EP2925919A1 - Strand comprising a core and a sheath - Google Patents

Abstract

Tensile strength member of the type comprising a core (2) consisting of a strap made of a polymeric material or a laminate made of composite material and an external sheath (3) which covers the said core and which is made of a natural and/or synthetic material consisting of a multiplicity of interlaced or braided strands which lend the said tensile strength member a flattened configuration. The tensile strength member is substantially inelastic and flexible. The core has graphene added thereto during the processing phase, during the production of the said core or by coating the external surface by means of immersion or spraying or spreading. The tensile strength member is suitable for use in the field of sports, fashion, furniture, fabric systems for architectural installations and as a thread for weaving fabrics.

Description

STRAND COMPRISING A CORE AND A SHEATH

DESCRIPTION

The present invention refers to an engineered rope recommended for use in many fields and in particular in those where cords, lines, and ropes can usually be utilised but, above all, the said rope is particularly suitable for making items of furniture and architecture and many other objects in which considerable tenacity and resistance are needed, but also for other items, such as bags and sports bags.

As is known, a cord is a set of interlaced strands, made of various materials, which is able to withstand tractive stresses. A cord can be constituted of fibrous materials (natural or synthetic) or metal. In the first case, i. e. natural, it is commonly known as cord, while in the second, i.e. synthetic, as cable.

In particular, the rope is composed of a core and a sheath, which are rendered integral by means of a special treatment which determines excellent knot tenacity and abrasion strength, optimal handling, and good ultimate breaking strength.

While working very well, the ropes currently available on the market have also highlighted some limitations. A first drawback is that there are no flat ropes, i .e. ropes with an essentially rectangular section, a configuration which would allow the use thereof in many areas where a prevalently two-dimensional section is preferable. A further drawback derives from the fact that the existing ropes do not envisage high resistance to stresses of a torsional type but, above all, to folding, which limits the possibilities of use thereof.

As is known, in the furniture industry, cords are often used to produce chair seats and/or backs, lamps, decorative items and many other items but the cords currently used have highlighted a number of problems due to wear and tear and, when exposed to outdoor environments, the effect is amplified by the fact that they both become impregnated with water and absorb dirt and dust, becoming stained and dark, and are difficult to wash and restore to their original appearance. Moreover, while being resistant, the cords currently used are unable to resist strains and stresses of a certain entity.

At present, a number of items of furniture are made of rush, rattan, wicker, and cane, which have a rustic and ethnic appearance.

These are all materials of vegetable origin which means that to produce the aforesaid objects either specific crops must be created, but this requires time and is only possible in certain areas of the world due to climatic needs, or vast zones where these plants grow spontaneously are exploited and ruined, with the impoverishing of the natural habitat and the environment.

The use of the natural materials stated previously brings with it a series of problems, such as: the difficulty of sourcing such materials, the difficulty of transporting the raw materials since they come from areas which are very far away from us, the presence of manufacturing waste, since the materials are rather delicate to handle and, consequently, the ensuing obj ects feature high costs.

As mentioned, since the said materials are rather delicate, they are affected by bad weather, sudden temperature changes, humidity, etc . , , so much so, in fact, that furniture made of these materials cannot be left outdoors during winter and, instead, have to be brought indoors, with the ensuing problem of finding space to house the said furniture and the impossibility of using it during the said season.

Naturally, it is known that the seats of chairs, above all those used in the garden, are exposed to the sun, bad weather, sudden temperature changes (both hot and cold), rain, and humidity, so it can happen that, with time and use, they tend to wear and break as the joints and points where the material is particularly folded wear out, losing robustness and tenacity. A further difficulty encountered with the said materials derives from the fact that, while they are flexible, they do not allow any type of folding and shaping to be performed, and therefor furniture to be made and, furthermore, they are not able to resist stains of a certain entity.

Furthermore, seats made of rush, wicker, etc.. must always be equipped with cushions since they are hard and cold and it often happens that small splinters form thereupon, which can prove dangerous.

In addition to the above, as is known, many people are passionate about trend-led, designer, or fashion-led obj ects, or simply unusual and original obj ects, and they are particularly demanding and careful about the choice of the items that will be used as furnishing accessories, which means they are absolutely unwilling to accept an object which wears and becomes ruined in a short time.

Furthermore, the users of these furnishings want to be able to show off increasingly customised, innovative objects which are capable of arousing interest, attention, and also (and why not?) the envy of others. The aim of the present invention is essentially to solve the problems of the known technique by overcoming the aforesaid drawbacks by means of a engineered rope which allows very many obj ects to be made in various fields, such as: furniture, architecture, fabric architecture, design, fashion, sports, etc., in addition to fabric systems for architecture, and to be able to offer notable resistance to wear, in addition to having a particularly pleasant, captivating, and variable aesthetic appearance.

A second aim of the present invention is to provide an engineered rope which is pleasant to the touch, possesses the right rigidity to resist the strains to which it is subj ected, has no memory effect, and has near-zero elasticity.

A third obj ect of the present invention is to provide an engineered rope which allows improved technological characteristics with respect to those currently available on the market, which features increased mechanical resistance and greater tenacity and wear resistance, which acts as a sensor for electromagnetic fields and which allows obj ects, furniture and architectural installations to be made which feature interesting sound absorbent capacities. A still further aim of the present invention is to produce an engineered rope which allows thermal capacity, in addition to electrical and thermal conductivity, which proves to be fire-resistant.

A still further aim of the present invention is to produce an engineered rope which is not hygroscopic and which is resistant to atmospheric agents and ultraviolet rays, and is not worn by water and solar rays.

A still further aim of the present invention is to produce an engineered rope which allows a flattened configuration thereof with various colour combinations, with high mechanical resistance and an appearance which remains unchanged over time.

A still further aim of the present invention is to produce an engineered rope which allows the said rope to also be made of recycled material and be reusable without impacting on waste.

A still further but not final aim of the present invention is to produce an engineered rope which is easy to manufacture and works well.

These aims and others besides, which will better emerge over the course of the present description, are essentially achieved by means of an engineered rope, as outlined in the claims below.

Further characteristics and advantages will better emerge in the detailed description of an engineered rope according to this invention, provided in the form of a non-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

- Figure 1 shows, an engineered rope according to the present invention;

- Figure 2 shows a detail of the engineered rope in Figure 1 ; With reference to the aforesaid figure, 1 denotes an engineered rope as a whole, according to the present invention.

The engineered rope 1 is essentially composed of a core 2 and an external sheath 3, which covers the said core.

More in detail, the core 2 of the engineered rope consists of a strap made of synthetic fibre of an essentially known type, which may be a polymeric material or polyester or a laminate sheet made of a composite material. The core 2 features high tenacity which allows the rope to resist notable strains and is envisaged with contained elongation percentages which allow the rope not to deform and alter over time, rendering it suitable for a series of previously unimaginable uses, since the cords and ropes currently available on the market are rather elastic. Moreover, the core 2 proves unalterable when exposed to sudden temperature changes, in addition to being insensitive to ultraviolet rays. The said core does not wear, is very flexible, and exists in a wide range of widths, a condition which allows a considerable number of ropes to be obtained with different dimensions and characteristics, in terms of both aesthetics and of tenacity and resistance.

In accordance with the present invention, the core 2 consists of a sheet of composite material consisting of compacted, stiffened linen filaments which have been impregnated with specific synthetic resins or glass fibre or resin-impregnated carbon.

In detail, the linen filaments feature the same characteristics as carbon fibres as regards, for example, tractive resistance. According to the present invention, the core 2 of the rope requires the presence of graphene, which is added to the polymer molecules during the strap/laminate production phase, prior to extrusion. In greater detail, the graphene used is in powder form, nanotube form, or flake form.

Alternatively, the core is coated with a layer of graphene, which can be applied by immersion or by spraying or by spreading onto the strap/laminate already produced.

According to the present invention, the external sheath 3 which covers the core 2 is made of a natural and/or synthetic material consisting of a plurality of interlaced or braided strands.

In more detail, the external sheath 3 is composed of a structure consisting of primary strands, or thrum, which are subjected to the twisting method, i.e. torsion which leads to the formation of yarns which, when subjected to a further rope-making operation, produce the sheath or a structure obtained by a special braiding process that creates a tubular element designed to house and cover the core.

In accordance with the present embodiment, the sheath can be produced using strands of a synthetic material (polyester, polypropylene, acrylic fibres, etc .), or of a natural material (linen, cotton, wool, etc.) or a mixture of the two, but any other strand which meets the requirements can be used, including metal wire.

The rope in question is produced by inserting both the core and the strap or the laminate inside the sheath, which results in a rope which proves to have a flat, not circular, section as occurs with cords and ropes according to the known technique. In particular, the rope is ductile, tenacious, UV-resistant and very lightweight.

In particular, the engineered rope in question features a good sound- absorption capacity, which means the said rope lessens noise present and reduces the transmission of sound to surrounding or adj acent areas to those in which an obj ect produced with this rope is located since - whether the said obj ect is a settee, rug, wall-hanging, or even the entire covering of a wall or floor - the said obj ect absorbs, rather than transmitting, the noi se.

In addition to the explanations so far, the presence of the graphene in the strap/laminate in the rope allows increased mechanical strength of the rope and increased wear resistance and tenacity, since the presence of the graphene allows the creation of a grid structure in which the atoms are arranged to form hexagons which render the material more resistant to stresses. In actual fact, graphene is the thinnest material that exists, since it is a layer of monatomic carbon. At the same time though it is extremely strong, harder than a diamond, and yet enormously flexible because the bonds between its atoms also allow it to be bent and stretched. In addition, the unique grid structure thereof (with hexagonal cells) allows the electrons which carry the current to move so fast that they almost reach the speed of light. The rope in question has a core made of a nanoreinforced conductive polymeric material since graphene can also be used in the form of nanotubes, thereby giving the rope further characteristics. The engineered rope according to the present invention acquires a thermal/electrical capacity which allows - with a suitable connection to the electricity supply grid - a new function to be given to a series of objects for furnishing such as, for example, hangings or panels to be applied to walls which become heat radiating sources, being transformed into radiating elements so as to provide a contribution to the heating of a room when (in the intermediate seasons, for example) the heating system is not operational but there is a need to remove the feeling of coldness or humidity sometimes felt in a room.

Furthermore, the engineered rope employed in fabric architecture allows the production of sound-absorbent walls or objects and allows the detection of the presence of electromagnetic fields and the absorption thereof.

In addition to the explanations so far, the rope is not affected by rain, ambient humidity, or sudden temperature changes due to either heat or cold, and is easily washed which means that its appearance remains unchanged over time.

Furthermore, the engineered rope features high mechanical resistance, which is notably higher than a standard rope put to similar uses.

In addition, the rope may have different thicknesses and widths depending on the strap or laminate used, and different colours so as to differentiate between uses and make them more special, in order to adapt the rope to the style of the object to be produced.

The rope conceived in this way allows the production of items of furniture, such as chairs, settees, furniture and any other furnishing ever made with wicker, rush, rattan, etc.. since it features high flexibility, and manoeuvrability and a decidedly greater ability to bend and flex than the aforesaid materials.

In particular, the rope can be used in all the cases in which cords are used which, however, normally tend to dilate and deform, to wear and to be subjected to changes, thereby losing tenacity and resistance. Furthermore, the rope proves more structured with respect to normal cords, which gives it great opportunity for use, since it has a structural capacity which a common cord does not have, because of the presence of the core.

In addition to the explanations so far, the rope according to the present invention can be used in architectural installations and embodiments and in fabric architecture, as well as for items of furniture for both indoor and outdoor use, for containers of various shapes and for baskets, for large and small bags, items of clothing, belts, wallets, purses, boots and shoes, and for any other objects or accessories, such as, for example, bracelets.

In fact, the rope allows a composite material to be made available since it can be braided, woven, and processed in multiple combinations, resulting in the creation of panels, fabrics, curtains, and various structures.

Furthermore, the rope can be used in sailing in the same way as existing ropes and/or in place of the lines and in all those applications where cords and cables of a known type are used. After the predominantly structural description above, the operation of the invention in question will now be outlined.

When wishing to produce any obj ect which was previously produced with vegetable materials, such as wicker, rush, rattan, and other materials or with cords made of either synthetic or natural materials, one can simply produce these obj ects using the engineered rope instead of the previous materials or by producing new ones which were not previously obtainable with cords as the tenacity and structural resistance characteristics offered thereby were not adequate.

Thus the present invention achieves the aims set.

The engineered rope in question allows the production of very many obj ects in various fields, such as architecture and fabric architecture, furniture for both indoor and outdoor use, design, fashion, sports, etc . , it features great ease of use, offers remarkable wear resistance for the obj ect produced, in addition to having an aesthetic appearance which is particularly captivating, pleasant, innovative, and variable so that the engineered rope can be adjusted and adapted to styles, fashions, and different requirements.

Furthermore, the engineered rope allows obj ects with different colour combinations to be obtained, with high mechanical resistance; in fact, the engineered rope is not hygroscopic, it is resistant to atmospheric agents and ultraviolet rays, it is not worn by water, frost and solar rays, and it maintains an appearance which remains unaltered over time. Advantageously, the engineered rope can be used with any type of material with pairings and colour combinations based on needs, fashions, or other factors.

Furthermore, the engineered rope according to the present invention allows the creation of many various and diverse embodiments, as well as allowing customisation and variation thereof if the final user requires it. In particular, the rope in question, guarantees ultimate strengths and abrasion resistance higher than any other rope currently available on the market and even higher than that of a steel cable, but without the disadvantages of weight, memory effect, and the possibility of breakage in the event of tight bends.

Furthermore, the engineered rope according to the present invention has improved technological characteristics with respect to those currently available on the market and, in fact, is endowed with increased mechanical resistance and greater tenacity and wear resistance.

Advantageously, with the engineered rope in question, obj ects and furnishings can be created which have an interesting sound-absorption capacity, as well as a thermal capacity and electrical and thermal conductivity, as well as being fire-resistant.

In particular, the rope according to the present invention is pleasant to the touch, has the right rigidity to resist the strains to which it is subjected, has no memory effect and possesses near-zero elasticity.

For example, in addition to assuming a particularly original and captivating appearance, the seats of both chairs and settees made with the rope in question are much more resistant, maintaining the characteristics thereof over time, as well as offering a longer duration than those according to the known technique and, in addition, they can be heated, thereby offering the user a pleasant feeling of wellbeing and comfort.

Advantageously, the rope in question can be obtained entirely from recycled material and can, in turn, be recycled so as not to require the disposal thereof, thereby containing the production of waste.

In addition, the rope facilitates environmental protection as it prevents natural materials being used in a thoughtless way and reduces the introduction of polluting materials, such as plastic, into the environment, since it is completely reused. In particular, using the rope in question instead of natural materials, such as rush, wicker, rattan, etc.. prevents an indiscriminate use thereof.

A further advantage is due to the fact that the engineered rope is easy to manufacture and works well.

Naturally, further modifications or variants may be applied to the present invention while remaining within the scope of the invention that characterises it.

Claims

1 ) An engineered rope characterised by the fact that the said engineered rope is essentially composed of a core (2) and an external sheath (3) which covers the said core, wherein the said core consists of a strap made of synthetic fibres or a laminate made of a composite material and the said external sheath is made of a natural and/or synthetic material and consists of a plurality of interlaced strands which lend the said sheath a flattened configuration, the said rope being endowed with notable wear resistance and the right rigidity to resist strains but being also very flexible, having no memory effect and near-zero elasticity, and being resistant to the atmospheric agents, in addition to having an aesthetic appearance which is particularly captivating, pleasant, and variable.

2) An engineered rope according to claim 1 , characterised by the fact that the said core (2) is made of a polymeric material, features high tenacity, which allows it to resist notable strains, and is envisaged with contained elongation percentages which allow the rope not to deform and wear over time.

3) An engineered rope according to claim 1 , characterised by the fact that the said laminate made of a composite material of which the core (2) is composed consists of compacted, stiffened linen filaments which have been impregnated with specific synthetic resins or glass fibre or resin-impregnated carbon. 4) An engineered rope according to claim 1 , characterised by the fact that the said core has graphene added thereto.

5) An engineered rope according to claim 4, characterised by the fact that the said graphene is added to the molecules of which the polymer which constitutes the core (2) are composed, the said addition being performed during the production phase thereof.

6) An engineered rope according to claim 4, characterised by the fact that the said graphene is applied externally to the said core by immersion or spraying or spreading.

7) An engineered rope according to claim 4, characterised by the fact that the said graphene in the core of the rope allows increased mechanical resistance and increased wear resistance and tenacity of the rope and allows the rope to be endowed with a good sound- absorption capacity, to acquire a thermal capacity and electrical and thermal conductivity, in addition to being fire-resistant.

8) An engineered rope according to claim 1 , characterised by the fact that said external sheath (3) which covers the core (2) is composed of a structure consisting of primary strands, or thrum, which are subj ected to the twisting method, i.e. torsion which leads to the formation of yarns which, when subj ected to a further rope-making operation, produce the sheath.

9) An engineered rope according to claim 1 , characterised by the fact that the sheath is produced using strands of a synthetic material (polyester, polypropylene, acrylic fibres, etc .), or of a natural material (linen, cotton, wool, etc.) or a mixture of the two, but any other strand which meets the requirements can be used, including metal wire.

10) An engineered rope according to claim 1 , characterised by the fact that the said rope is produced using recycled material and is, in turn, recyclable.

1 1 ) An engineered rope according to claim 1 , characterised by the fact that the said rope features different thicknesses and widths depending on the core used, and different colours, and finds application in various fields for architectural installations and embodiments and in fabric systems for architecture, for items of furniture, design-led items, and objects in the field of fashion and sports because the said rope is a composite material which can be woven and processed in a variety of combinations to create panels, fabrics, curtains, and various structures, in addition to producing furniture, lamps, baskets, and containers, objects of various natures, large and small bags, clothing accessories, belts, bracelets, etc.