All about Axminster Carpets™
An Axminster™ carpet is synonymous with quality and luxury, and all authentic Axminster TM carpets are still woven using natural materials and traditional methods.
Part of the base of the carpet is the Jute ‘weft’ which is passed between alternate parallel cotton ‘warps’. The wool yarn is fed into carriers which are controlled by a jacquard. A colour is selected by the jacquard, which causes the corresponding yarn to be offered up by the carrier to a gripper. The grippers then draw the pre-selected lengths of yarn which are cut by a series of knives. The resulting tufts are positioned between the warps by the grippers, and retained by each pass of the weft.
In this way a woven lattice of tightly packed cords and wool tufts build up to form a carpet, at the rate of three to five yards per hour, under the expert supervision of the weaver.
The quality of the carpet is determined by the number of tufts per square inch, the count or weight of the yarn and the length of pile.
Wilton Carpet – cut or loop pile:
Wilton carpet, like Axminster TM carpet, is woven. However the difference between the two methods is the way in which the carpet is woven. Whereas the Axminster TM yarn is cut into tufts and then held in place by the weft, the Wilton carpet yarn is a continuous strand woven all the way through.
The state of the art Wilton looms at Axminster use a maximum of five colours, producing cut or loop pile textured carpet. It is the preferred flooring for some commercial installations and most transportation applications as it is hugely stable and extremely hard wearing. Axminster Carpets currently manufactures Wilton carpet for the majority of UK rail companies and many global airlines including British Airways and Virgin.
Tufted Carpet
Tufted carpet is the most economical of the carpet producing methods. Unlike Axminster and Wilton carpet, a tufted carpet is produced by inserting yarn into a pre-existing backing using needles. This method is an extremely fast (one roll of Axminster might take 8 hours to make whereas one roll of tufted takes approx 1 hr) way of manufacturing carpet. While it is true that a tufted carpet is not a woven carpet, at Axminster Carpets, all the yarn used is homespun ensuring that only the finest and most durable quality is produced.
Because Axminster Carpets produces its own yarn, there is complete control over the whole carpet manufacturing process. Axminster is the only UK company to do this.
Flatbed Weave Carpet:
The flatbed weave carpet is a fashionable textured approach. This design requires the use of unique yarn technology and produces a carpet with superior strength and style. A flatbed weave carpet can be woven over many weft insertions, allowing the creation of a larger, flatter and more textured looking loop pile.
Real wool yarns:
Axminster Carpets uses more than 90% British wool in its carpet production.
Fleeces arrive at the company’s Spinning Mill at Buckfast on the edge of Dartmoor, and are stretched out and then blended together in pre-determined quantities to provide the most suitable mix for carpet yarn. This blended wool then passes through a six stage washing process where dirt, grease and other impurities are removed before a final wash which uses the soft clear water from the River Dart.
The wool is then dried, with any extra dust extracted, and blown into storage bins where it is left to relax and regain its original structure. It is then lubricated and left to condition.
A series of progressively finer spiked rollers is then used to tease out the wool fibres to a uniform web. This teasing process is called carding. The strands are then carried along an array of narrow conveyer belts and then divided into narrow strips, or ‘slubbings’, which are then loaded onto a spinning frame. The wool is spun at more than 5,000 rpm to produce single ply yarn. By twisting the strands together as two or more ply, additional strength and density is acquired by the yarn, affecting the eventual weight and quality of the carpet.
The yarn is then wound into hanks before entering the final washing process to enhance the dying technique. A computerized system then ensures precise dye match to the colour required. The hanks are rotated in hydro extracted units to remove any excess moisture, and then passed on into an electronically controlled steam drying process to ensure uniformity of moisture content. Once dried, the hanks are left to cool naturally, before the yarn is wound onto more manageable sized cones and then transported to Axminster, where several 1000 kilos of yarn are delivered every day.
Once at Axminster, the yarn is woven into carpet using either six pitch or Axminster’s special eight pitch looms. Once the weaving is completed, the carpet is brushed to remove any foreign matter, and squared for alignment and symmetry. After steaming to burst open the lush woolen pile, a coating of vinyl is applied to the back of the carpet to assist tuft retention and ease cutting and fitting. Further brushing is followed by a second and final tip shearing operation to ensure a smooth, level finish.
To ensure perfection, a meticulous final examination is carried out by eye.
Barcode identification enables total traceability of the carpet's processes and materials, at this, and every other production stage. Carpets are cut and sized to order requirements, before rolling and final packaging.
