US 12,392,094 B2
Artificial turf and methods of making same
Philipe Aldahir, Chattanooga, TN (US); Derek Bass, Cartersville, GA (US); and Jim Burns, Rocky Face, GA (US)
Assigned to Columbia Insurance Company, Omaha, NE (US)
Filed by Columbia Insurance Company, Omaha, NE (US)
Filed on Aug. 28, 2019, as Appl. No. 16/553,973.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/723,650, filed on Aug. 28, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2020/0071886 A1, Mar. 5, 2020
Int. Cl. E01C 13/08 (2006.01); A41G 1/00 (2006.01); D04H 11/08 (2006.01); D05C 17/02 (2006.01); D06N 7/00 (2006.01)
CPC E01C 13/08 (2013.01) [D04H 11/08 (2013.01); D05C 17/023 (2013.01); D06N 7/0068 (2013.01); D10B 2505/202 (2013.01); Y10T 428/23979 (2015.04)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An artificial turf, consisting of:
a homogeneous nonwoven backing layer having a face side and a back side, wherein the homogeneous nonwoven backing layer comprises low-melt fibers having a melting point from about 100° C. to about 180° C. and high-melt fibers having a higher melting point than the low-melt fibers; and
a plurality of turf fibers extending through the homogeneous nonwoven backing layer such that a face side portion of the plurality of turf fibers extends from the face side of the homogeneous nonwoven backing layer and a back side portion of the plurality of turf fibers extends from the back side of the homogeneous nonwoven backing layer, wherein at least a portion of the back side portion of turf fibers are bonded to themselves, wherein the plurality of turf fibers consists of only one type of a single polymer fiber being selected from the group consisting of nylon, polyester, polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polyurethane (PU), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene terephthalate PPT), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), and polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT),
wherein melted low-melt fibers in the homogeneous nonwoven backing layer form globules of the melted low-melt fibers at crossover points where low-melt fibers and high-melt fibers-intersect.