Patent ID: 7514026

Claim:
A process for forming a portion of a surface covering comprising the steps of: (a) conveying a dispersion of low-melt thermoplastic components and high-melt thermoplastic components into a chute feeder, wherein the low-melt thermoplastic component has a melting temperature of at least about 20° C. below melting temperatures for the high-melt thermoplastic components; (b) maintaining about 20% to about 65% of the dispersion as the low-melt thermoplastic components; (c) forming a batt with the dispersion; (d) applying heat from above or below the batt, wherein the heat temperature is below the melting temperatures for high-melting components; (e) applying pressure to the batt to compact the batt to form a sheet; and (f) cooling the sheet, wherein before the step (a) the dispersion is produced by shredding a fibrous floor covering, wherein between steps (c) and (d), the batt is again shredded and then conveyed into a second chute feeder to form a second batt.