Importance

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Abstract

A floor mat and a method and apparatus for making a floor mat having desirable absorptive characteristics and constructed significantly of recycled or post industrial/consumer materials. A floor mat may be made of a base layer, a padding layer and a face layer. The base layer may comprise at least a portion of reprocessed rubber buffings formed to have an upper surface, a lower surface, and a plurality of nibs. The face layer may comprise a carper formed of at least a portion of which is post industrial and/or post consumer PET. The padding layer may be positioned between the base layer and the face layer comprising at least a portion of post industrial and/or post consumer PET. A method of manufacturing a floor mat may include the steps of mixing and heating recycled materials, such as recycled thermoplastic polyolefin elastomer, reprocessed rubber buffings, recycled low density polyethylene in an extruder, pushing the resulting molten material through a die at an exit end of the extruder; feeding the molten material along with a web of a facing layer and a padding layer through a nip, forming a matrix of cavities and/or nibs on a surface of the molten material, cooling the molten material to form a floor mat assembly incorporating the base material and the web, forming the floor mat assembly in a form die and cutting the floor mat assembly into individual floor mats in a cutting die.

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First Claim