BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to dry-type sound
insulation access floors, and more particularly to dry-type
sound insulation access floors having a high rigidity sandwich
board in which time and cost for installing the access floors
are reduced, and floor impact sound is reduced.
Description of the Related Art
In Korea, in order to wire and/or install a conduit
system in the room, such as an office, a computer room, a
factory for electronic Information Technology products, as
shown in Fig. 1a, a conventional access floor is basically
constructed such that supports 10' are arranged at regular
intervals, and access floor upper plates 20' are placed on the
supports 10', such that spaces equal to the height and interval
of the supports 10 are defined. Since this access floor must be
designed to endure a relatively heavy load, rigid materials
such as steel supports 10' and inorganic upper plates 20' are
used, so that relatively high weight materials are required,
and the interval between the supports 10' is about 500×500 mm,
or 600×600 mm. Thus, the installation of the access floor is
not efficient and time for installing the access floor depends
on the skill of the installer.
Moreover, in Japan, when access floors are installed in
apartments, it is a main object to install lower a conduit
system, and to reduce light floor impact sound. According to
the access floor installed in Japan, heavy floor impact sound
as a matter of concern in Korea is reduced just a little, but
may be increased dependent on the ability of installing the
access floor in various buildings. Further, in order to
maximize reduction of the floor impact sound, non-elastic
rubber is used, but the non-elastic rubber causes fluctuation
of the access floor when walking thereon, so that walkers
accustomed to rigid cement/mortar floor feel uneasiness.
According to the conventional dry-type sound insulation
access floor used in Japan, as shown in Fig. 1b, a plurality of
supports 10 " are arranged on a concrete floor at regular
intervals, and a plurality of upper plates 20" are placed on
the supports 10".
The longer the interval between the supports 10 " is,
i.e. the less the number of the supports 10" is, the smaller
the number of times for adjusting the level of the floor is, so
that the access floor is rapidly installed and cost for the
support 10" is reduced. However, if the interval between the
supports 10" is increased, the floor is fluctuated and
deflected when walking due to deterioration of rigidity, so
that the maximum interval between the supports 10" in the
conventional access floor is 600×455 mm.
Moreover, since the conventional upper plate 20"
consists of unmodified particleboard, it is difficult to reduce
the floor impact sound, and the heavy weight of the upper
plates 20" themselves serve as a large of load to the supports
10".
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, the present invention has been made to
provide a noise proof system between floors capable of
remarkably reducing light floor impact sound and heavy floor
impact sound and having excellent proof load performance in
view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present
invention to provide a house access floor system capable of
solving the deflection of access floor members caused by
longer intervals between supports while widening the interval
between supports.
It is the other object of the present invention to
provide a house access floor system of which sound absorption
or heat insulation performance and the fluctuation when
walking thereon are improved so as to allow comfortable
environment.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention,
the above and other objects can be accomplished by the
provision of an access floor system including a plurality of
supports disposed at regular intervals, and upper plates
placed on the supports, each of the upper plates including an
upper board, a lower board, and a quadrangular reinforcing
frame disposed between the upper board and the lower board.
The upper board, the lower board, and the reinforcing
member can be made of single or complex material using at least
two materials selected from wood, inorganic material, synthetic
resin, steel, and aluminum, preferably wood, taking into
consideration of the rigidity in comparison with cost and the
easiness for manufacturing. More particularly, the reinforcing
member is multi-ply wood.
Preferably, the total thickness of each of the upper
plates including the upper board, the lower board, and the
reinforcing member ranges from 20 to 70 mm. If the thickness is
too low, the desired rigidity cannot be obtained, and if the
thickness is too high, the load and material cost of the upper
plate itself are increased.
According to the preferred embodiment of the present
invention, for the purpose of sound absorption or heat
insulation and high rigidity of the upper plate, sound
absorbing material or heat insulation material can be inserted
between the reinforcing members.
The sound absorbing material or the heat insulation
material may include a synthetic fiber selected from the group
of glass wool, rock wool, and polyethylene terephthalate, or a
plastic foam selected from the group of expanded polystyrene,
foamed urethane, and foamed polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
By employing the high rigidity sandwich upper plate in
the present invention, the interval between the supports is to
at least 400×400 mm, preferably, larger than 600x600 mm, more
preferably in the range from 600×600 mm to 1,200×1,800 mm. The
access floor system according to the present invention is
advantageous in that it reduces floor impact sound and can
achieve a light upper plate.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The above and other objects, features and other
advantages of the present invention will be more clearly
understood from the following detailed description taken in
conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Fig. 1a is a structural view illustrating a conventional
commercial house access floor used in Korea; Fig. 1b is a structural view illustrating a conventional
house access floor used in Japan; Fig. 2 is a structural view illustrating an access floor
according to the present invention; Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view and a partially
exploded plan view illustrating an upper plate according to a
preferred embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view and a partially
exploded plan view illustrating an upper plate according to
another preferred embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 5 is a reference view illustrating a method for
measuring the deflection of the upper plate; and Fig. 6 is a graph comparing performance for reducing
heavy floor impact sound of a conventional office upper panel,
a conventional house upper panel, and a high rigidity upper
panel according to the present invention, which are employed
in the access floor.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Hereinafter, a house access floor system according to the
present invention will be described in detail with reference to
the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 2 shows a house access floor system according to the
present invention, which includes a plurality of supports 10
arranged at regular intervals and a plurality of upper plates
20 placed on the supports 10.
In the present invention, high rigidity sandwich upper
plates are used as the upper plates 20 and may be arranged in
intervals between the supports more than at least 400×400 mm,
for example, 600×600 mm, 900×900 mm, 800×1,200 mm, 1,200×1,200
mm, or 1,200×1,800 mm. Consequently, time for installing the
house access floor is shortened and cost can be reduced due to
the reduced number of the supports 10.
Fig. 3 shows a cross-sectional view and a partially
exploded plan view of the upper plate 20 according to the
preferred embodiment of the present. As shown in Fig. 3, the
upper plate 10 includes an upper board 21, a lower board 22,
and a reinforcing frame 23 disposed between the upper board 21
and the lower board 22. The reinforcing frame 23 has a
quadrangular frame shape corresponding to the rims of the upper
board 21 and the lower board 22, and includes at least one
reinforcing member, which is disposed in a central axis thereof
and secures the high rigidity of the reinforcing frame 23.
Fig. 4 shows a cross-sectional view and a partially
exploded plan view of an upper plate 20 according to another
preferred embodiment of the present invention. The upper plate
20 includes an upper board 21, a lower board 22, a reinforcing
frame 23, and a core 24 disposed between reinforcing members.
The core 24 is made of sound absorbing and insulating material
such as glass wool, expandable polystyrene (EPS), or the like,
so as to provide the absorb sound and insulation effect.
The support 10 adopted in the present invention is
roughly divided into a head, a height adjusting bolt, and a
supporting rubber. More concretely the support 10 includes a
plate-shaped head having a nut inserted into a central portion
thereof to support the upper plate, a bolt being formed with a
slotted recess or cross-shaped recess and associated with the
nut so as to adjust the height of the head, and a supporting
rubber having a bolt supporting recess for rotatably supporting
the bolt formed at the upper portion thereof.
Preferably, in order to absorb impact transferred to the
floor and to reduce vibration transfer, non-elastic rubber is
used as the supporting rubber. The shape of the supporting
rubber may be selected from among a cylindrical shape
advantageous against load, a reverse trapezoidal shape
providing stability, and an embossed structure for obtaining
floor impact sound reduction performance.
An upper plate, having a thickness of 40 mm, and the
structure as shown in Fig. 4, is manufactured using
particleboard as the
upper plate 21 and the
lower plate 22, ply
wood as the reinforcing
member 23, and expanded polystyrene as
the
core 24, and the deflection of the upper plate is measured.
The measured deflections are listed in Table 1. As listed in
Table 1, the house access floor according to the preferred
embodiment of the present invention is superior to comparative
examples 1 and 2 adopting the conventional upper plate, i.e.
the deflection of the upper plate according to the preferred
embodiment of the present is approximately 4 mm less than the
deflections of the comparative examples 1 and 2. The
deflection, as shown in Fig. 5, has been measured in such
manner that a load of 100 kg is applied to the central portion
of an upper surface of the upper plate having a pressing area
with a diameter 80 and scales of a gauge installed bellow the
upper plate are read.
Item | Deflection (mm) |
Comparative example 1 | 6.82 |
Comparative example 2 | 7.72 |
Present invention | 2.85 |
Comparative example 1: house access floor system of Japanese Corporation A |
Comparative example 2: house access floor system of Japanese Corporation B |
Present invention: house access floor system adopting high rigidity upper plate according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention |
Moreover, by employing the high rigidity upper plate 20,
the interval between the supports 10 can be widened to
800×1,200 mm, and the floor impact sound can be satisfactorily
reduced.
Fig. 6 and Table 2 show impact sound reducing performance
of the upper plate (the preferred embodiment) according to the
present invention constructed as described above compared with
the conventional house access floor employing the conventional
supports and upper plates as shown in Figs. 1a (Comparative
example 1) and 1b (Comparative example 2). As shown in Fig. 6
and Table 2, it can be confirmed that the impact sound
reduction of the house access floor according to the present
invention employing the high rigidity upper plates is 6 dB (A)
to 11 dB (A) greater than those of the comparison examples 3
and 4 employing the conventional upper plates. The floor impact
reducing performance test has been carried out according to KS
F 2810-2, and the result thereof is estimated and compared
according to KS F 2863-2. Described in detail, the upper plates
are installed in an acoustics laboratory and the floor impact
sound is generated by applying a heavy impact source, and then
the generated sound is received in a sound receiving room via a
microphone so as to be analyzed and estimated.
materials | Hz | dB (A) |
| 63 | 125 | 250 | 500 |
Comparative example 3 | 71.5 | 73.1 | 65.8 | 43.9 | 56 |
Comparative example 4 | 79.6 | 63.1 | 58.0 | 44.9 | 51 |
Present invention | 70.7 | 63.2 | 47.2 | 38.2 | 45 |
Comparative example 3: office access floor system used in Korea (Fig. 1a) |
Comparative example 4: house access floor system used in Japan (Fig. 1b) |
Embodiment: access floor employing the high rigidity upper plates according to the present invention (Fig. 2) |
As described above, according to the present invention,
the light weight of the upper plate can be achieved by
employing the high rigidity sandwich upper plate, the interval
between the supports wider than that of the conventional access
floor system allows rapid installation of the access floor and
cost reduction. Moreover, reduction of the floor impact sound
is achieved, and the insertion of the sound absorption material
and the heat insulation material between the reinforcing
members disposed at the upper plate enhances sound absorption
and heat insulation.
Although the preferred embodiments of the present
invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those
skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications,
additions and substitutions are possible, without departing
from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the
accompanying claims.