Floor Coverings

Reinforcement for floor coverings

BAFATEX supplies floor covering manufacturers with laid scrims that reinforce their products as a flexible yet strong backing or intermediate layer. Laid scrims are suitable for reinforcing a wide range of floor coverings:

• Broadloom carpet
  
• Carpet tiles
• Stone tiles
• Stone mosaic
• Glass mosaic
• Mosaic parquet (wood)
• Parquet flooring
• Sports floors (sports halls, indoor tennis courts, synthetic running tracks)

Laid scrims connect floor elements, hold them in shape and give them dimensional stability. They make installation easier, especially for complex floor patterns such as mosaics, by fixing predefined spacing and positions.

Properties for reinforcing your products

Thanks to their structure, BAFATEX diagonal laid scrims give products the properties customers expect from high-quality floors:

• Stable yet flexible
  
• High tensile, bending and flexural strength
• Durability and reduced wear
• More extensible, more flexible and lighter than conventional woven fabrics
• Properties of two materials can be combined
• Permeable to air and liquids
• Depending on the material, waterproof and suitable for wet rooms
• If required (depending on the material), resistant to acids and alkalis (e.g. alkali-resistant to DIN 53857)
• Suitable for underfloor heating thanks to their open structure (ISO 8302)
• Flame-retardant materials and finishes to EN 13501-1
• Suitable for EN 1815:2016-12 on the electrostatic propensity of resilient and textile floor coverings
• An alternative to heavy coatings, foam backings, nonwovens and knitted fabrics
• Excellent value for money

Laid scrims vs. woven fabrics

Laid scrims are yarn structures, a form of technical textile that differs significantly from conventional woven fabrics:

• The yarns run diagonally / multiaxially in 6 directions, so they absorb acting forces much more effectively.
  
• The yarns are not woven over and under each other but firmly bonded at their contact points by a binder.
• They are more stable and at the same time more flexible.
• Their higher structural tear strength allows wider meshes and a significantly lower weight per unit area.
• Different materials can be combined, each with its specific properties.
• The yarns can be treated with a wide range of impregnations for specific purposes.

Added value through quality and cost efficiency

BAFA^® laid scrims add value through higher product quality.

This added value justifies a higher price compared with low-cost competitors.

The result: higher sales, better margins, more satisfied customers and a stronger brand.

Material options

Depending on the properties required, laid scrims are available in the following materials:

• Jute
• Cotton
• Flax
• Polyester
• Polyamide
• Viscose
• Aramid
• Glass fibre
• Carbon fibre
• Kevlar®
• Nomex®
• Technora®
• Steel fibre blended yarn
• Other materials to your specification

Flexible, stable, light and configurable

Several variables of BAFA® laid scrims can be adjusted to tailor the reinforcement to your requirements:

• Material, material combinations and their properties (e.g. soft, hard, heat-sealable, epoxy-compatible, waterproof, flame-retardant)
• Yarn count
• Yarn spacing
• Elongation at break (1.7–23 %)
• Breaking force (2.2–448 N)
• Tenacity (13–355 cN/tex)
• Crossing angle of the yarns (and thus force transmission)
• Colours
• Impregnation

Automated production and manual processing

BAFATEX supplies laid scrims wound on rolls in widths from 100 to 2,700 mm (approx. 4 to 106 in), particularly suited to automated production and high processing speeds. Besides use as a bonded backing, incorporation into intermediate layers is common, especially in highly elastic floors.

Thanks to good cutting and punching properties and stable cut edges, BAFA® laid scrims are ideal for die-cutting lines, while also making manual installation easier for tilers, carpet fitters and other trades on site.

This is particularly beneficial for mosaic floors made of stone, wood or glass: instead of laying them piece by piece like a puzzle, it is simpler, faster and more cost-effective to join pre-assembled floor elements with a laid scrim backing.