said backing yarn comprising a network of filaments permitting said backing yarn to be substantially expansible widthwise, 3. said backing yarn having longitudinal edge portions substantially uninterrupted continuously longitudinally of said backing yarn, said filaments being substantially confined between said longitudinal edge portions, b. knitting said fibrillated backing yarn at said knitting station to form a base fabric, in which said backing yarn is expansible in the plane of said base fabric, toward and away from other portions of said backing yarn in said base fabric, and c. substantially simultaneously with said knitting step, locking said sliver fibers between the stitches of said knitted fibrillated yarn, so that said sliver fibers project from one face of said base fabric to form pile.