GB2113993A - Carpet gripper for holding a mat in position on a carpet - Google Patents

Abstract

A carpet gripper is provided for attachment to the underside of a mat to prevent the mat from riding or creeping on long or short pile carpets. The carpet gripper comprises a plate (1), for example of resilient plastics or synthetic rubber, which can be attached to the underside of a mat by means such as a zone of adhesive provided on the top face of the plate (1). The underneath face (2) of the plate (1) is formed with an array of spikes (3) angled in a common direction, the purpose of these spikes (3) being to dig into the pile of a carpet upon which the mat is placed and thereby hold the mat in position. The underneath face (2) of the plate (1) can also be formed with a region of surface roughening (5) to assist in anchoring the mat in position on the carpet. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Carpet gripper for holding a mat in position on a carpet The present invention relates to a carpet gripper for preventing a mat from riding or creeping on long or short pile carpets. As used herein, the term "mat" is intended to include rugs, door mats and similar articles.

As is well known, a rug lying on top of a carpet will, during the normal course of use, tend to ride or creep across the carpet in the direction of the carpet's pile. This behaviour results from the fact that resistance to movement of the rug across the carpet is much less in the direction of lie of the carpet's pile than it is in the opposite direction.

While such creeping can obviously be prevented by anchoring the rug under, for example, the leg of a table or by tacking it to the floor through the carpet, such measures are generally either inconvenient or undesirable.

Carpet-gripping devices are known for anchoring the edge zones of a carpet, these devices taking the form of a substantially-rigid strip of wood or metal provided along one face with upstanding angled spikes or tangs. In use, the rigid strip is secured to the floor by nails or screws with the tangs directed away from the middle of the carpet; the carpet edge portion to be anchored is then laid on the tangs which embed themselves into the back of the carpet and prevent it from moving. In order to facilitate penetration of the tangs into the carpet back, these tangs are made with sharp points.

It will be appreciated that these carpet-gripping devices do not grip into the pile of the carpet and, indeed are wholly unsuitable for this purpose as they would damage the carpet pile by ripping and tearing. Furthermore, it will also be appreciated that the known carpet-gripping devices cannot be readily secured to the underside of a rug and that the presence of a rigid device under a rug would be readily noticed and therefore undesirable.

It is an object of the invention to provide a carpet gripper for preventing a mat from creeping across a carpet on which it is laid.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a carpet gripper for attachment to the underside of a mat, said gripper comprising a resiliently-deformable plate provide on one face with an array of spikes angled in a common non-perpendicular direction away from the plate, and on its other face with a zone of adhesive enabling the plate to be stuck on the back of a mat.

The adhesive zone may, for example, be provided by one side of a strip of double-sided adhesive tape stuck onto the plate.

In use, one or more grippers are attached to a mat in such an orientation that when the mat is laid as required, the gripper spikes will be directed in the pile direction of the underlying carpet. Once the mat is in position, the gripper serves to prevent any substantial creeping of the mat across the underlying carpet.

By making the gripper plate of a resiliently deformable material, the gripper does not present too rigid a feel to a person standing on the mat over the gripper plate. Advantageously, the plate is made of rubber or synthetic rubber and possesses a high degree of deformability.

Typically, the size of the gripper plate is 9 x 5 cm.

Advantageously, the spikes can be given a rounded form to ensure that the carpet pile is not damaged and that there is no risk of injury to children or pets who might play around with the mat.

Preferably, where the gripper plate is to be used on shag pile carpets, the spike-carrying face of the gripper plate is provided with surface-roughening in order to increase the grip of the plate on carpet pile. This roughening can result from the form or finish of the plate face itself or can be provided by the attachment of a roughening material (such as crepe) to the plate.

The gripper spikes which can conveniently be formed integrally with the gripper plate, typically have a length of 8 mm for long shag-pile carpets and 5 mm length for short-pile carpets. The spikes are preferably angled approximately at between 300 to 50 to the perpendicular from the plate.

Advantageously, the spike array takes the form of a line of spikes extending around three sides of a rectangle, or in a semicircle, circle or oval.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a mat having a carpet gripper attached to its underside, the carpet gripper comprising a plate provided on one face with an array of spikes directed away from the mat, and attachment means attaching the plate to the underside of the mat.

A carpet gripper embodying the invention and intended for attachment to a rug, will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a plan view of the undersurface of the gripper; Figure 2 is a front elevation of the gripper; Figure 3 is a side elevation of the gripper; and Figure 4 is a top plan view of the gripper.

As shown in the drawing, the carpet gripper comprises a gripper plate 1 provided on its underneath face 2 with a two-dimensional array of spikes 3; in the present example, the spikes 3 extend in a line around three sides of a notional rectangle. The plate 1 is made of resiliently deformable material (such as a plastics or synthetic rubber material) and typically has dimensions of 9 x 5 cm with a thickness of 2 mm.

The spikes 3 are integral with the plate 1 and have rounded ends 4. Typically the spikes 3 are arranged, for example, at 1 cm centres and have a base diameter of 3 mm. The length of the spikes 3 is preferably dependent on the type of carpet which the gripper is intended to grip; thus an 8 mm spike length is appropriate for shag-pile carpets whereas a 5 mm length is sufficient for shorter piles.

All the spikes 3 are angled in a common direction at 300 to the perpendicular to the plate, the spikes being inclined towards the open side of the spike away A central roughened zone 5 is provided on the face 2 of the gripper plate 1 either by suitable forming orfinishing of the plate 1 or by the attachment of roughening means such as a patch of suitable material tfor example, crepe).

The top face 6 of the plate 1 carries a strip 7 of double-sided adhesive tape one side of which is stuck down onto the plate 1 itself while, prior to use of the gripper, the other side is kept protected by a covering 8.

In use, the gripper is attached to the underside of a rug simply by peeling off the covering 8 and pressing the face 8 of the plate 1 against the rug to cause the strip'7 to adhere to the rug and hold the tripper thereto. During this operation, care should be taken to ensure that the spikes 3 are directed in the pile direction of the carpet upon which the rug is to be laid (the orientation of the rug relative to the carpet will, of course, need to be known in advance). The rug, with gripper attached (or possibly with two or more such grippers attached) is then laid on the carpet in its predetermined orientation. The spikes 3 will now bed themselves into the carpet pile and substantially prevent the rug from creeping in the pile direction of the carpet. The roughened zone 5 of the plate 1 also helps the gripper to grip the carpet pile and prevent creep.

Various modifications to the described carpet gripper are, of course, possible. Thus, for example, the number and arrangement of the spikes can be varied from that illustrated. Furthermore, the carpet gripper may be formed from a rigid material although this is not preferred.

Where the gripper is formed from a resilientlydeformable material which is fairly flexible, the spikes need not be rounded off since the risk of injury is then negligible.

Claims (9)

1. A mat having a carpet gripper attached to its underside, the carpet gripper comprising a plate provided on one face with an array of spikes directed away from the mat, and attachment means attaching the plate to the underside of the mat.

2. A mat according to Claim 1 , wherein said attachment means comprises a zone of adhesive provided on the opposite face of the plate to the said spikes.

3. A mat according to Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein the spikes are all angled in a common non-perpendicular direction away from said plate.

4. A mat according to Claim 3, wherein the spikes lie at an angle of 300 to 400 to the perpendicular from the plate.

5. A mat according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the ends of the spikes are rounded.

6. A mat according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the carpet gripper is made of a resiliently deformable material.

7. A mat according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the face of the plate from which the spikes project is provided with surface roughening.

8. A carpet gripper for attachment to the underside of a mat, said gripper comprising a resiliently-deformable plate provided on one face with an array of spikes angled in a common nonperpendicular direction away from the plate, and on its other face with a zone of adhesive enabling the plate to be stuck on the back of a mat.

9. A carpet gripper substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing.