JPH04249111A - Edge finishing elastic tile, method and device thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To manufacture an elastic tile having excellent squareness and dimensional uniformity. CONSTITUTION: One edge adjacent to a trailing edge of each unfinished tile 1 is brought into contact with a stopping means 13, and simultaneously its trailing edge is brought into contact with independent two adjustable knobs 15 on a continuous belt 3. The tile 1 is suppressed by a suppressing roller 5 while positioning it. Two edges 7, 9 adjacent to the trailing edge are desirably edge finished by a cylindrical shaper router 11. Then, the tile 1 is disposed on a second continuous belt, with the one of the finished edges 7, 9 as a trailing edge, residual two edges are simultaneously edge finished.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to resilient tiles with edge finishes, and to methods and apparatus for making the same. In particular, the present invention provides excellent squareness within and between lots.
and for edge-finished elastic tiles with dimensional uniformity. Due to its excellent squareness and dimensional uniformity, the surface covering is easy to install and its tile edges are virtually invisible.

0002

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Resilient tiles, particularly vinyl composite tiles and vinyl tiles, are typically manufactured by stamping individual tiles from a continuous sheet. A punch press for punching tiles punches from a continuous sheet by tearing the tile composition under the blade. Therefore, instead of a smooth cut edge, the tile edge is jagged. Furthermore, the squareness of the tile depends on the squareness of the punch as well as the straightness of the die cut edges. Edge irregularities are exacerbated when the tiles are coated, especially when coated with a Karsten coater after punching.

These non-uniformities and non-square shapes result in unsightly seams when the individual tiles are assembled as a surface covering. These seams are typically 0.025c
m (0.010 in) wide and easily identified from a distance of 3 feet (0.9 m) or more.

0004

To overcome these drawbacks, some tiles have been edged by sanding the edges of the tile stack. However, such methods could not address the problem of accurately positioning the tiles of a stack or aligning each stack accurately. Therefore, although this method has improved tile squareness and irregularity, seams in prior art tile floors are still easily identified.

[0005] Therefore, the present invention provides a
．． 005in) and each other within 0.0127c
An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method for uniformly producing edge-finished elastic tiles having an edge length of less than m.

A further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus and method for producing such edge-finished tiles at a rate of at least 10,000 tiles per hour. for that,
It is further an object to provide an apparatus and method for edge finishing multiple tiles simultaneously.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The above object is to position a tile to be edge finished on a continuous belt by bringing the edge of the tile into contact with three reference points;
This can be accomplished by a method consisting of holding the tile in place with clamping means and passing the held tile through an edge finishing means such as a cylindrical shaper router having an axis of rotation perpendicular to the plane of the tile.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As previously mentioned, most tiles are currently stamped and installed without a tile edge finish. Some tiles have an edge finish by sanding the edges with a belt sander, but this method is slow and does not produce properly square and uniform tiles.

Resilient tiles are currently being punched to oversize sizes. This is due to shrinkage after coating the stamped tile with the wear layer and adhering the wear layer to the tile. The amount of shrinkage depends on variables such as the starting material, uniformity and degree of processing of the tile composition in laying the continuous sheet from which the tile is stamped, temperature and pressure. Therefore, besides the squareness and edge straightness issues mentioned above, it is difficult to obtain tiles of uniform dimensions.

As a result of non-uniform dimensions, non-uniform squareness, rough edges and non-straight edges, prior art tiled surface coverings create easily visible seams. Some manufacturers have addressed these problems by creating stacks of finished tiles and sanding or otherwise finishing the edges. However, this method is not only time consuming and expensive, but no means have been developed for accurately positioning individual tiles in stacks or stacks relative to a sander to obtain uniformly sized and square tiles.

[0011] Using the apparatus shown in FIG.
．． 005in) within the square and the required length of 0.0
Tiles with edge lengths of up to 127 cm were obtained. Place the unfinished tile 1 on the continuous belt 3,
It is pressed down with a pressing roller 5, and both edges 7 and 9 are finished with a router 11. The tiles 1 are attached to a continuous belt 3 by means of stop means 13, grips 15 and pusher means 17.
be placed exactly on top of the The pusher means 17 are generally arranged opposite the stop means 13 and are pushed by a spring 19. The spring 19 provides sufficient force to push the tile into contact with the stop means 13 and creates a sufficient drag force on the tile 1 to maintain contact between the tile and the grip 15.

When the edges 7 and 9 initially contact the stop means 13 and the pusher means 17, the tile 1
It is important to be able to move freely against As shown in FIG. 1, the contact surfaces 23 and 25 of the stop means 13 and pusher means, respectively, are convex to assist in positioning the tile 1. The radius of curvature of the contact surface 23 is 22.9c
m x 22.9cm (9″) tiles and 30.5cm x
15.2cm (for 30.5cm (12″) tiles)
The contact point of the surface 25 and the edge 9 is at the trailing edge of the surface 25. The contact point of the pusher means 17 is preferably slightly upstream from the contact point of the stop means 13. I also understood.

As shown in FIG. 1, the trailing edge 27
3 and pusher means 17, the leading edge 21 comes into contact with a first set of hold-down rollers 5. The first set of holding rollers is such that the contact point of the pusher means 17 is at the edge 9.
approximately 1.27 cm (1/2 in) after releasing the edge 7 and the point of contact of the stop means 13 approximately 1 in after releasing the edge 7.
．． Preferably, it is placed in contact with the leading edge 21 when it is 9 cm (3/4 in.). Grab 15,
In order to maintain the precise positioning obtained by the stop means 13 and the pusher means 17, the holding roller 5 must exert sufficient pressure on the tile 1 with minimal movement to clamp the tile 1 to the continuous belt 3. is important.

In order to compensate for the variability in the length of the links 29 forming the continuous belt 3 and to precisely position the tiles perpendicular to the direction of movement, the grips 15 must be adjustable. A preferred embodiment is shown in FIG. The grip 15 is the screw 31
It is fixed to the link 29 by. Grab 15 is shim 3
3 to the link 29 by inserting or removing it.

The adjustability of the grips 15 is particularly important during the second edge finishing step. After the two edges 7, 9 adjacent to the trailing edge 27 have been edge finished as shown in FIG. 1, the tile 1 is placed on a second continuous belt, in this case one of the finished edges 7, 9. One is the trailing edge. The squareness of the finished tile is obtained by adjusting the grips 15 to keep the trailing edge perpendicular to the direction of movement.

Tile processing can be increased by edge finishing multiple tiles at the same time, as shown in FIG. To obtain the precise squareness and size obtained by the invention, individual tiles are placed on the conveyor belt 3 with each trailing edge in contact with both grips 15 and one edge adjacent to the trailing edge stopped. contact with means 13; This is achieved by bringing independent spring loaded pusher means 17 and 18 into contact with the individual tiles at opposite edges of the stop means 13. If a single pusher means contacts multiple tiles,
It is not guaranteed that each tile will come into contact with the stop means 13. In fact, the widest tile contacts the stop means, while the remaining tiles only contact the two grips and the pusher means.

[0017]

[Effect of the invention] By using the above device, 2
Over 0,000 elastic tiles were manufactured, each tile within 0.0127 cm square and 0.0127 cm of each other.
It had an edge length within cm. When the method is applied to a commercial production line, it is expected that runs of 250,000 or more tiles of defined squareness and size will be easily obtained. Especially 9″ x 9″ (22.8 cm x 22.8 cm) with such constant squareness and uniformity.
8cm) or 12″ x 12″ (30.5cm x 30.
5 cm) commercial tiles are not known.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 is a plan view of a device for edge finishing of resilient tiles according to the invention; FIG.

2 is a schematic side view of the links of the continuous belt of the device of FIG. 1; FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic front view of the device of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Tile 3 Continuous belt 5 Holding roller 7,9 Edge 11 Router 13 Stopping means 15 Grasp 17, 18 Pusher means 19 Spring 27 Trailing edge 29 Link 31 Screw 33 Sim

Claims (22)

[Claims] 1. The edge finishing step comprises the steps of aligning the unfinished tiles by contacting the edge of each tile with only three reference points, and edge finishing the aligned tiles. How to finish the edges of featured tiles. 2. The tile of claim 1, wherein the tile has a trailing edge, two of the three reference points contact the trailing edge, and a third reference point contacts an edge adjacent the trailing edge. Method. 3. The tile has a trailing edge, two of the three reference points contact the trailing edge, and a third reference point contacts an edge adjacent the trailing edge to align the tile. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the two reference points contacting the trailing edge are grips fixed to a continuous belt. 4. The grips include a plurality of pairs of contact surfaces in contact with trailing edges and adjustable limits for positioning at least one contact surface of each pair of grips in a machine direction relative to the continuous belt. 4. The method of claim 3, comprising means. 5. The method of claim 2, wherein contact with the reference point is obtained by a single spring loaded pusher contacting the tile edge opposite the third reference point. 6. The method of claim 3, wherein the tile rests on the continuous belt without restraint, with three reference points and a single spring-loaded pusher in contact with the tile edge on the reaction side of the third reference point. . 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the leading edge of the tile contacts the holddown roller, while the third reference point and pusher contact the tile only near the trailing edge. 8. Edge finishing the edges of the tiles adjacent to the trailing edge, then aligning the tiles in the direction of the second continuous belt, with one of the finished edges being the trailing edge, 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the two reference points are contacted. 9. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of tiles are edged simultaneously, the edge of each tile contacting three reference points. 10. Aligning the unfinished tiles by placing a first unfinished tile over a second unfinished tile and touching the edge of each tile to three reference points during an edge finishing step; A method for simultaneously edge finishing a plurality of tiles comprising the step of edge finishing aligned tiles, the trailing edges of each of the first and second tiles contacting two of the three reference points; Edges of the first and second tiles adjacent to the edge contact a third reference point, and the contact with said reference point is such that the edges of the first and second tiles adjacent to the edge contact the first and second tiles opposite the third reference point.
and a method for simultaneously edge finishing a plurality of tiles, characterized in that it is obtained by an independent spring-loaded pusher contacting the edge of a second tile. 11. A tile made by the method of claim 1. 12. The tiles form a stack of tiles, each tile of the stack having a diameter of 0.0127 cm (0.00 cm).
A plurality of resilient tiles made by the method of claim 1 having a squareness within 5"). 13. The tiles form a stack of tiles, the edge of each tile in the stack being 0.0
A plurality of resilient tiles made by the method of claim 1 within 127 cm (0.005''). 14. Each tile has an edge shaved with a cylindrical shaper cutter, and the edge of each tile is 0.
．． A plurality of resilient tiles forming a stack of tiles characterized by having a squareness within 0.005''. 15. Each edge is 0.012 of the other edge.
15. The plurality of resilient tiles of claim 14, wherein the plurality of resilient tiles are within 7 cm (0.005 in). 16. Consisting of a continuous belt, holding down means, edge finishing means, stopping means and pusher means;
the direction of movement of the continuous belt defines the machine direction; the continuous belt has a plurality of grips with contacting surfaces and limit means for positioning the contacting surfaces in the machine direction relative to the continuous belt; means and pusher means are on opposite sides of the continuous belt; said edge finishing means being in the direction of the machine from at least one side of said continuous belt and said stop means, said holding down means being in contact with said stop means and pusher means and said edge finishing means; A method of manufacturing tiles characterized by being between means. 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the stop means has a contacting surface for contacting the edge of the tile being edged, the contacting surface being convex. 18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the pusher means has a contacting surface that contacts a tile edge opposite the tile edge that contacts the stop means, and the contacting surface of the pusher means is convex. 19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the contacting surface of the pusher means is arranged to contact only one tile edge at any one time. 20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the stop means and pusher means contact opposite edges of the tile to be edged, the contact point of the stop means being in the machine direction from the contact point of the pusher means. 21. The method of claim 1, wherein the trailing edge of the unfinished tile is aligned perpendicular to the direction of travel of a continuous belt on which the tile rests. 22. The contact surface of each pair of grips is 0.0127 cm (0.005″) perpendicular to the machine direction.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein: