bright luster acid dyes cut pile carpet continuous range dyed to a nominal medium steel gray color 1205 denier bright luster yarns 0 tio 2 in nylon 66 were spun by the standard bcf coupled process item mr 10 03 01 test yarns were prepared by the same process except that additional color pigment concentrates were added at the throat of the extruder color pigment concentrations in the test fiber mr 10 03 18 are given in table 11 yarns were cable twisted to 4 5 twists per inch heat set in superba u2122 at 265 u00b0 f and tufted into cut pile carpets u215b gauge u215d u2033 pile height 32 oz the carpets made of mr 10 03 18 and mr 10 03 01 yarns were continuous range dyed with acid dyes cgrl red 2b and blue bar to a similar medium steel gray color and the carpet was washed and dried pieces of carpet were then cut into smaller pieces and exposed in an atlas u2122 xenon arc weatherometer they were taken out after 60 80 and 200 hours exposure and the l a b values and delta e were measured using a hand held minolta u2122 spectraphotometer the delta e results between the non exposed sample and exposed sample are given below in table 12 the results show test carpet mr 10 03 18 retained its dyed color better or delta e was lower over time after exposure to xenon compared to the control.