Method of making a carpet tile

Claim 1

In a method of making an asphaltic composition-backed carpet tile including feeding a carpet onto a conveyor through a roll guider from a carpet feeding section, advancing the conveyor with the carpet along a feedpath, directing a heated thermoplastic asphaltic composition backing onto the carpet as it is fed along the conveyor and applying it to the carpet so as to form an asphaltic composition-backed carpet on the conveyor, feeding a secondary backing fabric through a cloth guider along its course of running from a secondary backing fabric feed section onto the asphaltic composition-backed carpet and pressing them together by a pressure roll to form a laminated carpet belt material, cooling the laminated carpet belt material and cutting it into selected lengths, the improvement which comprises preheating said secondary backing fabric in the course of the running of said fabric, by a heater at a position upstream of said pressure roll, and thereafter passing said preheated fabric through an expander roll at a position downstream of the heater and upstream and adjacent to said pressure roll for opening and removing wrinkles from said preheated fabric by the expander roll prior to the pressing together of said fabric and said asphaltic composition-backed carpet by said pessure roll.