'The EngD research project will be to develop innovative materials andflooring to migrate the textile flooring products towards the company's vision of sustainability. This will involve a holistic consideration ofthe supply chain from sourcing renewable raw materials, improving/re-engineering production processes, refurbishment, recycling, downcycling and disposal. The initial project will be to undertake afeasibility study to investigate the technical/market opportunities open to the company including benchmarking against competitors in the flooring market.' This report describes the preliminary investigation into developing innovative flooring solutions. This project is based at Interface Europe, Shelf Mills, which currently manufactures carpet tiles. Its aim is to move flooring through the next paradigm shift to industrial ecology. The initial part of the project is to examine the industry at present. The early literature review looks at current products in the market place and their perceived benefits and disadvantages. The current manufacturing methods are reviewed in order to fully understand the way in which the industry has developed. The history of Interface Europe is discussed in order to understand the driving force for change within the industry and the changes that are required. The structure of corporate Interface is also discussed in order to understand the author's position and the way in which new products may be bought about and tested.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:505167 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Carter, Diane Tracy |
| Publisher | University of Surrey |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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