BE1025024B1 - Cork composite plate. - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to the field of insulating materials, and in particular cork plates. In order to overcome the traditional manufacture, by compression, of a cork plate while offering a rigid panel consisting essentially of cork having all the properties of expanded or natural cork, the present invention provides a rigid composite plate comprising grains cork only agglomerated by a binder and coating a rigid openwork frame, and a method for making such a plate.

Description

(73) Holder (s):

CORK BIO SOLUTIONS 47230, BARBASTE France (72) Inventor (s):

de MONTBRUN Agnès 47160 BUZET on BAÏSE France

NARINX Alexandre 1410 WATERLOO Belgium (54) Composite cork plate.

(57) The invention relates to the field of insulating materials, and in particular to cork sheets. In order to get rid of the traditional manufacture, by compression, of a cork plate while proposing a rigid panel composed essentially of cork having all the properties of expanded or natural cork, the present invention proposes a rigid composite plate comprising grains of cork only agglomerated by a binder and coating a rigid perforated reinforcement, as well as a method for manufacturing such a plate.

Figure 1.

BELGIAN INVENTION PATENT

FPS Economy, SMEs, Middle Classes & Energy

Publication number: 1025024 Deposit number: BE2017 / 5450

Intellectual Property Office International Classification: B29C 70/68 B29C 70/88 B27N 3/02 B27N 5/00 B27N 5/02 B29C 39/10 Date of issue: 26/09/2018

The Minister of the Economy,

Having regard to the Paris Convention of March 20, 1883 for the Protection of Industrial Property;

Considering the law of March 28, 1984 on patents for invention, article 22, for patent applications introduced before September 22, 2014;

Given Title 1 “Patents for invention” of Book XI of the Code of Economic Law, article XI.24, for patent applications introduced from September 22, 2014;

Having regard to the Royal Decree of 2 December 1986 relating to the request, the issue and the maintenance in force of invention patents, article 28;

Given the patent application received by the Intellectual Property Office on June 26, 2017.

Whereas for patent applications falling within the scope of Title 1, Book XI of the Code of Economic Law (hereinafter CDE), in accordance with article XI. 19, §4, paragraph 2, of the CDE, if the patent application has been the subject of a search report mentioning a lack of unity of invention within the meaning of the §ler of article XI.19 cited above and in the event that the applicant does not limit or file a divisional application in accordance with the results of the search report, the granted patent will be limited to the claims for which the search report has been drawn up.

Stopped :

First article. - It is issued to

CORK BIO SOLUTIONS, 60 rue de la République, 47230 BARBASTE France;

represented by

OFFICE KIRKPATRICK S.A., Avenue Wolfers 32, 1310, LA HULPE;

a Belgian invention patent with a duration of 20 years, subject to the payment of the annual fees referred to in article XI.48, §1 of the Code of Economic Law, for: Cork composite sheet.

INVENTOR (S):

from MONTBRUN Agnès, Avenue des Côtes de Buzet, 47160, BUZET sur BAÏSE;

NARINX Alexandre, Drève Richelle 7, 1410, WATERLOO;

PRIORITY (S):

DIVISION:

divided from the basic application: filing date of the basic application:

Article 2. - This patent is granted without prior examination of the patentability of the invention, without guarantee of the merit of the invention or of the accuracy of the description thereof and at the risk and peril of the applicant (s) ( s).

Brussels, 26/09/2018, By special delegation:

_D1 , ... BE2017 / 5450

Composite cork plate

The invention relates to the field of insulating materials, and in particular cork sheets.

Cork, extracted from the bark of some trees, is used as the material since l9 ^th century, particularly since the development of linoleum, by the addition of linseed oil to the cork grains, in the 1860s, then cork sheets, used both for interior decoration and for insulation, both for housing and in the field of transport, in particular aeronautics.

Cork indeed has incomparable thermal, acoustic and vibratory insulation properties. It is also a low density material, generally less than 0.2, waterproof, but vapor permeable, which allows the material to breathe and contributes to its rot-proofing. It does not burn but burns slowly, which gives it fire resistance properties. Harvesting cork does not require the felling of the tree, it is an easily renewable material.

Used in natural or expanded form, that is to say heated to high temperature and inflated with air to optimize its insulating performance, cork is a very flexible material.

Although having advantages for certain applications, like floor coverings, or decorative, this flexibility nevertheless poses a problem for the manufacture of rigid cork sheets, necessary in other applications like the construction of partitions or the insulation of the habitat.

A subterfuge used to get to insert a flexible layer of rigid structural cork or to insert a rigid between two flexible layers of cork rigid panels is between two layers of structural layer. The rigid layers can be plaster or polyurethane panels. This layering is complex and requires the use of techniques to secure the layers between

BE2017 / 5450 polymer like est of manufacture glues or other them.

The main alternative available on the market is a compressed cork sheet. To make this type of plate, grains of cork are mixed with a binder, this mixture is poured into a mold then compressed and heated. This results in rigid, but dense (density generally greater than 0.3) and heavy sheets, the insulation properties of which are reduced compared to that of natural and uncompressed cork. The industrial equipment required is heavy and transport costs are increased, which makes the end product expensive and not very competitive compared to insulating plates made of polymers such as polyurethane. In particular, the mold used determines the size of the plate, and only a few dimensions of plates are available on the market. The user of the plates himself has to cut them to the desired dimensions, which can result in wasted material.

It has therefore been deemed necessary by the applicant to dispense with the traditional manufacture of a cork plate while proposing a rigid panel composed essentially of cork having all the properties of expanded or natural cork.

Solution of the invention

The present invention provides for this purpose a rigid composite plate comprising grains of cork only agglomerated by a binder and coating a perforated rigid frame.

BE2017 / 5450

By "only", the applicants wanted to point out that the cork grains are not compressed.

The invention is remarkable in that it offers a cork plate without having to manufacture a cork plate.

As a reinforcement, reference is made here for example to a trellis which is an openwork piece. We could also call it airy.

The binder of the plate of the invention is identical in its nature and its proportions to the binders commonly used to manufacture flexible cork sheets, or compressed cork sheets. In general, the proportion of binder used to effectively agglomerate the cork grains is very low and generally only represents a few percent of the mass of the cork grains.

Advantageously, the cork grains used are natural cork grains. As a result, the composite plate formed has substantially the same qualities as natural cork.

The present invention also proposes a method for producing a rigid composite cork plate according to which -on grains of cork and a binder are mixed;

the mixture obtained is deposited around an openwork rigid frame to form a pre-plate; and immediately afterwards

- the pre-plate is subjected to a heat treatment to form a rigid composite plate.

The adverbial phrase "immediately after" is introduced into the claim to signify that there is no compression step for producing the plate of the invention.

By heat treatment, it may be heating, cooling or maintaining at room temperature, or even a combination of these treatments.

BE2017 / 5450

The method of the invention can also comprise a step of drying the composite plate.

Advantageously, the mixture of the cork grains and the binder is heated so that the cork grains are fixed to the rigid frame.

The term “composite plate” can be used to denote a flat panel, the thickness of which is generally less than the height or the width, or its diameter if it is a circular panel. However, the method of the invention also makes it possible to manufacture non-flat plates, that is to say having reliefs or having any three-dimensional geometry. The term plaque is therefore not to be taken here in its restricted sense.

The invention will be better understood using the following description of several embodiments of the plate of the invention and its manufacturing method, with reference to the attached drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of a plate of the invention, with, by transparency, the apparent reinforcement;

Figure 2 is a sectional view of the plate of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a block diagram of the steps of the production method of the invention Figure 4 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of the plate of the invention and Figure 5 is a side view of a third embodiment of the plate of the invention.

,, BE2017 / 5450

With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, the composite plate rrgrde 1 according to the invention is composed of a rigid central frame 3 coated with a mixture 2 of cork grains agglomerated by a binder. The frame 3 is here a trellis, that is to say a set of elements intersecting at right angles, comprising three lateral rods 4 and three longitudinal rods 5.

As illustrated in the sectional view of the plate 1 in FIG. 2, the rods forming the frame are completely embedded in the mixture of cork and binder, that is to say that no part of the frame n is flush with the surface of the plate. The total volume of the reinforcement ultimately represents only a small proportion of the volume of the plate 1. The plate of the invention contains no additional means for adhering the reinforcement to the mixture of cork and binder. This mixture, once hardened, encloses the reinforcement.

The shape of the frame is of course not limited to the shape shown in the drawing, and can be very varied. One can for example imagine that the rods do not cross at right angles, that there are rods only in one direction, a honeycomb structure, or a rigid coil.

The nature of the frame can also be varied. It can be made of metal or polymer. In order to form a natural and easily recyclable plate, the frame can be made of wood, cardboard or even compressed cork.

The shape of the frame and its nature may depend on the size of the desired plate or on its end use, that is to say on the stresses and forces which the plate will have to resist.

shown here having a form

Any other form is however

Plate 1 is parallelepiped.

possible. This is in particular allowed by the method of manufacturing such a plate which will now be discussed.

With reference to FIG. 3, in a first step A, grains of cork 6, here only partially shown, and a binder 7, for example polyurethane, are introduced into a tank 8 and are mixed therein by means of a mixer 10 up to 'to obtain a homogeneous mixture 9. In a second step B, a frame 3 is selected and the mixture 9 is spread or deposited on this frame 3. The mixture 9 coats the frame to form a pre-plate. The pre-plate is then here heated in step C to allow the stiffening of the assembly to form the plate 1.

The mixing of step A can optionally be carried out, depending on the nature of the binder used, at a temperature higher than room temperature in order to improve the coating of the cork grains with the binder. The mixture is generally obtained at this stage in the form of grains which are not integral with each other.

During step B, the mixture 9 is spread over all the surfaces of the frame. The frame is shown here laid flat, but it is quite possible to arrange it in any orientation. It is also conceivable that the frame 3 is set in motion when the mixture 9 is poured in order to ensure a homogeneous coating.

In step C, depending on the nature of the binder, it can be envisaged that the stiffening of the assembly is done by cooling rather than by heating. It is also possible that, for other types of binder, keeping the pre-plate at room temperature for a few minutes or a few hours is sufficient to stiffen the plate.

It should be noted here that, unlike the techniques commonly used to manufacture cork sheets, no step of

BE2017 / 5450 compression is not considered here, which allows the cork to retain all the insulating properties of natural cork while having all the rigidity and solidity properties of a plate.

In a simple case, a first part of the mixture 9 can be deposited on a support, the armature is then deposited there and then covered by another part of the mixture 9. .11 it is also possible that the armature is kept in the air , at a precise distance from a support, determined as a function of the thickness of the desired plate, so that the deposited mixture 9 can also spread under the frame 3. This method can be particularly advantageous for precisely controlling the position of the reinforcement inside the composite plate.

The overall shape of the plate depends a priori on the shape of the frame and the amount of mixture 9 of cork and binder.

It is nevertheless possible to adjust the shape of the pre-plate precisely, by putting a frame limiting the dispersion of the mixture 9 around the frame. The shape can also be adjusted by cutting after finalizing the plate.

The method of the invention therefore allows great flexibility in the shape of the plate to be manufactured. By doing away with mold making and the compression step, requiring resistant presses and molds, it is possible to form all kinds of plate. It suffices to select an armature, and possibly a frame making it possible to define a shape, and to deposit the grains of cork agglomerated by a binder on the chosen armature to obtain, after heating, cooking, or drying, a rigid plate having the desired shape. . It is therefore possible that the reinforcement has a three-dimensional structure, in order either to reinforce the rigidity of the plate, for thick plates for example,

BE2017 / 5450 is to give it a partrculrere shape, the arnsr plate formed also having a three-dimensional structure.

With reference to FIG. 4, it is for example possible to form cork sheets 10 of cylindrical shape. This form can for example be used in the field of construction, for example to insulate heating conduits,

or ventilation. L Jne form cylindrical can also be 10 interesting for maintain the contents of a bottle is hot or cold. Another example of form, illustrated on Figure 5 is a corrugated plate who could have applications in

construction, or decorative applications.

Claims (5)

Claims BE2017 / 5450 1. Rigid composite plate (1) comprising cork grains (6) only agglomerated by a binder (7) and coating a perforated rigid frame (3). 2. Plate according to claim 1 having a three-dimensional geometry. 3. Plate according to one of the frame has a structure claims 1 in three dimensions. and 2 of which 4. Plate according to one of claims 1 at 3 of which the frame (3) is incorporated in a or many belonging materials at group including of cardboard, wood, metal, cork and a polymer. 5. Method for producing a rigid composite plate (1) of cork according to which -the cork grains (6) and a binder (7) are mixed; -the mixture (9) obtained is deposited around a perforated rigid frame (3) to form a pre-plate; and immediately afterwards - the pre-plate is subjected to a heat treatment to form a rigid composite plate (1). 6. Method according to claim 5 comprising a step of drying the composite plate. 7. Method according to one of claims 5 and 6 according to which the pre-plate is heated. BE2017 / 5450 This