Nylon is an Excellent Carpet Fiber
J+J/Invision offers two types of nylon – type 6 and type 6,6. J+J/Invision manufactures our products in a range of fibers to meet your project’s aesthetic, durability, environmental and special needs requirements. There has been much debate regarding the superiority of one nylon chemistry versus the other. Our position is that no slight deviation in a single physical property (e.g. melt temperature or hardness) of these chemistries translates to on floor performance. There are many variables that dictate on-the-floor performance that are better indicators (e.g. density, pile type, tuft bind, and more) than merely nylon type. Nylon, in general, makes an exceptional commercial carpet fiber.
We allow our customers to select the appropriate fiber that meets their needs and their client’s specifications.
The dynamic marketing programs of the various nylon manufacturers cause many who specify commercial carpets to feel a need to specify either nylon-6 or nylon-6,6. Our feeling is this is unnecessary. We can and do make great commercial carpets from each of these fibers. If there were any real differences between these two we think the marketplace would have been able to determine which is preferred, since each has been offered in carpets for almost 70 years. Those who sell both nylon-6 and 6,6 indicate to us that their testing shows no real difference in on-the-floor performance.
Nylon is the dominant fiber in carpet for many very good reasons. It is abrasion resistant, resilient, has the most versatile styling capabilities and is cost competitive. With proper fluorochemical treatments, it resists soiling and cleans extremely well.
Over the last twenty years, nylon-6 has moved from about 40 percent of all nylon carpet to almost 60 percent. We think this has occurred for several reasons. Nylon-6 pellets are readily available in the marketplace, and extrusion equipment for converting them into carpet fibers is also available. The particular chemistry used to make nylon-6 polymer is less costly than that required to make nylon-6,6. For this reason, in 1990, J&J Industries selected nylon-6 for Encore® SD Ultima®. The industry has learned that chemical recycling of nylon-6 is easier, and therefore more environmentally attractive, than chemical recycling of nylon-6,6. Nylon-6,6 has found its way, through mechanical recycling, into molding resins.
