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Pile reversal is the most unpleasant, and probably the most complained about of all of the shading effects. See New Information For reasons that are not totally understood, but may be related to humidity, tensions during manufacture, yarn twist and construction, fibre characteristics, environmental factors within the building, traffic patterns, Electro static areas and so on, large areas of the pile can suddenly re orientate to lie in one particular direction, whilst adjacent areas lie in another direction. This causes an apparent shade change of the type already discussed. Sometimes they ‘fall apart’. That is to say adjacent areas of tufts acquire a lay pointing away from one another. In such instances it is often possible to feel the demarcation simply by gently passing the flat of the hand from one area to another. See Diagram 'A'Sometimes they ‘fall together’ producing two adjacent areas of carpet that are different in shade with an intermediate ‘no—man’ s land periphery around the edge of the ‘stain’ that is neither one shade nor the other. The word ‘stain’ has been used because this is the most common term used by the public to describe the phenomenon. Synonymous terms are ‘watermarking’ or ‘pooling’ and there can be no doubt that many consumers genuinely believe that the carpet has been wet or stained, even to the extent that they admit to looking up at the ceiling to see if any water has come through. The industry, though plagued by this problem have no completely satisfactory answer. In some extreme cases manufacturers have been known to replace the carpet but more often than not this is not the case. Some manufacturers publish a warning, - in their sales literature or on the backs of the patterns in their sample books, pointing out the risk of shading effects of this type in plain and semi-plain plushes.Diagram 'B' illustrates a particularly bad example of pile reversal on a rug laid in an hotel lobby in the United States. Because the pile is so lustrous the effects of changes in light reflection are severe. The reproduction in Diagram 'B' does not do justice to the severity of the complaint, nor does it represent the shades of reddish-brown that were apparent on this, an essentially orange carpet. Severe pile reversal is often commonplace in coconut entrance matting. It is also worth noting that it may also be observed on velvet upholstery and other plush fabrics. Finally, it is interesting to note, in the context of shading, that more than one carpet cleaner has been known to spend time and effort trying to remove a particularly stubborn stain using every technique within his experience only to discover that the stain is a shadow - perhaps of a vase on a window ledge or a knob on the end of a newel post on the stairs; or it is a highlight, caused by natural daylight focused through a chip in a window pane. More than one investigator has been fooled in the same way.
Investigative Techniques for Shading Effects Faults such as these are easily recognizable. The most difficult aspect is to convince the client that there is no satisfactory remedy. For those clients who will not accept that pile reversal is a reflectance phenomenon, but believe it to be a permanent stain it is possible to provide two simple demonstrations that should help to convince the customer. See New Information
(i) Point out that if the carpet is viewed from one particular aspect the affected area will look dark against a light background but when viewed from the opposite aspect it will look light against a dark background.
(ii) Use a finger to pick out the edges of the ‘stain’, and let the customer agree that the shape you have traced out is the shape that they see. Then show them how the outline can be changed simply by re-orientating the adjacent pile with the flat of the hand. If the effect had been the result of staining, it would not have been possible to change the shape.
There is a new school of thought that this phenomena is to do with the electro-static properties within the home in connection with D.C. currents. If this proves correct then manufacturers will be able to site this as a cause and positively reject any complaint. There still remains the fact that as far as i'm aware there are three manufacturers due to their manufacturing methods state there will almost never be a pile reversal problem; Westex Carpets, Ryalux Carpets and Brintons Carpets. *
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