DK2230094T3 - Process for coating of panels - Google Patents

Description

Method for coating panels

The invention relates to a method for coating plate materials.

In order to coat the surfaces of plates, for example, furniture fronts, table tops, wall panellings, panels, for door leaves, or board games with different veneer pieces, it is customary to cut the different veneer pieces out of the larger veneer surface, then in the desired manner to place them next to each other without a gap, to fix them against each other with adhesive tapes or a continuous adhesive film, to arrange the arrangement on the side of a carrier plate coated with adhesive and to stick it together with the latter, typically by grouting. The grouting can be carried out in the hot or cold pressing process. At least in applications on an industrial scale it is customary to carry out the cutting out of the veneers by means of a laser cutting system, since also curves, recesses and indentations can be easily produced hereby and since the cut surfaces for the further application are also sufficiently smooth. Additional known and well-established cutting methods are water jet cutting, milling, sawing and punching. The surface is sanded and varnished in connection with the joining.

Frequently surfaces of furniture or doors are provided with a layer made of so-called “laminate.” By the term “laminate” here and in general in this document a flat material is understood, which consists of several grouting layers connected with each other with papers impregnated with phenol resin and/or melamine resin. Other terms used for this in the German speaking area are, for example, “laminated material,” “laminate,” “HPL” (High Pressure Laminate) and “CPL” (Continuous Press Laminate).

Already in 1956 it was proposed with DE 17 34 141 U, to veneer surfaces with such materials and thereby to combine several individual pieces of laminate, wherein the boundary between two laminate pieces does not need to run linearly as already known, but rather should be curved. A surface treatment of the laminate was not proposed. The customary laminates have a decorative, robust top layer of their own, which does not need a further surface treatment such as sealing with known varnishes, oils or waxes and which may not be sanded at all.

In WO 200164455 A1 it is proposed to provide for the decoration of wood parts, such as for example a guitar neck, mother-of-pearl discs on both sides with a glassy resin layer, to stick the thus formed body into the indentation in a wood surface, to grind and to varnish the entire arrangement. In the case of grinding the mother-of-pearl is not partially ground, but rather only one of the two resin layers connected with it.

Frequently, both of the large surfaces of a door leaf are divided into smaller surface areas, wherein different surface areas can have different surface materials. EP 1 251 232 A2 shows one example. A flat décor application, typically made of glass, stone or metal, is thereby inserted into a recess of a solid wood plate. The visible surfaces of the décor application and the solid wood plate are not flush with each other and additional grooves are applied to the edges of the décor application.

As also in other examples for material combinations, at first an attempt is not made at all to bring about a gapless and as direct as possible junction between the materials, but rather the junction between the individual materials is emphasized by a separate groove or indentation. For example, in this way surface areas, in which the top layer consists of laminate, are also combined with surface areas, in which the top layer is solid wood or veneer. Very frequently the junction is carried out in the defined manner emphasized because it is regarded as too difficult or as altogether impossible to produce a smooth, gapless and stepless junction between the different surface areas. It is also regarded as difficult to impossible to achieve exact flushness between subareas of surfaces, which consist of different materials.

The inventor has addressed the problem of creating a method, with the aid of which subareas of a plane plate surface can be coated with veneer and other subareas of the plate surface with a different material - such as typically a laminate, wherein the junctions between the subareas provided with different surface materials should be gapless and stepless and wherein the visible surfaces of the different surface materials should be flush with each other.

In order to solve the problem it is proposed to use a different surface material besides veneer, which is composed at least on the visible side of a homogenous structure in a depth of up to several tenths of a millimeter and is uniformly colored. Furthermore, it is proposed to cut out, arrange and combine the two surface materials as otherwise two different veneers with the base plate by gluing them together. Subsequently, the entire surface coated thus is grounded, so that all visible sides come to be in a common plane. In another work step the surface as a whole is provided with a coating, typically clearly varnished. A continuous surface area arises, which has different surface characteristics with respect to color and structure. The junction between the two areas is covered by the coating.

The full particulars are explained by means of three - not true to scale - drawings:

Figure 1: shows in a sectional view a detail of the base plate and the surface materials arranged on it according to the present invention before the grinding and varnishing. The cutting plane is normal to the surface area to be coated.

Figure 2: shows in the same view the arrangement of Figure 1 after the grinding and varnishing.

Figure 3: shows in the frontal view an exemplary plate coated according to the present invention.

According to the exemplary design one side of a plane base plate 1, which for example can be a press board, is coated both with a coating of homogenous structure, for example, laminate 3 as well as with a veneer 2. After the cutting of the surface materials laminate 3 and veneer 2 these are joined to each other and to the base plate 1 and connected to the latter by gluing.

The thicknesses of veneer and laminate are typically in the range of 0.5 mm to 1.5 mm. In this thickness range and also in adjacent thickness ranges these materials can be cut and processed very well by means of the known cutting methods, so that, for example, the veneer strips 2 discernible in Figure 3 and the laminate surface areas 2 discernible in Figure 3 can be cut out with strip-shaped recesses from larger, flat basic material.

As can be discerned in Figure 2, the thickness of the veneer 2 in the example depicted is somewhat greater than that of the laminate 3, with which a step is produced after the joining at the juncture between the two materials.

By grinding the entire surface material is leveled, so that the visible surface of both surface materials comes to lie in a plane and all of the steps are evened out.

The laminate 3 is in itself structured from many fine, impregnated and interconnected paper layers. Surprisingly, however, no contour-line-like polylines are visible during the grinding. For that reason it is only important that the individual layers, from which the laminate 3 is structured in that thickness range, in which it is sanded, are the same as each other, therefore consist of paper of the same coloring, which is impregnated with uniformly colored resin.

Instead of laminate the method can also be used for other flat materials, such as for example plastic webs, cardboard, fiber composites, metals, discs made of minerals such as for example steatite, etc. At the same time, it is important that these materials examined macroscopically from the visible side, are composed of a homogenous structure in a depth of up to at least several tenths of a millimeter and also have the same material color continuously up to this depth.

It is advantageous, if the different flat materials combined with each other can be about equally well leveled by grinding. That applies well to combinations within the materials, veneers, laminates, many types of plastic, very soft minerals such as for example steatite. It is generally rather difficult to combine metals to the materials mentioned due to the very different grindability.

As is otherwise also customary for veneered areas, the surfaces should be provided with a surface protective layer subsequent to the grinding, for example, a varnish layer 4. This surface protective layer can extend without interruption both over the surface areas coated with veneer 2 as well as over the surface areas coated with laminate 3.

In the event of the application of laminates both for the adhesive with which the surface materials are mounted on the base plate, as well as for the coating with which the surface materials are ultimately coated, the customary materials otherwise used in veneering are used.

As also in the case of other surface treatments, it is in the area of professional behavior to adjust the formula so that it causes no undesired discolorations in the veneer or in the other surface material.

As materials other than veneers, particularly, laminates are also used for inlays, which can be grounded, and as the latter such as veneers are also grounded and varnished in the course of the work, such inlays can be realized by using materials other than veneers, which until now were realizable only by exclusively using veneers with satisfactory quality and under sustainable economic conditions. What is meant by “satisfactory quality” is that a uniform, smooth and closed surface is achieved.

Opportunities for many novel designs for plate surfaces are thereby created in the business environment and in compliance with the highest quality criteria.

The current economically most significant application relates to the production of door leaves. Other valuable applications are the production of furniture fronts, table tops, wall panellings and panels and plates for board games.

The economically most significant material combination is at present that, in which laminates are combined with veneers. However, the process according to the present invention is conceivable for other material combinations such as for example laminate and laminate, plastic and veneer, laminate and/or grindable ceramics or minerals.

Claims (8)

METHOD OF COATING PLATE MATERIALS A method of coating sheet materials with multiple pieces of flat veneers comprising surface materials, wherein at least one such piece is composed of a material other than veneer, where, from a macroscopic point of view, this piece is homogeneously constructed of at least up to several tenths in millimeters depth and in this thickness range has a uniform uniform color of color, wherein the individual pieces of the surface materials are first cut and then adhered to each other and to the sheet material in the desired position on the sheet material, where all pieces (2, 3) of flat surface materials after the fastening on the sheet material sanded together on the surface and provided with a coating. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the surface material other than veneer is a laminate formed by compressing interconnected layers of paper impregnated with phenolic resin and / or melamine resin. Process according to claim 2, characterized in that the laminate (3) is only abraded in such a thickness range in which it is made up of paper layers of the same color and the same resin impregnation. Method according to one of Claims 2 or 3, characterized in that parts of laminate (3) and of veneer (2) are then combined for coating a surface. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the surface material other than veneer is a plastic. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the surface material other than veneer is a fiber composite material. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the individual parts are flattened by laser cutting. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the surface of a door leaf is thus formed.