AU605392B2 - Carpet jointing pressure plate - Google Patents

Description

C0111NONEALTH OF' AUSTPTLIA PATENTS AC ,1952 Form Regulation 13 2) COMPLETE SPECIFICATI5Q5392 FOR OFFICE USE Short T]itle: Int. C14 Application Nuxnber- Lodged: -Crnoplete Specification-Lodged- Accepted: ~'0Lapsed:.

Published: -Priority: -s'Related Art: Nam~e of Applicant: This docui-ent conti7ins 9-1 oQ amendments m, Ie uner] section 4Ytade s crc:t TO BE COMPLETED BY APPLICAT ALBERT KARL, BORKOWSKI

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Address of Applicant: Actual Inventor: Address for Service: 1 Detzner Place, Whallan, New South Wales, 2770, Australia ALBERT KARL BORKOWSKI ARTHUR S. CAVE CO., Patent and Trade M4ark Attorneys, Level 10, 10 Barrack Street, Sydney, New South Wales 2000, Australia Complete Specification for the invention entitled: CARPET JOINTING PRESSURE PLATE The following~ statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it knowin to. me:- -1- ASC-4 9 ~1 M F r F I I o CARPET JOINTING PRESSURE PLATE This invention relates to carpet laying and in particular to making butt joints in laid carpets.

In laying wall to wall carpet, to achieve the wall to wall effect it is necessary to make butt joints between adjoining sections of carpet. The butt joints are made by placing a fibre glass-resin strip under the carpet along the joint. The resin strip is heated with a heating tool to soften the resin such that it will bond to the floor and the underside of the '0 carpet. Once the resin cools the strip is firmly bonded to the floor and carpet, making a secure joint.

K To make this joint, once the resin has been softened it is o. necessary that pressure is applied to the carpet such that the resin bonds firmly to the carpet and floor. Not only must the i. pressure be sufficient to cause bonding but the pressure must be even along the joint such that the joint is even and flat.

Before this invention carpet layers would use four or five house bricks or a similar number of wooden blocks. The use of house bricks has numerous disadvantages. A house brick does not have smooth sides and sharp corners. Thus in laying the Sbricks on the carpet an even pressure is not supplied to the carpet while at the joints of adjacent bricks, frequently a short length of carpet will have no pressure applied to it.

Consequentially these short sections will not bond well and the joint line will have a series of raised 'lumps' along its length.

The use of wooden blocks may solve, partially, the problem of uneven pressure underneath each block, due to the ability to make them with smooth sides, but it does not solve the problem -2 S. of an uneven joint at the junction of each block.

Both household bricks and wooden blocks do not have means to join a series of bricks or blocks together and thus if they are to be moved along the seam line it is necessary to move each piece individually. A further disadvantage is having no handles, a brick or block is difficult to carry in the hand with a number of other like blocks.

It is thus an object of the invention to provide a carpet jointing pressure plate which is easy to carry, provides an r 10 even pressure on the seam and may be joined to other like It t pressure plates and subsequently moved as one unit.

t rI n oe SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION LE In one broad form the invention provides a carpet jointing pressure plate comprising a longitudinal member having a substantially planar lower surface and an upper surface, carrying means on said upper surface, engaging means at each end of said member adapted to engage a corresponding engaging means of another like pressure plate such that a series of pressure plates may be joined end on end.

1 2b Preferably the pressure plate is of all metal construction.

r Preferably the pressure plate comprises a planar metal sheet having plane upper and lower surfaces, a D-shaped handle made of round bar extending from the upper surface and engaging means at both end of the sheet comprising a transverse groove in the upper surface at one end and a like transverse groove in the lower surface at the other end, Preferably the ratio of width to length of the pressure plate varies between 1 to 1 and 1 to 10 and the ratio of handle height to width varies between 1 to 2 and 10 to 1.

3- 1831E 'i j Preferably the pressure plate member is made of plate steel 100 mm wide, 12 mm high and between 200 and 1000 mm long.

Brief Description of the Drawings Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the invention.

Figure 2 shows a side view detail of one end of the embodiment of Figure 1.

Figure 3 shows an end view of the embodiment of Figure 1.

Figures 4-7 show variations in dimensions of the invention.

10, Figure 8 shows the embodiments of Figures 4-6 stacked t within each other.

Figure 9 shows a different embodiment of the invention, in perspective.

Detailed Description of a Preferred Embodiment As shown in Figure 1 the carpet jointing pressure plate 1 comprises a plane longitudinal member 2. This member has a plane lower surface 3 and in this preferred form a parallel e plane upper surface 4, although the form of this upper surface 4 contributes nothing to the working of the invention.

A handle 5 protrudes from the upper surface in a plane perpendicular to the upper surface 4, the handle 5 comprising a piece of round bar formed into a diverging U shape. The free ends 6 and 7 of the bar are joined to the member 2 adjacent its ends 8 and 9 respectively, the central section 10 of the handle 5 being parallel to the upper surface 4.

At one end 9 there is provided a transverse groove 11 in the upper surface 4 while at the other end 8 there is provided a similar transverse groove 12 in the lower surface 3. The grooves 11 and 12 as so shaped that the groove 11 will mate 4 ii 1

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1831E N 1 r: -1 l- i lii i- I I r n.;.~;riin;r.rr~ with the groove 12 of a second pressure plate to secure the two pressure plates together with their lower surfaces 3 lying in a common plane.

In use the two pieces of carpet to be joined are butted up to each other and a fibreglass reinforced resin joining strip is placed between the carpet and the floor. A heating tool is then passed over the strip and under the carpet to heat the resin and render it tacky. Once this is done the pressure plate is placed over the joint and provides the correct 0LIp. pressure to ensure that the jointing strip bonds to both the

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floor and the carpet lower surfaces.

Carpet joints are often made in a doorway where their presence is less noticable than in the middle of a room. It is therefore preferably for the length of the carpet jointing .156. pressure plate to equal the internal width of the doorway such that only one pressure plate need be used.

Often the joint is made in an arch way or wide doorway and consequentially a standard doorway width pressure plate will be too short. To cope with this various length pressure plates **2b are envisaged. These are shown in figures 4 to 7 and are of the same basic construction but with different dimensions.

Different carpets have differing 'sticking' properties with the joining strip and thus sometimes it is necessary to provide a higher pressure to the joint ensure a satisfactory joint. The various length pressure plates are thus made with handles which extend to differing amounts, allowing smaller pressure plates to be stacked on larges ones, as shown in figure 8.

In some instances the joint cannot be made in a door or 5 5 e 1831E

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r^-^r archway but must be made within the room, resulting in a long joint. As previously described, a first-section of the joining strip is heated and a pressure plate is placed on the joint and the next section is heated and a second pressure plate is placed on the joint, but with the grooves 11 and 12 as shown in figure 1 interacting to joint the two pressure plates together.

Depending on the skill of the operator a number of pressure plates may be joined together over heated carpet joint ft r t l 1 by the time the first heated section has cooled and made a V r satisfactory joint. Hereafter it is no longer necessary to add further pressure plates but the row of pressure plates may bemerely pulled to overlap the newly heated section of the joint, uncovering the first heated, and cooled joint. As each i :tt subsequent section is heated the pressure plates are again slid t, to overlap section.

t t The interlocking nature of the joint ensures that pressure is applied to all parts of the joint evenly resulting in a smooth joint without lumps or unevenness while providing a t carefully calculated load the correct adhesion is achieved.

Figure 9 shows a second embodiment of the invention. In this case the member 20 corresponding to member 2 of figure 1 is made of U-shaped channel. This embodiment is the same in all other respects to the first embodiment but allows carrying of tools or other smalled pressure plates.

It is obvious that many modifications and variations may be made to the preferred embodiments to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.

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Claims (9)

1. A carpet jointing pressure plate comprising a longitudinal member having a substantially planar lower surface and an upper surface, carrying means on said upper surface, engaging means at each end of said member adapted to engage a corresponding engaging means of another like pressure plate such that a series of pressure plates may be joined end on end.

2. A carpet jointing pressure plate as claimed in claim 1 wherein said longitudinal member comprises a rectangular plate.

3. A carpet jointing pressure plate as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein said engaging means comprises a transverse groove in the upper or lower surface.

4. A carpet jointing pressure plate as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein said carrying means comprises a hoop, attached adjacent the ends.

A carpet jointing pressure plate as claimed in anyone of the preceeding claims made of metal.

6. A carpet jointing pressure plate as claimed in any one of the preceeding claims wherein the total mass of the pressure plate is between 2 and 200kg per m of lower surface area.

7. A carpet jointing pressure plate as claimed in claim 6 wherein the mass density is between 70 and 140 kg/m 2 of lower surface area.

8. A carpet jointing pressure plate as claimed in any one of the preceeding claims wherein said carrying means is comprised of round bar.

9. A carpet jointing pressure plate as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8 wherein the longitudinal member comprises a 7 I VTV C -I A U-shaped channel. A carpet jointing pressure plate, substantially as herein described with reference to the drawings. DATED this 16th day of December, 1988. ALBERT CARL BORKOWSKI By His Patent Attorneys, ARTHUR S. CAVE CO. 4 4 t *4 4* 44 e 4 4 4. 4 4*4 .4 0 4* 44 4. 4 4 4. *0 4 4 40 .4 4 4. 44 4 S 4 4. 4 .0444. 4 4 X I 2 -8 1831E 1.