CA1193823A - Wooden tile and a method of making same - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT
A WOODEN TILE AND A METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME
A wooden tile which is preferably used for floor covering is formed by a number of individual members which may be bonded together. the wooden tile is made by knife cutting a sheet of wood from a piece of timber and then cutting the individual members from the wooden sheet.
Adhesive such as Ureaformaldehyde is applied to the edges of the members to bond them together. Alternatively, the individual members are bonded onto a mesh without bonding between the edges of the members. The tile so formed is flexible, durable and economic to manufacture.

Description

~3~3 This invention rel~tes to a wooden tile and a method of making such a wooden tile.
Woodeltiles have long been utilized as a covering ma~erial, particularly for floors. For many years, good quality logs were plentiful and during manufacture the waStage of wood was considerable whilst the tiles were unnecessarily thick. At present logs are more scarce and are consequently expensive. Therefore to compensate for these problems the thickness of floor tiles in general has been reduced and the thickness of presently manufactured floor tiles is about 6 to 7 mm. A thinner tile has not been available simply because it has been uneconomic to manu~acture the tiles by conventional methods.
lS However, in one known floor tile which is thinner than 6 mm, a veneer of 1 to 2 mm thick has been bonded onto an inexpensive wooden backing such as Plywood or Chipboard of a thickness of at least 1.5 mm to produce a laminated wooden tile. Whilst this method achieves a slighlly reduced cost, the tile quality is substan-tially decreased and the service life is relatively short.
In another attempt to reduce tile thickness a tile has been manufactured with a top layer consisting of a thin veneer of 1 mm or under which is glued onto a substrate having a clear plastics lining on top of it.
Ho\~ever, this method has proved to be fairly expensive and the tile so produced has no natural warmth as is inllerent in a natural \~ooden tile.
One ~nown method of overcoming these problems has been to manufacture a wooden tile by sawing a sheet of wood from a piece of luinber. The sheet of wood is then cut into a plurality of individual rectangular shaped ~loc~s to \~hich glue is applied along their edges. The blocks to which permanently resilient glue is applied along their edges. The bloc~s are then butted together side-by-side in any selected pattern and bonded together.
The disadvantage with such a method is that it is generally not practical to manufacture the sheet of wood .~

~L:19;~3 to a thicknes~ of less than 6.2 mm. A consider~ble amount of wood is wasted in the saw cutting operation and a low yield results from the geometric differences in round logs and the straight saw cut line required for obtaining the sheet thickness.
Furthermore, the cutting of the wood with a saw results in a closed grain surface on both the top and bottom major surfaces of the cut sheet resulting in the finished tile having a rigid construction, substan-tially no flexibility and being brittle.
It is an object of this in~ention to provide a wooden tile in which these disadvantages are substan-tially overcome.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a wooden tile in which a new kind of flexible and durable wooden tile is pro-duced.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is pro-vided a flexible wooden tile for use as floor covering including a plurality of stress relieved members each formed with major and minor planar surfaces from a sheet of wood that is knife cut from a piece of timber which has been subjected to a stress relieving process, said members being formed into a single layer tile with an edge surface constituting a minor planar surface of one member sub-stantially abutting an edge surface of another member with adhesive disposed between the edge surfaces so that when the adhesive is set the members are bonded together with the major planar surfaces lying in a single plane to form a flexible wooden tile in which said wooden members are flexible.
Preferably, the members are bonded together by a substantially riyid bond type of adhesive applied to the sides thereof prior to assembly into said tile. Alternatively, the members are bonded onto a mesh.
In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the tile is made from teak and may be of a thickness in the range of 1.5 to 10 mm.
Preferably, the thickness of the tile is 2.5 mm.
Preferably, the members are formed of a predetermined length and breadth and the length is longer than the breadth. ~he members are ~:, ~ ~3~

bonded together with an adhesive such as Ureaf~rmAld~hyde. The shape of the tile so formed ls preferably square, although a six sided tile may also be formed.
In an alternative embodiment the individual members are bonded to a cotton mesh preferably by applying glue such as Ureaf~rmAl~hyde to the lower major surface of the tile and bonding the cotton rnesh onto said lower major surface. In another embodiment, a glue impregnated co~ton mesh may be applied to the lower major surface of a tile formed by the members which are conveniently held in a jig.
Advantageously, the wooden tile constr~cted in accordance with this invention has a flexibility which is hitherto un-known in wooden tiles.
According to ano-ther aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of making a flexible wooden tile comprising the steps of subjecting a piece of timber to a stress relieving process, knife cutting a stress relieved sheet like piece or wood of a predetermined thick-ness from a piece of timber, cutting the sheet like piece of wood into a plurality of members each having major and minor planar surfaces, applying a rigid setting adhesive s~ch as ureaformaldehyde to side edge surfaces constituting said minor planar surfaces of the members, forming a plurality of said members into a single layer tile with side edge surface of one member substantially abutting the side edge surface of another member so that the adhesive is disposed between the side edge surfaces and the major planar surfaces lie substantially in a single plane, and allowing the adhesive to set to bond said members together, whereby a flexible wooden tile is produced in which the wooden members are flexible.
Preferably, the method includes applying adhesive to sides of the members prior to forming the members into a tile and allowing the adhesive to set to bond said members together with a hard and permanent bond.
The method may alternatively include bonding the tile without adhesive between the members onto a mesh.
The members are preferably formed of a predetermined length and breadth and the length is arranged to be ~5 longer than the breadth, the members being arranged together to form a square tile.

3~3 The knife cutting machine on which ~he sheet like piece of wood is removed from the timber is preferably a rotary lathe which may be operated with a full round rotary cut. In an alternative cutting machine, such as a slicer, the cutting knife lies parallel with the longitudinal axis of a bolt of wood and may be moved horizontally, vertically or in a slanted fashion in a dircction tr,~sverse to the longitudinal axis of the bolt. In another alternative slicing machine, the CUttillg O knifc may he moved lengthwise through the ~olt of woo~
parallcl to the lon~itudinal axis of tl)e bolt. In this case, the open and closed grain surfaces on the sheet are not present, but during the course of cuttin~ the sheet is subjected to pressure and the wood fiber becomes pliable so that it is suitable for use in the wooden tile according to the present invention.
Preferably, the type of adhesive used to fix ~he individual members to each other or onto the mesh is Ureaformaldehyde, although any other sui~able adhesiYe of

2~ substantially rigid bond type may be used.
The curing or setting of the bonding adhesive may be achieved by placing indi~idually assembled tiles side-by-side between platens of a hot press and subsequently pressure of some 10 metric tons per square foot is applied to the tiles at medium temperature for approximately three minutes. High frequency cure or cold cure ~reaformaldehyde may also be used.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:-Figure 1 is a plan view of a wooden tile in accordance with the present invention;
Figure 2 is a partial side view of the wooden til~ in the direction of the arrow A in Figure l;
Figure 3 is a plan view of the tile with a mesh bonded to the undersurface thereof; and Figure 4 is a par ial side view of the tile with a self adhesive layer.

~3 ~93~;~3 - 5a -Referring now more particularly to the wooden tile illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, the tile is shown to be square and is assembled from a plurality of independent solid wood fingers 1 which are bonded together along abutting side edge surfaces constituting minor planar surfaces, with a suitable adhesive such as Ureaf~rm~ hyde.
In the present tile, the fingers 1 are formed into blocks of five parallel fingers laid side-by-side with major planar surfaces lying substantially in a single plane. The bloclcs are laid so that the longitudinal fingers of each block lie at right angles to the next 10 adjacent block.

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In this way sixteen such blocks are laid side-by-side and bonded together to -form the tile as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 2 illustrates a partial side view of the tile in the direction of arrow A of Figure 1 and further illustrates the bonded joints 2 between the blocks of fingers 1. Although not shown in Figure 2 for the sake of clarity, the blocks of individual fingers are similarly butted and bonded together.
The process by which the wooden tile disclosed above is manufactured will now be described in detail with particular reference to making the tile from teak.
Initially, a teak log is boiled or steamed and then allowed to cool to ambient temperature whereupon its temperature is quickly raised again for boiling or steaming for a second time. As the teak log begins to cool, after the second boiling, the log is placed in a rotary lathe such as is manufactured by Capital Corp-oration in the United States of America, and while the log is still hot but cooled suf~iciently to allow efficient cutting of the wood, ihe log is rotated and a sheet of wood of a thickness of a little more than 2.5 mm is cut by a knife from the surface of the log.
The knife blade is some 4 feet in lengt'n and is positioned at an angle which will provide the maximum release of the stresses and strains within the log as the sheet is removed.
In the present embodiment, the sheets peeled from the log are cut by means of a saw into a plurality of elongate rectangular fingers although alternatively a knife can be used. The fingers are then stacked with their respective edge surfaces in common planes so that adhesive such as Ureaformaldehyde can be applied to the edge surfaces.
The fingers are then laid in a jig (not shown) in the pattern shown in Figure 1 with surfaces of the jig supporting the outer peripheral surface 3 of the tile in Figure 1. The jig is then removed and the tile placed between platens of a hot press with other ~93~23 similarly formed tiles. The hot press is operated to apply a pre~sure of some 10 metric tons per s~uare foot to the tile for some three minutes and when released the adhesive is cured and the fingers of the tile bonded together.
When the adhesive has cured, the tile is trimmed around its edges to define a square tile with each o~
the sides having a length of 305 mm. The main major upper and lower surfaces of ~he tile are finished in a conventional manner to provide commercially acceptable surfaces. After this ~inishing process, the tile has a thickness of some 2.5 mm and does not have a backing substrate.
In an alternative embodiment of manufac~uring a wooden tile according to the invention the individual fingers can be formed in an identical manner so tha~
described above with reference to the embodimcnt of Figures 1 and 2. However, in this alternative embodi-ment the fingers 10 only five of which are shown in Figure 3 are placed in a jig (not shown) in a desired pattern with the lower major surfac~ arranged uppermost and then adhesive relatively thin and in liquid form is applied to the lower major surface 4 thereof. A cotton mesh 5 of which only a portion is shown is then laid on the surface 4, the adhesive is cured by infrared light and the tile is removed from the jig. The major surface without the glue and mesh is the face of the tile. In the finished tile the mesh 5 extends substantially over the whole of the lower major surface 4 of the tile. In this embodiment no adhesive is applied to the sides of the fingers which are supported one relative to the other by the cotton mesh.
Alternatively, the cotton mesh is impregnated with glue and is applied to the bare wooden surface of the lower major surface of the tile. The cotton mesh is 0~3 mm in thickness.
~ lthough cotton backing has been described with reference to the present embodiment, mesh of any other material can be used.
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3~3 The inverted gluing allows the liquid glue to run, by means of gravity, into the joints between the fingers and rigidly bonds all joints so that no flexing at the joints is possible.
The ~dvantages gained by the method of manufacturing a tile in accordance with the ~resen~ inventio~ is that by cu~tin~ ~hc wooden sheet from the lo~ with a knife provides an open grain surface on one side and a closed grain on th~ other side of the wooden sheet. However, while in the finished tile it does not matter where ~he open grain occurs, the tile has a flexibility whic~l is hitherto unknown in wooden floor tiles. Furthermore, the method provides for a thinner solid wooden tile than ~hat previously manufactured~ ~he thinness also resulting in a tile which is both light in weight and economical to produce.
The invention has been described with reference to two particular embodiments. However, a number of modifications may be made to the method without departing from the scope of the invention.
While the sheet of wood has been described as being cut from a teak log on a rotary lathel it is to be under-stood that such sheets may be removed from a bolt of wood by means of so called horizontal, vertical, slanted or lengthways slicers which are well known in the art, but in which the sheets are essentially removed by cutting with a knife. A typical such slicing machine is produced by the Italian firm of Cremona Angelo. Furthermore, while the knife has been described as being some 4 feet in length, it may be of any convenient length which is smaller or longer, and may, for example, be up to some 16 feet in length. In the so-called lengthways slicer the blade may be only 10 inches long.
Other ~oods may be used in making flexible wooden tiles, such as oak or other rare wood species. However~ it is essen-tial the sheet of wood taken from the log or bolt is cut with a knife.

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~ ~3~ 3 In one modified form of the tiles made according to the process of the present invention and illustrated in Figure 4, the finished tile in which the fingers are bonded to each other by adhesive on abutting sides is coated on its lower major surface 4 with a self adhesive 6 covered by a removable non-adhesive release material 7.
In another modified form of the invention the bonded tile of the embodiment of Figures 1 and 2 has a mesh of any of the types referred to above bonded to its lower major surface.
The self adhesive layer may be applied to any of the tile forms covered by this invention. The self adhesive layer may be a double sided adhesive tape with outer non-adhesive release material.
The shape of the tile is not restricted to a square tile but may be of any shape such as an elongate rectangular form or a six sided form for example.
Furthermore~ the pattern on the tile formed by ~he positioning of the fingers can be varied as desired and the fingers can be of different lengths ~o accommodate alternative patterns.
While the embodiments of the wooden tile have been disclosed with reference to teak, wood selected from oak, rare wood species and other types of wooden materials can be used.

Claims (37)

CLAIMS:

1. A flexible wooden tile for use as floor covering including a plurality of stress relieved members each formed with major and minor planar surfaces from a sheet of wood that is knife cut from a piece of timber which has been subjected to a stress relieving process, said members being formed into a single layer tile with an edge surface constituting a minor planar surface of one member substantially abutting an edge surface of another member with adhesive disposed between the edge surfaces so that when the adhesive is set the members are bonded together with the major planar surfaces lying in a single plane to form a flexible wooden tile in which said wooden members are flexible.

2. A wooden tile according to Claim 1, wherein the members are bonded together by adhesive applied to the sides thereof prior to assembly into said tile.

3. A wooden tile according to Claim 1, wherein the members are bonded into a mesh.

4. A wooden tile according to Claim 3, wherein the mesh is a cotton mesh.

5. A wooden tile according to Claim 1, wherein the thickness of the tile is 2.5 mm.

6. A wooden tile according to Claim 1, wherein the members are rectangular with the length being longer than the breadth.

7. A wooden tile according to Claim 1, wherein the tile is quadrilateral in shape.

8. A wooden tile according to Claim 7, wherein the tile is square in shape.

9. A wooden tile according to Claim 1 or 2, including a cotton mesh bonded to the undersurface of the tile.

10. A wooden tile according to Claim 2, including a self adhesive layer on a major surface of the tile with a removable protective covering thereon.

11. A wooden tile according to Claim 10, wherein the self adhesive layer comprises a double sided self adhesive tape.

12. A wooden tile according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein the bonding adhesive between said plurality of members is Ureaformaldehyde.

13. A wooden tile according to Claim 1, wherein the tile is formed of wood selected from teak, oak and rare wood species.

14. A wooden tile according to Claim 3, including a self adhesive layer on a major surface of the tile with a removable protective covering thereon.

15. A wooden tile according to Claim 14, wherein the self adhesive layer comprises a double sided self adhesive tape.

16. A method of making a flexible wooden tile comprising the steps of subjecting a piece of timber to a stress relieving process, knife cutting a stress relieved sheet like piece of wood of a predetermined thick-ness from a piece of timber, cutting the sheet like piece of wood into a plurality of members each having major and minor planar surfaces, applying a rigid setting adhesive such as ureaformaldehyde to side edge surfaces constituting said minor planar surfaces of the members, forming a plurality of said members into a single layer tile with side edge surface of one member substantially abutting the side edge surface of another member so that the adhesive is disposed between the side edge surfaces and the major planar surfaces lie substantially in a single plane, and allowing the adhesive to set to bond said members together, whereby a flexible wooden tile is produced in which the wooden members are flexible.

17. A method according to Claim 16, wherein the tile is bonded to a cotton mesh.

18. A method according to Claim 17 wherein adhesive is applied to a lower major surface of the tile and the cotton mesh applied to the adhesive surface for bonding thereto.

19. A method according to Claim 17 wherein the cotton mesh is impregnated with adhesive and applied to the lower surface of the tile for bonding thereto.

20. A method according to Claim 16 including knife cutting the sheet of wood from the piece of timber using a rotary lathe.

21. A method according to Claim 16, including knife cutting the sheet of wood from the piece of timber with a slicing machine.

22. A method according to Claim 17 wherein said members are sawn from the sheet of wood into a rectangular form.

23. A method according to Claim 22 wherein the length of each member is longer than the breadth thereof.

24. A method according to Claim 16, wherein the members are combined to define a square tile.

25. A method according to Claim 16 including applying a self adhesive to the undersurface of the tile.

26. A method according to Claim 25, wherein a double sided self adhesive tape is applied to the undersurface of the tile.

27. A method according to Claim 16 wherein the tile is sanded to a thickness of 2.5 mm.

28. A method according to Claim 24 wherein tile tile is trimmed to have sides of 305 mm.

29. A method according to Claim 16, wherein the wooden tile is formed of wood selected from teak oak and rare wood species.

30. A method according to Claim 29, wherein the stress relieving process comprises boiling the wood, cooling the wood to ambient temperature and boiling the wood again the knife cutting being effected whilst the wood is hot following the last boiling step.

31. A method of making a flexible wooden tile comprising the steps of:subjecting a piece of timber to a stress relieving process; knife cutting a stress relieved sheet like piece of wood of a predetermined thickness from a piece of timber; cutting the sheet like piece of wood into a plurality of members each having major and minor planar surfaces;
forming a plurality of said members into a single layer assembly with a side edge surface of one member substantially abutting a side edge surface of another member with the lower major surface of the members laying in a single plane and arranged uppermost without adhesive between the members; bonding a mesh to the lower major surface of the members, whereby a flexible wooden tile produced in which said wooden members are flexible.

32. A method according to Claim 31, in which the mesh is bonded to the lower surface with a rigid setting adhesive such as urea-formaldehyde.

33. A method according to Claim 32, in which the bonding is performed by curing the adhesive with at least one of infrared light and heat.

34. A method according to Claim 16 in which the adhesive is allowed to set under at least one of heat and pressure.

35. A method according to Claim 31, including applying a self adhesive to the undersurface of the tile.

36. A flexible tile made by the method according to Claim 16.

37. A flexible tile made by the method according to Claim 31.