GB2231145A - Domestic hearth - Google Patents

Abstract

A domestic hearth, adapted to simulate a hearth of a more expensive design comprises a metal or timber support frame, a board of heat-insulating material supported on the frame and a rigid sheet of fire-resistant material overlying the heat-insulating board and the rigid sheet has on its surface remote from the heat-insulating board a pattern applied by transfer printing. The pattern may for example be a photographic image of marble or of another stone or a tiled or other pattern.

Description

Hearth The present invention is a novel. form of hearth, which is able to simulate a hearth of a more expensive design while avoiding same at least of the disadvantages of alternative prior designs.

Many high quality hearths have hitherto been made of solid marble but marble is an expensive raw material and therefore numerous attempts have been made to product a hearth which simulates a marble hearth. Thus a popular substitute for marble is a so-called "marble conglomerate", which is a synthetic product in which pieces of stone are bonded together by means of a resinous material. However marble congloirerate is not a satisfactory substitute for marble itself, in that the conglomerate is easily damaged, is still relatively expensive and can, in some circumstances, exude resin from its surface in use.

There rerrams a need for a novel form of hearth, which is more satisfactorily able to replace more expensive forms of hearth such as those of marble. It is an object of the present invention to provide a hearth which meets that need.

The hearth according to the present invention comprises a metal or timber support frame, a board of heat-insulating material supported upon said frame and a rigid sheet of fire-resistant material overlying the heat-insulating board, the rigid sheet being provided on its surface r:cote from the heat-insulating board with a pattern applied by transfer printing.

By transfer printing in this way, hearths may be produced which simulate visually a wide variety of different, often more expensive, materials. Thus the pattern may be a photographically produced image, for example reproducing the appearance of marble or other forms of stone, or a handmdrawn image. The pattern may resemble a tiled pattern or may be Wholly decorative as opposed to representational.The transfer itself is in that categOry of products known as "paper-carried patterns", that is a pigrrented pattern on a paper-type sheet, although other materials than paper may be used for the purpose, especially synthetic polymeric sheet materials having the necessary properties The pattern is transfer printed upon the rigid sheet of fire-resistant material which forms the upper surface of the hearth. In one preferred form of the invention, the fireresistant material is a sheet metal, mild steel being particularly preferred for the purpose. An alternative material is hardboard of a fire-resistant quality or any other fire-retardant board.

We have found Class '0' hardboard to be particularly suitable.

In order to effect the transfer printing satisfactorily, the rigid fire-resistant material should preferably be prepared to receive and display the transferred pattern. When the material is of the hardboard type, it may be necessary to modify the surface so as to increase its capacity to form a bond with ooating materials applied to it, for example by puncturing the board surface with a pattern of fine holes or by providing an under-coating of a suitable bonding material.

Whatever the chosen rigid sheet material, it is preferred to provide a uniform background, for example a white or coloured layer, behind the transferred pattern, which in turn may be applied to a transparent top ooating layer. A clear polyester layer has proved to be a very good such top coating layer.

The printed fire-resistant sheet is backed by a board of heat-insulating material, which provides some support for the top sheet and assists in confining any heat from the hearth to the top sheet. The choice of suitable board is a matter of simple experiment but we have found that cement-bonded boards of the type used in buildings are of particular value for this purpose.

The heat-insulating board and fire-resistant printed top sheet are together supported on a metal or timber support frame, which may be of generally rectangular, open construction and may advantageously be fashioned from sheet steel.

Particularly when the printed top sheet is of metal, one or more of the edges of the sheet may be bent over to provide a continuation of the pattern around the edge of the hearth, in order to simulate even 'tore effectively a hearth in the form of a solid block, for example of marble. Whether or not the sheet is bent over in this way, it may be desired to enhance the decorative effect and/or to provide some protection for the edges of the hearth by fitting a brass or other metal strip along one or more of those edges.

The production of the printed rigid sheet which forms the top layer of the hearth according to the present invention is further described by means of the following illustrative Examçles, which relate to two alternative preferred forms of that sheet and are included by way of example only.

Example 1 Mild steel sheets approximately 0.5 mm thick and approximately one-metre square, and which have been previously produced with a white stoved coating, are subsequently coated with a thin layer of a clear polyester material and are passed through an oven at a temperature of 2OO0C. The ooated sheets are placed in a press and a paper sheet carrying a phDbograph- ically produced pigment image resembling marble is placed in contact with the coated surface. The press is closed and is heated to approximately 210 C, Transfer of the image to the metal sheet occurs as the press passes through the range from about 1300C to about 200 C.Transfer and bonding of the pigment image is completely effected during the course of a cycle lasting approximately 35 seconds.

Example 2 Sheets of Class '0' cardboard approximately 3 itrn thick and approximately one-metre square are passed three times through a roller coating machine incorporating ultraviolet light drying equipment, a surface ooating being applied in the course of each pass. Each coating is of a polyester type, the first being to provide an even surface to the face of the sheet material, the second being a white coating and the third providing a clear top coat to which the image will be applied.

In a press operated as described in Example 1, a pattern resembling a conventional array of tiles was subsequently transferred to the clear polyester surface.

The invention is further described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example only, two preferred embodiments of the hearth according to the invention and wherein:- Fig. 1 is a plan view of a first embodiment of the hearth, Fig. 2 is a sectional view on the line II-II of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a further sectional view, to a somewhat larger scale, on the line III-III of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a plan view of a second embodiment of the hearth; Fig. 5 is a sectional view from the front of the hearth of Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is a sectional view from one end of the hearth of Fig. 4; and Fig. 7 is an end elevation of the metal panel of the hearth of Figs. 4 to 6.

The hearth illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3 is supported upon an open rectangular metal frame 4 oonstructed fran shaped sheet steel and comprises a board 5 of a nDn-combustible cement-based material overlaid by a sheet of mild steel 6 with a marble pattern transfer-printed thereon, produced as described in Example 1. The front and side edges of the hearth are covered by a plated brass trimming strip 7.

When fitted against a fire surround, this illustrated hearth convincingly simulates a conventional marble slab or marble conglanrate hearth.

The form of hearth shown in Figs. 4 to 7 comprises a sheet of mild steel 10 which is backed by a board of non oombustible cement-based material and carries on its surface a transfer-printed pattern of tiles. These superimposed layers are supported by an open frame of timber trusses 11, 12. Wooden side panels 13 overlie the side edges of the printed sheet 10.

One long edge of the sheet 10 is folded at right-angles (as shown in Fig. 7) so as to add apparent depth to the inlaid panel represented by that sheet.

Claims (12)

1. A hearth comprising a metal or timber support frame, a board of heat-insulating material supported upon said frame and a rigid sheet of fire-resistant material overlying the heat-insulating board, the rigid sheet being provided on its surface renote from the heat-insulating board with a pattern applied by transfer printing.

2. A hearth as claimed in claim 1, wherein the pattern is a photographically produced image which reproduces the appearance of marble or another form of stone.

3. A hearth as claimed in claim 1, wherein the pattern is a hand-drawn image.

4. A hearth as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the rigid sheet of fire-resistant material is of metal.

5. A hearth as claimed in claim 4, wherein the fire-resistant material is mild steel.

6. A hearth as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the rigid sheet of fire-resistant material is of hardboard.

7. A hearth as claimed in claim 6, wherein the surface of the hardboard has been modified by puncturing it with a pattern of fine holes.

8. A hearth as claimed in any of the preceding claims, where m the rigid sheet of fire-resistant material is provided with a uniform coating before printing the transfer thereon.

9. A hearth as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the heat-insulating board is of a cement-bonded material.

10. A hearth as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the support frame is an open frame of sheet steel or of timber.

11. A hearth substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, Figs. 1 to 3 of the acoonpanying drawings.

12. A hearth substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, Figs. 4 to 7 of the acommpanying drawings.