Innovative foil backing to close the material cycle for textile floor coverings

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10.12.2025 | events
Launch of KI4KI: Artificial intelligence for the plastics industry

On 25 November 2026, nine companies launched the KI4KI consortium project at the Plastic Innovation Centre 4.0 at the IKV. At the kick-off event, the partners’ key requirements were analysed, initial AI use cases were identified and valuable insights from the

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Most textile floor coverings (in addition to carpets, floor tiles, and artificial turf) consist mainly of recyclable thermoplastics such as polyamides (PA), polypropylene (PP), and polyester (PET) as well as a latex coating. In order to close the material cycle for textile floor coverings, IKV and the Textiles and Flooring Institute (TFI) at RWTH Aachen University are working together on open questions regarding the material recycling of such floor coverings and on the development of recyclable carpet products made from rPA.

Textile floor coverings are often manufactured using the tufting technique in a sandwich structure. The exposed pile nubs on the back are bonded with a latex dispersion in a two-stage wet coating process. A textile backing is then applied, which can consist of synthetic fibres (PP, PET), natural fibres (jute, wool), or blends of these materials (Fig. 1).

22910N2 — Fig. 1: Possible structure of a carpet made from recycled polyamide produced using the thermobonding process.

When it comes to the mechanical recycling of conventional floor coverings, the main challenge lies in separating the latex material without damaging the material. By using only thermoplastics, textile floor coverings can be optimised for mechanical recycling. Instead of a latex coating, a PA flat film can be applied as a backing using the thermobonding process. The pile nubs of the tufted floor covering are melted in a heated calender and then brought into contact with the film so that the backing layer and the coating film are bonded together.

In the project, the recyclate from a floor covering containing latex was largely purified by means of multi-stage filtration of the melt and then extruded into a flat film. This high-quality rPA6 flat film was used in the thermobonding process as a backing for new textile floor coverings. The rPA6 flat film was optimised for the thermobonding process in terms of thickness, viscosity, and melting behaviour. The resulting textile floor coverings made from rPA are then suitable for both material recycling and chemical recycling in the form of depolymerisation.

Project data and funding

We would like to thank the BMWE for funding the IGF project (funding code 22910 N 2) and the project partners for their cooperation.

Project duration: 01.04.2023 – 31.03.2025

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