Process of thermal transfer using hot melt adhesive lamination for forming a carpet backing and finished carpet or tile product

1. A method for binding a greige carpet comprising:

applying a hot melt adhesive to a secondary backing material to form an adhesive-loaded secondary backing material;

providing a heated doctor bar disposed generally over the point of contact between the secondary backing material and the heated application roll to form a puddle of hot melt adhesive;

contacting the adhesive-loaded secondary backing material with a heated application roll to form a secondary backing material on the heated application roll; and

pressing the greige carpet against the secondary backing material on the heated application roll to form a finished carpet.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the greige carpet comprises fiber tufts looped around a primary backing fabric.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the fiber tufts are selected from the group consisting of nylon, polyesters, acrylics, rayon, cotton fibers, and combinations or mixtures thereof.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the primary backing fabric is selected from the group consisting of nonwoven and woven polyesters, polypropylene, nylon fabrics, and combinations or mixtures thereof.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the secondary backing material is selected from the group consisting of woven and nonwoven polyester, polypropylene, nylon-coated polyester fibers, and combinations or mixtures thereof.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the secondary backing material is a heat set polyester.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the secondary backing material is a woven textile with thread counts between 20 and 80 threads per inch in both the warp and weft directions.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the secondary backing material exhibits dimensional thermal stability at temperatures up to 350° F.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the hot melt adhesive additionally comprises an additive selected from the group consisting of fire retardants, fillers, weighters, oxidization stabilizers, antibacterial agents, antimicrobial agents, antifungal agents, UV stabilizers, and combinations thereof.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hot melt adhesive is selected from esters of polyethylene terephthalate and a modifying polymer, or esters of polyethylene naphthalate and a modifying polymer.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the modifying polymer comprises a repeating unit selected from the group consisting of polyethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, trimethylol propane, phthalic anhydride, oleic acid, adipic acid, and combinations thereof.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying the hot melt adhesive comprises applying the adhesive at a coating weight of from about 4 to about 240 ounces of hot melt adhesive per square yard of secondary backing material.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying the hot melt adhesive comprises applying a single application of hot melt adhesive to the secondary backing material.

14. A method for binding a greige carpet comprising:

applying a hot melt adhesive to a secondary backing material at an application point;

passing the secondary backing material to a heated application roll to form a hot melt adhesive layer having a predetermined thickness on the secondary backing material; and

adding a layer of greige carpet to the hot melt adhesive layer to form a finished carpet:

wherein the process further comprises forming a puddle of molten adhesive over the secondary backing material between a heated doctor bar and the heated application roll.