Tightly curled, cut pile, tufted carpet

Claim 1

A process of making a non-directional, cut pile, tufted carpet having the tightly curled appearance of Persian lamb, comprising the steps of (a) knitting a carpet facing yarn composed of continuous filaments or spun staple fibers of thermoplastic, synthetic resin into a deknittable fabric, said yarn having a denier of about 600 to 9,000, using knitting needles that are set a fixed distance apart, in the range of about 1/4 inch to 3/4 inch, (b) heating the fabric to a temperature at which the curves and bends generated in the yarn by its knitted configuration are established in the yarn's memory, (c) cooling the fabric to about room temperature, (d) deknitting the cooled fabric and rewinding the unravelled yarn under enough tension to restraighten it, this step and said steps (a) through (c) being performed without dyeing the fabric, (e) tufting the unravelled yarn as facing yarn into a primary carpet backing material, forming a cut pile carpet having a pile height greater than the between-needles distance used in step (a) above, and pile height being in the range of about 3/8 to 7/8 inch, this step and said step (d) being performed without fluffing the unravelled yarn, (f) coating the underside of the carpet with a heat-settable adhesive that, when cured, will help anchor the tufts of yarn in the backing material, and (g) heating the adhesive-coated carpet to a temperature at which the adhesive will set and the facing yarn will reconform to the bends and twists in its memory, thereby producing a finished carpet having the tightly curled appearance of Persian lamb.