Needle punched fleeces came on the market in 1963 under the term "non-woven" and gained acceptance as floor-coverings for their hard wearing qualities as well as resistance to soiling.

Apart from the conventional needle punched floor-covering or flat bonded carpets, Wollimex also produces the so called pile fleece on its special machinery. These products are subdivided into velour and structured needle punched carpets.

Needle punched carpets for commercial uses are generally flat bonded carpets. Velour and structured carpets are especially suitable for entry lobby matting and clean walkway floor carpeting as well as automotive floor mats due to their capability of absorbing dirt in so called 'deposit zones'.

Initially, staple fibres delivered in bales are mangled, carded and felted to a fibre fleece in an extensive weighing-up and mixing process. Thereafter the fibre fleece thus produced is needle-punch finished as structured or flat bonded fleece. In a third production process, the goods are treated with a latex binding agent, either full immersion-impregnated or swash-coated on the rear, and then dried. The product can be supplied according to customer requirements in roll- or tile form. In a fourth process, the rear side of the goods can be coated or laminated.

The needle-punching machine consists of a needle board, which rises and falls vertically at rapid intervals, whereby the needles on the downward vertical movement punch into a grid. The fibre fleece is drawn horizontally through the machine between a downward embedding pressure pad (not shown in the illustration) and the needle grill, at a predefined speed.

Barbs on the needles draw the fibres up through the fleece surface, thus producing a vertical felting effect by means of the fibres within the fleece itself. Dependent on the number of vertical movements of the needles, the punching depth of the needles as well as the conveyance speed of the fleece through the machine, the needle-punching activity can be more or less effective. In this manner, harder or softer qualities of the needle-punched felt fleece can be produced dependent on the intended requirements for the goods.