Staple/Synthetic Carpets
Staple/Synthetic carpets are synthetic hand knotted carpets with a silk feel. They may be designed and patterned in the same way as a silk carpet and present the same aesthetic values. They may be finely knotted with 250 or more knots per square inch. For the purpose of making carpets, six types of synthetic yarns may be used:
Nylon: This is the most popular synthetic carpet fiber. It offers tremendous value, performance, and ease of maintenance. Nylon provides brilliant colors and handles soil and traffic well. They can be acid dyed or chemical dyed. Once converted to fiber
Polypropylene (Olefin): This fiber is extremely popular in Berbers and level loops. These carpets are highly stain, static, mold, and mildew resistant and can be easily used as indoor or outdoor carpets. Their resistance to matting and crushing are not as good as a nylon fiber.
Polyester: Though polyester lacks the durability of nylon , it offers better color clarity and a soft feel to the carpet. They should be avoided in high traffic areas. They donot have high pile heights. It is manufactured in staple fiber only.
Acrylic: It gives a real wool appeal. It is used mainly in level loops, bath mats, and some velvet carpet styles. It offers good mold and mildew resistance with low static levels. Due to its tendency for pile reversal it is not much used in carpets now a days. Another problem with the fiber is that it burns quickly.
The main carpet producing centre of Staple/Synthetic carpets are Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir), Agra and Gwalior.