Patent ID: 7490569

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a tufted pile fabric having a technical face with exposed surface portions of tufted yarn and primary backing, comprising the steps of: (a) providing at least one needle bar carrying a plurality of needles spaced from one another in a weft direction; (b) supplying yarns to the needles carried by the needle bar; (c) displacing the needle bar and the primary backing relative to one another in a warp direction; (d) tufting yarns into the primary backing to form yarn loops on the technical face upon relative displacement of the needle bar and the primary backing; (e) controlling yarn feed to selected needles during tufting to withdraw through the primary backing yarn loops previously tufted into the primary backing by the selected needles to form discrete surface portions of the primary backing and tufted yarns exposed on the technical face of the fabric; said method producing the tufted pile fabric having said technical face with exposed surface portions of tufted yarn and primary backing.