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Trends and opportunities for tufted floor coverings
The markets in the worldwide automotive industry are highly competitive - and the interior of a car is increasingly becoming a mark of differentiation where carmakers and brands are concerned. For end customers, an appealing look and environmentally-friendly materials are important, while vehicle producers place great value on aspects such as formability, dimensional stability and grammage (gsm). Find out more about technical standards and current developments - and also about how Groz-Beckert can support you in practice.
General advantages of tufted automobile floor coverings
Tufting in the interior of a car, e.g. in the 1)side panelling 2)floor 3)headliner 4)boot
The criteria in the automotive industry mentioned earlier are fulfilled by tufted automotive floor coverings in a special way. Using these provides the following advantages:
- Very good abrasion resistance
- Optimum cleaning behaviour
- Attractive looking
- Excellent surfaces
- High utility value and long service life
Technical standards and the latest developments
Basically, automotive floor coverings consist of an initial substrate and the so-called pile fabric. Most of today's car carpeting consists of the pile fabric PA 6 (BCF Solution Dyed) as well as a nonwoven as the initial substrate, combined from various different materials.
At present the application technology for tufted automotive floor coverings is being determined by the increased use of finer gauges. This enables further reductions of the raw material as well as cost savings.
Initial substrates and yarn application are by far the highest cost factors in tufting production. Tufting gauge parts only account for a very small proportion. Gauge part systems can indeed have a positive influence on the economic efficiency of production, but fulfilment of the application-technological requirements is far more important.
Precisely coordinated gauge part systems from Groz-Beckert, consisting of
- tufting needle module
- cut pile looper module
- reed finger module, and
- knife
If one bears in mind the required dimensional stability of tufted goods with regard to subsequent pre-forms, it becomes clear that these requirements can only be fulfilled with a mature, tried-and-tested needle design. Here, tufting needles by Groz-Beckert are the international standard.
As a competent and reliable partner to the worldwide tufting industry, Groz-Beckert offers high product availability combined with seamless delivery logistics. A jointly developed and coordinated planning and retrieval system ensures that production can continue without any downtimes.
In close cooperation with its customers, Groz-Beckert is constantly further developing the quality of its tufting gauge parts. Product development and performance of gauge parts thus go hand in hand with customer requirements. Where technical consulting and after-sales service are concerned, the expertise of the Groz-Beckert sales team can always be relied upon!
The future: Economical and compact
The compact car, small car and ultra-small car segments are all gaining importance on the market. The developments in tufted automotive floor coverings will also be influencing this trend. The magic term at the moment is 'economic efficiency'. Further reduction of manufacturing costs and the optimisation of related processes are set to be the focus of the future.
The Groz-Beckert Tufting division is optimally placed to provide its worldwide partners in the industry as well as leading tufting machinery producers with perfectly coordinated gauge part systems for the new generation of automotive floor coverings. This is an exciting new development, as evidenced by the numerous positive discussions held at the ITMA in Barcelona in September.
We also welcome you, of course, for discussions on the further development and production of car floor coverings with Groz-Beckert. Just get in touch with your contact partners from the Tufting division.