Abstract: The present invention provides an inexpensive process which can be placed in the carpet mill to add value to carpet selvage waste by segregating the various materials used to manufacture the selvage waste. The process for segregating at least one component of a carpet selvage waste comprises the steps of:a. providing carpet selvage waste from carpet manufacturing comprised of tufts comprised of face fiber material, primary backing, an adhesive and optionally a secondary backing,b. identifying face fiber type used in the tufts in the carpet selvage,c. removing the face fiber from the carpet selvage such that the face fiber is essentially free of the primary backing and residual adhesive andd. segregating the removed face fiber from the remainder of the carpet selvage in a mechanical system which segregates fiber by fiber type to obtain a relatively pure stream of the face fiber.All removed, segregated components may be recycled and/or reused.

Abstract: This is an improved apparatus for stretching a tow of filaments by the tension caused by driven rolls dragging the tow across drag rolls. The improvement comprises continuously controlling at least one undriven or drag roll proportional to the sensed variation in a ratio of speed between at least one driven roll and at least one drag roll.