Patent ID: 8298364

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a paint roller cover, comprising: providing a tubular knitted pile fabric sleeve having a first end and a second end, said tubular knitted pile fabric sleeve comprising: a base fabric being knitted from a base strand and having a tubular configuration defining an outside and an inside; and pile strands knitted into said base fabric and extending inwardly from said base fabric to form the pile of said tubular knitted pile fabric sleeve; wherein at least one of said base strand and said pile strands is made at least in part from a first material and a second material, wherein said first material has a lower melting point than said second material and wherein the second material has a predetermined shrinkage rate when heated to said lower melting point; inverting a first length of said tubular knitted pile fabric sleeve from a pile side-in configuration to a pile side-out configuration; placing said inverted first length of said tubular knitted pile fabric sleeve onto a cylindrical member having a cylindrical outer surface with said inside of said base fabric in contact with said cylindrical outer surface of said cylindrical member; heating said base fabric to cause at least a portion of said first material to melt and fuse said base fabric together to thereby create a cylindrical integral core member which, when cooled, is sufficiently rigid to preserve its cylindrical configuration and removing said cylindrical integral core member from said cylindrical member.