EP0875618B1 - Method for the continuous production of sheets for wall coverings with attachment backing made of non-woven fibreglass fabric and sheets produced - Google Patents

Method for the continuous production of sheets for wall coverings with attachment backing made of non-woven fibreglass fabric and sheets produced Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0875618B1
EP0875618B1 EP98106875A EP98106875A EP0875618B1 EP 0875618 B1 EP0875618 B1 EP 0875618B1 EP 98106875 A EP98106875 A EP 98106875A EP 98106875 A EP98106875 A EP 98106875A EP 0875618 B1 EP0875618 B1 EP 0875618B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
adhesive
particles
backing
sheets
woven
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
Application number
EP98106875A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP0875618A3 (en
EP0875618A2 (en
Inventor
Gianfranco Salvi
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
EVOREMA LTD
Original Assignee
EVOREMA Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by EVOREMA Ltd filed Critical EVOREMA Ltd
Publication of EP0875618A2 publication Critical patent/EP0875618A2/en
Publication of EP0875618A3 publication Critical patent/EP0875618A3/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0875618B1 publication Critical patent/EP0875618B1/en
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B05—SPRAYING OR ATOMISING IN GENERAL; APPLYING FLUENT MATERIALS TO SURFACES, IN GENERAL
    • B05D—PROCESSES FOR APPLYING FLUENT MATERIALS TO SURFACES, IN GENERAL
    • B05D1/00—Processes for applying liquids or other fluent materials
    • B05D1/40—Distributing applied liquids or other fluent materials by members moving relatively to surface
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B05—SPRAYING OR ATOMISING IN GENERAL; APPLYING FLUENT MATERIALS TO SURFACES, IN GENERAL
    • B05D—PROCESSES FOR APPLYING FLUENT MATERIALS TO SURFACES, IN GENERAL
    • B05D1/00—Processes for applying liquids or other fluent materials
    • B05D1/30—Processes for applying liquids or other fluent materials performed by gravity only, i.e. flow coating
    • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
    • D06—TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • D06N—WALL, FLOOR, OR LIKE COVERING MATERIALS, e.g. LINOLEUM, OILCLOTH, ARTIFICIAL LEATHER, ROOFING FELT, CONSISTING OF A FIBROUS WEB COATED WITH A LAYER OF MACROMOLECULAR MATERIAL; FLEXIBLE SHEET MATERIAL NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • D06N7/00—Flexible sheet materials not otherwise provided for, e.g. textile threads, filaments, yarns or tow, glued on macromolecular material
    • D06N7/0002—Wallpaper or wall covering on textile basis
    • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
    • D06—TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • D06Q—DECORATING TEXTILES
    • D06Q1/00—Decorating textiles
    • D06Q1/10—Decorating textiles by treatment with, or fixation of, a particulate material, e.g. mica, glass beads

Definitions

  • This invention relates to a method for the continuous production of sheets for wall coverings with an attachment backing made of non-woven fibreglass fabric, and also to the sheets produced by said method.
  • the walls of domestic dwellings are often decorated with smooth plaster, or with paint or wallpapers.
  • the decoration of vertical walls raises many problems depending on the various ways it is carried out. These problems can be grouped in two fundamental categories:
  • Fibreglass fabrics used for sticking to walls.
  • the problem with the use of these glass fabrics is the dangers created in the environments where the glass is made into a fabric, by reason of the microscopic fibres released into the air.
  • Fibreglass fabric also has the disadvantage of not being "strippable", i.e. it cannot easily be removed from the wall, partly because the fabric is so tough and partly because of the powerful adhesion offered to the adhesives by the square holes of the weave.
  • All currently known wall-covering sheets are very delicate, tearable and have poor resistance to rubbing, owing to their surface having the weak cohesion of rubbery plastics such as the vinyls and the polyurethanes.
  • the generality of coverings are in any case very thin in order to keep costs down to compete on the market; this fact has the drawback that irregularities on the surfaces of the walls on which these coverings are hung cannot be hidden; it also leads to the formation of blisters, which may be the consequence either of inexpert work by the painter or the internal moisture of the walls.
  • DE 19602218A relates to a process for manufacturing wall coverings.
  • a backing made of paper, fabric or non-metal mat is partially coated with a polymer adhesive dispersion or solution according to an ornamental design.
  • a powdery or granular material is poured on the coated backing.
  • the powdery or granular material being made of a thermoplastic polymer. The excess material is removed by suction and the backing is then heated.
  • EP-A-0506253 discloses inlaid sheet materials comprising a fibrous, felted or matted backing. At least an adhesive layer is selectively applied to the backing by using e.g. a rotary screen. Spherical or essentially by spherical particles are randomly applied over the surface of the adhesive layer. The particles can be made from any one, or a combination or mixture of mica, ceramics, metals, rubbers, and polymeric and resinous compositions. The excess particles are vacuumed away from the backing prior to adhesive gelling.
  • WO 9527007A relates to resilient inlaid products and methods for making such products.
  • the methods involve the use of a fibrous or non-fibrous backing and the uniform adhesive coating of such backing. Thereafter chips, flakes or granules are uniformly deposited on the adhesive backing for subsequent adhering and embedding therein.
  • the deposition is effected by passing the backing through a hopper-like feeder. Thereafter excess deposition material is removed and then the coated backing is subjected to consolidation, gelation and fusion.
  • the chips, flakes or granules are made of plastics or of a metal foil, such as aluminium, which have been coated with a vinyl coating composition.
  • Patent Abstracts of Japan Vol. 014, no. 331 (M-0999), 17 July 1990 JP 02 113934A 26 April 1990 discloses a method wherein granulated foamable resin particles are poured on a backing on which an adhesive is applied discontinuously by a rotary screen press.
  • Another object is to devise a method of producing sheets for wall coverings with different visible structures such as to present differing capacities to absorb paint and create bitonal chromatic effects from a single coloration.
  • the backing is preferably MICROLITH-FF-125/2-B6 sold by Schuller Company and has a thickness of approximately 0.7 mm.
  • equally good results suitable for specific requirements could also be obtained with backings having a weight per unit area of between 100 and 150 g/m 2 .
  • the term "opacified” is used in the industry to indicate an optical whitening treatment in which the backing is spread with an ordinary mixture of acrylic resin and titanium dioxide.
  • a tube 7 is mounted inside said printing cylinder 6 to supply the adhesive for printing; said adhesive emerges uniformly along the entire length of the tube 7 in order to offer to a fixed squeegee 8 an amount suitable for spreading on the densely perforated inside surface of the printing cylinder 6 as the cylinder rotates 9.
  • Thin discs 10A (Fig. 2) of adhesive 25 are extruded from these minuscule holes and deposited on the surface of the non-woven backing.
  • Said backing is travelling in a direction 11 with a speed equal to the peripheral speed of a back pressure drum 5, in contact with the surface of the printing cylinder 6 through the interposed backing 1.
  • the discs 10A after undergoing compression, then tend to expand and join together along their short contacting generatrices. This joining together will be more complete the more liquid the adhesive 25 of which they are composed; however, the more completely they join together the more the printed adhesive will form a continuous and impermeable film, which would nullify the desired porosity or breathability of the resulting printed sheet.
  • the adhesive must possess a viscosity such that the abovementioned joining together is incomplete on a microscopic level so that pinholes 28 are left through which the normal moisture found in walls can breathe.
  • the adhesive 25 has a dynamic viscosity measured with a Mettler RM180 Rheomat instrument of between 0.93 and 1.80 Pa.s at a temperature of 25.5°C and with a shear gradient of 200 1/s using the "33" measuring system.
  • the non-woven backing After receiving the adhesive in shapes representing a desired printed design 14 which includes areas 24 of the non-woven backing that are visible, the non-woven backing arrives at a turn roll 15 that deflects it downwards, where it passes around the roll 12, turning through an arc of approximately 180° before travelling back up towards another turn roll 16 from which it passes on to a further roll 17 which guides it towards an ordinary drying oven (not drawn), after an ordinary blower 26 has first removed any residual particles that have not stuck to the adhesive. By following this path the backing 1 exposes its freshly printed surface 1A to a shower of sand (i.e., quartz) particles 18 dropped through a slot 19 in the bottom of a hopper 20.
  • sand i.e., quartz
  • This slot is adjustable automatically or manually to suit the forward speed of the fabric, that is to say so as to release the optimum quantity of particles. Most of these particles however fall onto the roll 12 which, since it is rotating in a direction 21, transfers them onto the said printed surface 1A, into which they sink under the pressure of the same roll 12 through an arc of approximately 180°.
  • the passage around the roll 12 has the advantage that it enables less fluid adhesives to be used, thus promoting the formation of the abovementioned microholes 11 and reducing the possibility of its working its way through the thickness of the non-woven backing 1. Indeed, were the adhesive to permeate through the backing there would be major production problems as the adhesive would come into contact with the turn rolls 22, 15, 12, 16, 17 and foul them, which would quickly degrade their operation.
  • the abovementioned solution of forced "squeezing" of the sand particles 18 into the relatively viscous adhesive 25 avoids the dangerous alternative necessity of entrusting the adhesion of the particles to the fluidity of the adhesive 25.
  • the ratio of the thickness of the adhesive screen-printed onto the backing 1 to the general diameter of the sand granules or particles is approximately 0.85:1. In other words about 15% of each particle 18 projects above the surface of the adhesive.
  • This has the advantage of giving the sheet 23 (according to the invention) a visible surface largely composed of hard material which is therefore well able to offer great resistance to rubbing, especially as most of the volume of the particles is buried in an adhesive 25 which, once dry, is very tough.
  • top surface of the sheet 23 is largely composed of hard sand material is due, obviously, in part to the uniformity and density with which the particles 18 are laid on the backing 1, and indeed they lie side by side in contact with each other, occupying as much as possible of the surface to which they are bonded.
  • the achievement of maximum density, and in consequence of uniformity, is the result of using a shower of particles 18 in slight excess, i.e. above the capacity of the adhesive to capture it all upon itself.
  • the problem of this excess is then eliminated by the present method by providing underneath a trough 27 with powerful suction means operating at its sides to collect all the particles that have not stuck to the adhesive and return them to the hopper 20 in accordance with known methods.
  • Particles 18 for this invention are grains of sand, i.e. of quartz with a diameter of approximately 0.2 mm.
  • the non-woven fabric suggested as preferred in the said method is of the type made up of short glass fibres laid in perpendicular layers. While from certain points of view to do with the properties of the finished product the nature of a non-woven fabric offers undoubted advantages, nonetheless in other respects to do with its simple structure it could present the drawback that its fibres are poorly bonded together and therefore liable to be lost, that is, to be rubbed or pulled out by the very printing cylinders themselves, which as a result would no longer be able to operate properly.
  • the non-woven fibreglass fabric Before the non-woven fibreglass fabric is used, it is put through a preparatory impregnation with an acrylic resin modified by a well-known technique. This is in order to compact the non-woven so as to make it able to withstand the tearing compression exerted by the hard surface particles and so prevent the escape of microfibres into the air, increase its tensile strength and enhance its strippability.
  • the choice of the "clothing" of the printing cylinder i.e. of the usual densely perforated cylinder made in thin nickel-chromium steel sheet that is used to create the printing matrix.
  • This clothing is usually treated with photosensitive gelatins spread by a special axially moving ring and treated by familiar techniques so as to leave certain perforated areas open, through which the squeegee can squeeze the printable adhesive 25, and to block other areas through which no adhesive is to pass; the shape of this area defines the shape deposited or printed on the backing.
  • the quantity of adhesive deposited represents a point of equilibrium between multiple factors connected with the intrinsic properties of the printable adhesive, the mechanical strength of the squeegee, the mechanical strength of the perforated plate, the thickness of this plate (because the greater the thickness the holes pass through, the more adhesive they can hold and release), and the thickness of the covering on the outside of the clothing formed by the gelatins which then set into a very hard resin.
  • the thickness of the outer covering affects the distance between the clothing and the surface to be printed with the adhesive 25 pressed by the squeegee 8 and variously absorbed by adhesion by the printable surface of the backing 1 owing to the action of the back pressure drum 15.
  • nickel-chromium clothings having a thickness of 210 microns and a 100 "mesh” perforation. It also uses two layers of masking gelatin (for creating the design to be printed) so as to give "non-inking" thicknesses on the outside of the clothings that are very great and compatible with the relatively high density of the adhesive 25.
  • Said adhesive is preferably of acrylic type (e.g. that known by the trade mark ACRONAL 290 D from BASF), but the method can also be carried out with other adhesives, such as vinyl type adhesives.
  • the high viscosity of the printable adhesive creates the manufacturing problem of a gradual accumulation of the adhesive at the open ends of the clothing (i.e. of the printing cylinder 6): such an accumulation creates "rings" of adhesive which ooze out at the sides and can be picked up simply by the movements of parts around the outside of the clothing. This would cause the rings to become flattened onto the backing 1, which would thereby be soiled - in other words continuously ruined, causing immense damage.
  • the method provides for the elimination of this potential event by employing two dedicated suction pumps, preferably of the diaphragm type; these pumps are positioned at the two open ends of the clothing and close to the two ends of the squeegee 8 in order to remove the adhesive that would tend to ooze out of said printing cylinder or clothing.
  • the resulting product has the advantage of being thick, semirigid and composed primarily of mineral substances. In addition it is suitable for hanging definitively while yet being easy to remove (strippable) when required. Since its surface is made with different materials and porosities (1, 24; 25, 18) it has the advantage that bitonal chromatic effects can be obtained with a single coat of paint.

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Textile Engineering (AREA)
  • Laminated Bodies (AREA)
  • Chemical Or Physical Treatment Of Fibers (AREA)
  • Adhesives Or Adhesive Processes (AREA)
  • Application Of Or Painting With Fluid Materials (AREA)
  • Finishing Walls (AREA)
EP98106875A 1997-04-16 1998-04-16 Method for the continuous production of sheets for wall coverings with attachment backing made of non-woven fibreglass fabric and sheets produced Expired - Lifetime EP0875618B1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
IT97BG000019A IT1297842B1 (it) 1997-04-16 1997-04-16 Procedimento realizzativo in continuo di fogli per rivestimenti murali con base di ancoraggio in tessuto-non-tessuto di fibra di vetro e
ITBG970019 1997-04-16

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0875618A2 EP0875618A2 (en) 1998-11-04
EP0875618A3 EP0875618A3 (en) 1999-07-28
EP0875618B1 true EP0875618B1 (en) 2002-09-11

Family

ID=11336514

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP98106875A Expired - Lifetime EP0875618B1 (en) 1997-04-16 1998-04-16 Method for the continuous production of sheets for wall coverings with attachment backing made of non-woven fibreglass fabric and sheets produced

Country Status (4)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0875618B1 (it)
AT (1) ATE223982T1 (it)
DE (1) DE69807776T2 (it)
IT (1) IT1297842B1 (it)

Families Citing this family (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
PT1254984E (pt) 2001-05-04 2010-12-16 Johns Manville Europe Gmbh Revestimento de parede em fibra de vidro com efeito volumétrico
DE102005058788A1 (de) * 2005-12-09 2007-07-05 Weiss, Wilfried Detailumlappungseffektlayoutcollektionfunktionswandbelag
CN115044312B (zh) * 2022-07-08 2023-06-23 浙江雅琪诺装饰材料有限公司 一种eva淋膜自粘无缝墙布及其制备方法

Family Cites Families (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JP2613641B2 (ja) * 1988-10-24 1997-05-28 ダイニック株式会社 吹付調発泡壁紙
KR960006787B1 (ko) * 1991-03-28 1996-05-23 타켓트 인코포레이팃드 장식성 상감 바닥 또는 벽 피복물 및 그의 제조방법
AU2278095A (en) * 1994-04-05 1995-10-23 Congoleum Corporation Resilient inlaid products and methods for making such products
DE19602218A1 (de) * 1995-02-01 1996-08-14 Optiplast Ges Fuer Kunststoffs Verfahren zur Herstellung von Tapeten oder ähnlichen Wandbekleidungen

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
EP0875618A3 (en) 1999-07-28
ATE223982T1 (de) 2002-09-15
EP0875618A2 (en) 1998-11-04
ITBG970019A1 (it) 1998-10-16
DE69807776D1 (de) 2002-10-17
DE69807776T2 (de) 2003-05-15
IT1297842B1 (it) 1999-12-20
ITBG970019A0 (it) 1997-04-16

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