GB2063710A

GB2063710A - Adhesive tape for floor coverings or the like

Info

Publication number: GB2063710A
Application number: GB8034513A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1979-11-28
Filing date: 1980-10-27
Publication date: 1981-06-10
Also published as: IT8026303A0; DK504780A; DE3041074A1; NL8006506A

Abstract

Tape for fixing one surface of a covering material to a receiving surface, which tape comprises an adhesive layer which is sticky on both sides, said tape being characterised in that the sticky surface on one side is more strongly adhesive than the sticky surface on the other side.

Description

SPECIFICATION Adhesive tape for floor coverings or the like This invention relates to an adhesive tape, in particular for fixing a floor covering or carpet such as a pile carpet, which tape comprises an adhesive tape which is sticky on both its surfaces, one of the surfaces being fixed to the receiving surface (floor) and the other to the surface of the covering or other product which is required to be kept in place.

Various means are available for fixing a covering such as a pile carpet to the ground.

One old process consisted of nailing the carpet to the ground at the edges of the room.

A more recent process consisted of fixing nailed strips to the edges of the room so that the nails projected upwards to get hooked to the carpet, thereby holding it. This process, however, was only applicable to woven coverings without a backing of foam or other padding. Undersurfaces of such material do not offer sufficient resistance to cling to the points of the nails in the strips fixed along the walls of the room.

To overcome this disadvantage, in particular for glueing the most recent types of carpet in which the lower surface is covered with a foam taking the place of felt underlay, it is known to glue such a floor covering directly to the ground, which may be either a floor specially prepared for this purpose or a floor having a cement surface or, in the case of renovation or modernisation of old buildings, this method may even be employed when the carpet has been placed in position on a parquet floor or flagstones after making good.

According to this process, the carpet layer pours the glue over the floor and spreads it out with a scraper or the like to form a relatively uniform layer. The glue is in this way spread over relatively large areas and not simply placed at isolated points since the layer pours the contents of cans of glue directly on the floor and then spreads out the glue.

This method of procedure has numerous disadvantages both in its application and when the floor coverings are required to be changed. When applying the method, the main disadvantage is that the floor covering is glued to the ground over large surface areas, whereby the carpet becomes rigid and its suppleness and the comfort it affords are therefore reduced. Moreover, since the layer of air between the floor and the covering is reduced or eliminated over large surface areas, the sound and heat insulation are reduced to an extent which is not negligible.

In view of the various disadvantages of this method, an adhesive tape method has recently been developed. In this method, an adhesive tape which is sticky on both surfaces is fixed in particular along the walls of the room, and the floor covering is then placed on the upper surface of the adhesive tape.

Although in its practical application this method of positioning the carpet constitutes a certain improvement in the use of the glue itself, it nevertheless has the disadvantage that it does not facilitate subsequent removal of the carpet.

The adhesive tape is generally made of a textile of natural or synthetic fibres carrying dry glue (that is to say glue from which the solvent has evaporated but which remains in a pasty and sticky state). The glue is generally a synthetic one with very high bonding power.

Under these conditions, if one wishes to remove the carpet to change it or to use the bare floor, as in the case of parquet floor or tiling, very considerable difficulties are encountered. The carpet is difficult to tear away and is liable to be torn in the process or carries parts of filling with it or pieces of wood or portions of the floor surface on which the adhesive strip has been placed.

Alternatively, the adhesive tape may remain glued to the ground, with pieces of undersurface of carpet left on it. Such a tape carrying pieces of undersurface of the carpet on it is virtually impermeable to the solvent used to dissolve the glue. The tape must therefore be scratched off, and this is liable to damage the floor (flagstone, cement surface, parquet). Under these conditions, it is virtually impossible to restore the floor to its original state in the case of a parquet floor or flags. If a new carpet is to be laid, the floor must first be made good because the parts torn out when removing the old carpet leave holes behind which it is necessary to fill in before the new carpet is laid.

Lastly, this method of glueing by adhesive tape, although enabling floor coverings to be replaced more easily than by direct glueing, has numerous very serious disadvantages.

It is an object of the present invention to produce an adhesive band or sheet designed particularly for positioning a covering and more particularly a floor covering, which will be easy to employ and above all will enable the covering to be easily replaced or changed without involving a great deal of labour.

To this end, the invention concerns a tape for fixing one surface to another, such as a floor covering to a floor, which tape comprises an adhesive sheet which is sticky on both sides, which tape is characterised in that one surface of said sheet is more powerfully adhesive than the other side.

The different nature of that surface of the tape (or of the sheet) which is to be fixed to the undersurface of the covering and that of the surface facing the floor or, in more general terms, the receiving surface, which may be a wall, etc., affords multiple advantages both for the covering when in use and for its positioning and removal.

According to one advantageous feature, the tape comprises a non-sticky perforated band glued to that surface of the adhesive sheet which will be in contact with the support.

The carpet or the like can easily be removed since it is easily torn away, with the tape remaining glued to the back of the carpet. All that is left on the ground are dots of glue which are easily removed if necessary.

The present invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the annexed drawings, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view on a deformed scale of a length of adhesive tape according to the invention; Figure 2A is a sectional view on an enlarged scale of a first variation of an adhesive tape according to the invention: Figure 2B is a top view corresponding to Fig. 2A; Figure 3 is a sectional view on an enlarged scale of another variation of an adhesive tape.

According to Fig. 1, the adhesive tape comprises a sheet 1 which is sticky on both sides and has one side covered by a nonsticky sheet 2 which is perforated, for example with circular cutouts 21. The other side of the adhesive layer 1 is covered with a nonstick layer 3 which is to be peeled off before the adhesive tape is used.

The sticky layer 1 may consist, for example, of a weave of intersecting threads on which a dry glue is applied, that is to say a glue from which the solvent has evaporated but which remains in a pasty state and has permanent sticking characteristics.

The perforated layer 2 may be, for example, a strip of crepe paper glued over its whole surface to the sticky layer 1, leaving the layer 1 exposed through the perforations 21 to provide adhesive zones.

The perforations are circular or elliptical cutouts which are easily made. The perforations could also be provided in the form of elongated lines or curves, etc., according to the envisaged applications.

According to the vertical section of Figs. 2A and 2B, another method of providing apertures consists of replacing the perforated layer by a plurality of narrow strips 131 preferably placed parallel to simplify manufacture. These strips 131 are spaced apart to form gaps 1 32 leaving the sticky layer 11 exposed to form adhesive zones.

The strips 1 31 are aligned in the longitudinal direction or at any angle thereto.

The tape for fixing the covering thus comprises a flexible adhesive layer 11 forming the support, each surface of which carries a sticky layer 1 1 A or 11 B, respectively. The sticky layer 1 1 A would be apparent in the exposed adhesive zones 1 32.

The distribution of the zones 1 32 is arranged according to the use of the fixing tape.

This distribution may be regular or irregular.

The adhesive zones 132, which are preferably relatively small, may either be identical over the whole tape or they may vary in form.

According to Fig. 3, which is a variation of the embodiment of Figs. 2A and 2B, the sticky layer 11 B extends over the whole surface of the support 11 while on the other side of the support the sticky layer 1 1A is provided only over isolated zones in the form of strips or points 1 1A1 leaving intervals 1 1A2 exposed which are less sticky or non-sticky.

According to a variation not shown in the drawings, the sticky layer 1 1A does not extend over the whole surface of the sheet 1 1; for example, the layer 1 1A may not reach right to the lateral edges thereof. In general, however, as in one case, the fixing tape comprises a non-sticky layer 2 with perforations 21 (Fig. 1) or the layer (1 lA) may be equipped with masks or non-sticky zones 131 leaving spaces 1 32 in which the sticky layer 1 1 A is exposed or, as in another case, the sticky layer 1 1 A is in the form of a discontinuous layer 11Al leaving zones 1 1A2 which are not coated with glue or only slightly sticky.

One side of the sheet 11 should always have a larger surface area of adhesive than the other side.

To lay the covering in position, the adhesive tape should first be fixed so that the less sticky side will face the receiving surface and the more powerfully sticky side will be fixed to the undersurface of the carpet or wall covering.

In the case of Fig. 3, glue applied to the surface 11 B which is completely covered must not penetrate through the layer 11 in order to ensure that the less sticky side 1 1 A will not be modified.

In general, if, according to the most advantageous embodiment of the fixing tape according to the invention, an equally powerful adhesive is used for both sides of the layer 11, the relationship between the adhesive surfaces of each side will be chosen so that the tape will be fixed more firmly to the back of the covering (carpet, wall covering, etc.) than to the receiving surface (floor surface, ceiling, wall, etc.) so that it can easily be torn away.

The layer 11 may be a sheet of textile which may or may not be treated to make it impermeable or it may be a continuous sheet made of a synthetic material.

The adhesive tape or sheet is preferably supplied from a roll, and in that case (Fig. 1), it is particularly advantageous to use crepe paper for the lower layer since this material compensates for the differences in length produced by winding and enables regular and stable rolls to be obtained without deformation.

Although winding in a roll constitutes a preferred form of presentation, other forms could be envisaged. The product could be presented in the form of sheets if it is to be used in this form in the finished or semifin ished state.

Although the above description has been given with reference to the positioning of a floor covering such as a pile carpet or the like, the same means could be used for fixing both flexible and rigid wall coverings or ceiling coverings, etc. or more generally for fixing any devices or objects of a surface form to corresponding receiving surfaces.

Thus by way of example, if the adhesive tape is used on an irregular surface, for exam ple for covering a ceiling or wall which is in a bad condition, it may be advantageous to use foam or an expanded material of a certain thickness to form the adhesive layer 1, each side being then glued to a natural or artificial synthetic textile or a synthetic material, the two sides being then treated like the surfaces 11Band 11A of Fig. 3.

Claims

1. Tape for fixing one surface of a cover ing material to a receiving surface, which tape comprises an adhesive layer which is sticky on both sides, said tape being characterised in that the sticky surface on one side is more strongly adhesive than the sticky surface on the other side.

2. Tape according to claim 1, character ised in that it is composed of a supporting sheet which is impermeable to glue, the two sides thereof being coated with glue.

3. Tape according to claim 1 or 2, charac terised in that the less sticky surface consists of adhesive zones in the form of sheets or strips.

4. Tape according to claim 1, character ised in that it comprises a non-sticky, perfo rated tape fixed by glueing to one side of the adhesive layer.

5. Tape according to claim 4, character ised in that the perforated layer is relatively stretchable.

6. Tape according to claim 4, character ised in that the perforations are circular, ellip tical, square, rectangular, elongated or curved or in the form of strips defining the openings.

7. Tape according to claim 6, character .ised in that the strips are parallel and spaced apart.

8. Tape according to claim 6, character ised in that the strips are parallel and placed at an angle to the longitudinal axis of the tape.

9. Tape according to claim 1, character ised in that one of its sides is covered with a non-sticky disposable tape.

1 G. Tape according to claim 1, wherein the perforated layer is of crepe paper.