Finishing of carpets for value addition

Abstract Modern day consumers use the carpets in their households not only for functional properties such as keeping the house warm and cozy, but also to make a statement of their life style. Carpets are also used to decorate public places such as airports and flooring of hotels, etc. Hence, depending on the end uses in various places, these carpets beyond their aesthetic properties and designs are expected to offer value-added performance properties such as softness, fire retardance, stain resistance, soil release, antistatic, antibacterial, insect resistance, aroma finish, etc. As the consumer is conscious of the functional properties that could be demanded from carpet manufacturers, such innovative finishes which are more commonly used on the textile fabric will have to be used for the finishing of carpet too to attain the goal of value addition and achieving a competitive edge. The present chapter discusses all these different types of finishes with respect to their chemistry, classification, mechanism application potential, and methods of evaluation.