In the spring of 2009, excitement loomed large in carpet land. A new miracle was upon us with fibers made of corn to compete with that nasty old nylon that's made from oil. I think the whole idea was to appeal to the "Greenies." But, Ethanol is an example of this failed strategy. Have you noticed how corn-related food products have shot up in price?
The Federal Trade Commission has even gone so far as to reclassify the PTT fiber to a new generic polymer called Triexta. It really isn't all that new, but that's another story. If you will remember, polyester had such a bad reputation it wasn't selling very well. The new fiber was said to be stain-resistant for life and soft as certain baby body parts.
There were frowns when I said, give it time to see if it's for real. Remember what happened when polypropylene was blended with nylon fibers? They wanted a cheap product and it was just that! No matter what they call this new stuff, it's still polyester. Here's a recent report on the fiber from a friend who's an inspector. He sent it to me as an FYI and heads up:
"The complaint from the carpet retailer was that it didn't respond to cleaning. The carpet cleaner says after pre spraying, and 10 minutes dwell time he used a gas-powered truckmount to extract it. It didn't respond so he used a rotary scrubber and extracted again. The carpet has a dingy look over all and is really bad in the traffic lanes. I'm recommending replacement, but I'm betting the mill will fight it."
©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2012 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.
I'd like to hear your comments on this article.
Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.
