Dalton—ShawMark Carpets has announced the latest “torture test” for its Anything Goes! line of carpets. Conducted at Shaw Plant 34 in Dalton, a carpet distribution center, an Anything Goes! style was subjected to more than 5,000,000 pounds of tractor-trailers with freight being driven over it during the course of a day. The Anything Goes! carpet withstood the punishment and retained its tight twist and original appearance after cleaning.
ShawMark Anything Goes! carpets were originally developed more than 30 years ago to address the major complaint about carpet performance: Matting and crushing. After two years in development, Anything Goes! underwent its first torture test, an installation at the Hershey Chocolate Center in Hershey, Pa. There it was subjected to the foot traffic of 880,685 people for several weeks, and after the carpet was removed and cleaned, it retained its original appearance, proving its durability. These “torture tests” have continued to be conducted through the years, always with the same results.
“We believe this latest test may be the most punishing one to date,” said Duane Goetze, ShawMark marketing director. “A fully loaded trailer rig weighs approximately 80,000 pounds, and more than one hundred trucks with full and partial loads drove across this carpet during the day.”
Goetze noted that the success of Anything Goes! is due to the most stringent testing conducted on any carpet. Besides the numerous torture tests, ShawMark puts every Anything Goes! carpet through a series of appearance retention tests. Anything Goes! styles are run through two cycles of the Hexapod Drum, rather than the single cycle used for other carpets. This represents twice the punishment endured by other styles tested for appearance retention. Moreover, the appearance retention results for Anything Goes! styles must also be much higher than typical of most carpets being evaluated, certifying the carpet is suitable for high-traffic areas.
Promotional efforts for the new torture test will include a display board featuring a swatch of the actual tested carpet and a swatch of the same carpet after cleaning. In addition, a video of the actual torture test is posted on shawmark.com.