| 摘要 |
Carpets are recycled into structural beams or sheet materials having a laminated structure 10 by stacking sheets of carpet 20, 30, 32 on top of each other and bonding the faces of adjacent sheets of carpet in the stack to one another using an adhesive. The adhesive is a curable adhesive comprising PVA, an emulsifier or polyurethane (PU), especially water curable PU foam. The laminated is cut 28 into desired dimensions once the adhesive is cured. Preferably, rollers are used to apply pressure to the stack. The carpets may be stacked pile (16, figure 2) to pile, pile to backing 24 or backing to backing. The laminate can be used as a substitute for building materials, for example, walls, structural elements, MDF sheeting or wooden beams, in fences, or thermally or acoustically insulating material. A relatively open, shock absorbing laminate 40 can be manufactured having a non-slip surface 46, preferably coating (48, figure 4) comprising polyurethane 14, and grit, sand or fine granular material (50, figure 4), which may be suitable for use as an equine walkway. |
