Manufacturing Today Issue - 246 March 2026 | Page 218

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casinos.“ Over the last five years, we’ ve seen greater demand for carpet tiles, particularly in the US casino market. They typically require high-end Axminster carpet which is durable and custom designed. A casino carpet needs to stand out; it needs to be bold and eye-catching. Furthermore, when you lay broadloom carpet, you have to clear a large area to accommodate the size of the rolls. Casinos operate 24 / 7 so taking large areas out of action is bad for business, whereas tiles are an excellent option as they can be laid in small areas at a time.”
Innovation is integral to Brintons, and it has developed an Axminster tile with a‘ perfect match’ element, designed to preserve pattern repeats, while promoting environmental responsibility with felt backing.“ The felt has Green Label Plus certification and is used in place of bitumen, which is a petroleum-based adhesive,” elaborates Duccio.“ The tiles don’ t even require gluing because they are so heavy.”
Further technological advancements involve its Design Studio Online, currently housing 40,000 designs – with 30,000 more in the pipeline. Launching in March 2026, the program uses AI to transform visual searching to text-based, making the process far more efficient.“ Historically, the huge number of designs makes it difficult for individuals to recall them all, and searching by sight is incredibly laborious,” Duccio discloses“ We’ ve developed this program to categorize designs, and introduced a language search function. A user can type a comprehensive brief, and the program will automatically generate pattern matches. You can also input an image and search for similar images using AI; results are generated within a fraction of a second.”
Based on the philosophy of fashion always reinventing itself, Duccio says existing ideas can be applied to new design.“ Iconic designs never expire,” he states.“ We can use inspiration from designs created in the 20th century and then tailor, update and modify the color palettes.”
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