Axminster Carpets...or the 2 magic words when coming to both woven and patterned contract carpets custom made or custom designed for hotels, commercial and residential contract worldwide.

AXMINSTER is not only the name of a town in Devon, England... it is also one of the very best processes used to manufacture since the 18th century high quality patterned carpets. (And in fact named from the place where Thomas Whitty produced the first "Axminster" carpet in 1755)

2 distincly different types of looms were developed under that name :

• the "Gripper axminster" looms

Generally, the Gripper - Axminster loom is viewed as better suited to contract carpet production, and many of these looms now operate electronically. During this process, the yarn coming from the creel (the bank of yarns itself located behind the loom) feed into the loom through a yarn selector board, and pulled by the gripper is cut to a pre-determined length (according to the selected pile height) and woven simultaneously on the same loom with a jute or synthetic backing. Designs are created by the use of different yarn colours in specific places during the weaving process co.

• the "Spool Axminster" looms

Mostly used to weave large runs of carpet, spool axminster looms can produce woven carpets with a virtually unlimited number of colours, although there is a limit on the size of the patterns.
Within that process yarns are set up onto a number of spools, one per line into the pattern, this spools being then loaded onto the Axminster loom into the weaving order in order to achieve each row of pile yarns while the wrefts and warps woven simultaneously will construct the carpet with a woven backing.

Here are now some of the numerous options available when manufacturing custom made woven axminster carpets, knowing that in most cases they will be made using 80/20 yarn (80% wool et 20% nylon) this blend combining the softness, comfort and warmness of wool, with the hard-wearing properties of nylon.

However some axminster carpets may also be woven using 100% wool or 100% nylon yarms.

• according to gripper axminster looms : 8 to 12 colours may be selected to be woven into one design, without price increase. (in fact this, as everything following, apply mainly to jacquard electronic grippers axminster looms as they are now the most currently globally used to produce bespoke axminster carpeting for custom made hotels contract carpets.)
  
• a nearly no-limit freedom for design creativity and colour combination, and this from your own design or by selecting a pattern from the 15 000 (or nearby...) designs existing in archives we have access to..
  
• again a nearly no-limit (except of course their weight for handling...) to rolls lengths and more over to carpet design or pattern repeat sizes.
  
  

• an amazing reduction of the number of seams (and wastage) specially when choosing axminster carpets with coordinating borders or "rugs effect" look like.

Also it is quite easy to understand that by minimising the number of seams, this will not only reduce the fitting cost, but long term speaking also significantly improve the carpet overall durability and self resistance to wearing.

• An unrivalled weaving widths option with looms available in various widths :
  
  

  -	Metric	Imperial
  -	0,69 m	27''
  -	0,91 m	3'
  -	1,37 m	4'6''
  -	2,74 m	9'
  -	3,66 m	12'
  -	4,00 m	13'2''
  -	4,11 m	13'6''
  -	4,57 m	15'

   

• A Specific axminster quality for each individual project :
  
  The same design may in fact be woven within very different qualities, according to specific needs with regard to the area it will finally fitted (hotel bedroom, public areas, stairs case etc...)
  
  

  The criterias commonly used to determine the quality of an axminster carpet are :

Carpet density

Tuft density is determined by mutliplying the loom's pitch by the number of rows in the carpet. Pitch is a set number (generally 7 to 8) which indicates how many warp threads which will be contained in 2.54 cm (1 inch) of carpet..

The number of rows is a variable which should be specifield by the customer' need (in fact and again this is related to where the carpet will be finally fitted and for which kind of end-use, hotels bedroom or corridors, hotel public areas, domestic/residential use, commercial building, offices, shops, casinos gambling room, stair cases etc...)

Rows are woven as weft, and there may be anywhere from 6 to 14 rows in an inch of Axminster carpet. Therefore, a 10-row specification woven on a 7-pitch loom would have a tuft density of 70 tufts per square inch.

Some standard qualities are :

- 6 rows/inch X 7 pitchs/inch = 23,65/dm X 27,60 = ± 65.000 tufts/m²
- 7 rows/inch X 7 pitchs/inch = 27,60/dm X 27,60 = ± 76.176 tufts/m²
- 8 rows/inch X 7 pitchs/inch = 31,55/dm X 27,60 = ± 87.078 tufts/m²
- 9 rows/inch X 7 pitchs/inch = 35,50/dm X 27,60 = ± 97.980 tufts/m²
- 10 rows/inch X 7 pitchs/inch = 39,43/dm X 27,60 = ± 108.827 tufts/m²
- 11 rows/inch X 7 pitchs/inch = 43,38/dm X 27,60 = ± 119.730 tufts/m²

12, 13 and even 14 rows qualities may also be woven.

Even if visual aspect as colour-ways of 2 carpets (for example : one being woven in 7 rows and the other one in 11 rows density) are identical it quite obvious that total pile weights and therefore inherent properties and qualities will be very much different...

LEYLATY BALROOM
JEDDAH - KINGDOM of SAUDI ARABIA
An exceptional axminster quality :
± 4000 m² of a custom made 14 rows axminster

Pile Height

Pile height is another variable which should be specified by the customer.

A number of factors must be considered when determining the optimal pile height - required finished pile weight, end use and traffic, patterns and fitting method (direct stick, double stick or stretch fitting on felt) being along them. Pile height can vary from c.a. 5mm to c.a. 12mm

Yarn system and wool origin

Yarn ply (generally, 2 or 3) and thickness are key factors in establishing an Axminster carpet's finished weight, and (as a consequence) overall durability.

Generally represented as a fraction (i.e. 2/48's) the top number indicates yarn ply and the bottom number indicates how many yards of the yarn weight 1 oz.

Therefore, a 2/48's yarn system is one which has 2 ply, 48 yards of which weigh 1 oz.
This yarn is, obviously finer than a 2/42's, but heavier than a 2/52's.

According results may drive very quickly to significantly different finished pile weight for carpets woven with same number of rows.

Origin of the raw materials (mainly wool) is also a rather important factor :

• British or Irish wools being recognised universally for their durability.
• New Zealand wool being worldly know for its brightness and excellent dying properties.

Most of the yarn spun in order to be used into axminster carpets construction will be coming from a blend of those different wools.

Obviously, all these factors are particulary important to the contract sector

In fact the words "Axminster carpets" covers a huge number of carpet quality options and therefore hotel contract experience as client list are so important at the time of choosing a supplier

Some additional information about AXMINSTER weaving
(click here to open a separate window)

Colour representation and/or designs of Agence Cholleton carpets: Wool carpets, linen carpets, wool/nylon or wool/linen carpets, or any axminster and wilton carpets, tufted and colortec carpets, wool rugs, carpet runners and stair runners may vary from one dye batch to another one. Also colours are as faithful as it is technically possible but may vary significantly – according as depending on each individual computer screen calibration and settings as specific type of printers and related printing processes and/or settings. Also Agence Cholleton carpets reserves the right to modify the characteristics and specifications of any product presented on www.cholleton.com while keeping it the same technical properties as aspect.

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Cholleton Contract Carpets - A3C 21, rue Hélène Andrée 78007 Versailles - France

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