NL2006837C2

NL2006837C2 - Composite carpet, and carpet tile assembly for such carpet.

Info

Publication number: NL2006837C2
Application number: NL2006837A
Authority: NL
Inventors: Petrus Govardus Johannes Vogel
Original assignee: Interface Internat B V
Priority date: 2011-05-24
Filing date: 2011-05-24
Publication date: 2012-11-27
Also published as: WO2012161568A1

Description

P30792NL00/ME

Composite carpet, and carpet tile assembly for such carpet

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

5

The invention relates to the field of floor coverings, and more specifically to carpet tiles for providing a composite carpet composed of such carpet tiles.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

10 A floor covering may be made from carpet tiles, which exist in great varieties offering various shapes and sizes, various top structures, and various backings. Producing such varieties requires adapting the production machines, a setting thereof, and/ or the infrastructure to suit the customer’s needs. As order quantities decrease, costs increase to 15 make the special production arrangements.

In a production facility, a variety of carpet tiles having the same structure or construction may be made. In such a situation, producing one variety of the carpet tile or another variety of the carpet tile requires relatively little modification of the equipment and/or the basic materials, e.g. only different types or colors of yarns may be needed to produce 20 another variety of the carpet tile. However, when the structure or construction needs to be changed, also the production equipment must be converted which leads to high additional costs, in particular when the corresponding order quantity is relatively low.

This situation arises prominently when a variety of a carpet tile of a particular structure or construction is required to have a modified backing instead of a standard backing. The 25 modified backing may e.g. be a cushion backing having a relatively large thickness when compared to the standard backing.

Accordingly, the required modified backing may comprise one or more materials different from the materials of the standard backing. The modified backing further may have a structure or construction which is different from the structure or construction of the standard 30 backing. Also, the modified backing may have dimensions, in particular a thickness, which are different from the dimensions of the standard backing. All of these aspects involve important modifications of a carpet tile production line to produce modified carpet tiles having the modified backing. This is disadvantageous since it not only causes a sharp cost increase for the customer of the modified carpet tiles, but also reduces the availability and effective 35 production time of the production equipment considerably, in particular when orders of -2- modified carpet tiles and orders of standard carpet tiles are manufactured alternately. As a further disadvantage, every production equipment conversion entails material losses when the production equipment is not in a steady state operational state, so that frequent production equipment conversions lead to considerable material losses.

5

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It would be desirable to provide a carpet to be assembled from carpet tiles, and constructed such that it can be produced at a reasonable price, and without claiming 10 excessive production equipment conversion.

To better address one or more of the above concerns, in a first aspect of the invention a composite carpet is provided, comprising a plurality of upper carpet tiles and plurality of lower carpet tiles, the plurality of upper carpet tiles forming an upper carpet layer, and the plurality of lower carpet tiles forming a lower carpet layer.

15 The upper carpet tiles forming an upper carpet layer may be standard carpet tiles, i.e.

carpet tiles having a standard structure or construction, without modification, and having a standard backing. The lower carpet tiles forming a lower carpet layer may comprise the intended backing modification, e.g. a cushion layer, thus providing the modified backing for the overlying standard carpet tiles. In a corresponding carpet tile production scheme, on the 20 one hand a variety of upper carpet tiles providing a variety of top structures with minimum production equipment conversions may be produced, and on the other hand lower carpet tiles may be produced. Any variety of upper carpet tiles can either be used as such to cover a floor, or be used in combination with lower carpet tiles thus in fact modifying the backing of the upper carpet tiles. In other words, according to the present invention, carpet tiles with a 25 modified backing are not manufactured as end products, but are assembled from standard upper carpet tiles and lower carpet tiles providing the required backing modification. The lower carpet tiles may be manufactured in larger quantities to be used whenever required for combination with a specific variety of upper carpet tiles.

In an embodiment, the upper carpet tiles are unconnected to the lower carpet tiles.

30 The upper carpet tiles may be connected to each other. The lower carpet tiles may be unconnected to each other, or may be connected to each other. The resulting carpet lies steadily for the intended use. For repair, maintenance or removal of the carpet, the upper carpet tiles can be removed from the lower carpet tiles without the ones damaging the others, since they are unconnected to each other. Here, the term unconnected is taken to indicate 35 that upper carpet tiles may contact lower carpet tiles, but do not adhere to each other, or are not attached to each other, i.e. are loose or free from each other. In an existing composite carpet, upper carpet tiles may be replaced with other ones while the lower carpet tiles remain -3- and may be covered with a new upper carpet layer. If necessary or desired simultaneously lower carpet tiles may be replaced, or even placed if they were not part of the carpet before, without a need to clear the corresponding room from furniture or other objects altogether since the modular concept of carpet tiles (by contrast to broadloom carpet) allows for placing 5 or replacing the carpet locally in the room.

In a further embodiment, the composite carpet comprises carpet tile connectors, each including a film and an adhesive layer coated on one side of the film, each carpet tile connector having its adhesive layer side facing a bottom surface of a carpet tile for interconnecting at least two adjacent carpet tiles, which may be upper carpet tiles, and 10 possibly also lower carpet tiles. The carpet tile connectors may have a considerably smaller surface area than the upper or lower carpet tiles, and provide an interconnection between carpet tiles at their lower surfaces, at the sides or corners of two adjacent carpet tiles. The nature of the adhesive may be selected such that the necessary long-time adhesion is obtained while a separation of the carpet tile and the carpet tile connector does not require 15 much effort (e.g. may be done by hand).

In a second aspect of the invention, a carpet tile assembly is provided, comprising an upper carpet tile and a lower carpet tile, in particular for use in the composite carpet as explained above.

In a third aspect of the invention a lower carpet tile is provided for use in the 20 composite carpet or for use in the carpet tile assembly.

These and other aspects of the invention will be more readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description and considered in connection with the accompanying drawings in which like reference symbols designate like parts.

25

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

Figure 1 depicts a perspective schematic view of an assembly of an upper carpet tile and a lower carpet tile.

30 Figure 2a illustrates in a perspective schematic view an interconnection of upper carpet tiles to form an upper carpet layer.

Figure 2b illustrates in a perspective schematic view an interconnection of lower carpet tiles to form a lower carpet layer.

35 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

-4-

Figure 1 depicts an upper carpet tile 10 and a lower carpet tile 20 having a length L1, L2, a width W1, W2 and a thickness T1, T2, respectively. In Figure 1, for explanation of the layered structure, the thickness T1, T2 of each one of the upper carpet tile 10 and the lower carpet tile 20 is shown disproportionally large compared to the length L1, L2 and the width 5 W1,W2 thereof.

Each of the length L1, width W1 and thickness T1 of the upper carpet tile 10 may be the same as, or different from the length L2, width W2 and thickness T2 of the lower carpet tile 20. In general, the length L1 may be an integer multiple n (n = 1,2, 3,...) of the length L2 (L1 = n-L2), or the length L2 may be an integer multiple n of the length L1 (L2 = n-L1).

10 Similarly, where the width W1 is not the same as the width W2, the width W1 may be an integer multiple n (n = 1, 2, 3,...) of the width W2 (W1 = n-W2), or the width W2 may be an integer multiple n of the width W1 (W2 = n-W1). With such length and/ or width relationships between the upper carpet tiles and the lower carpet tiles, the upper carpet tiles may be laid shifted relative to the lower carpet tiles, while it is prevented that a seam between adjacent 15 upper carpet tiles overlaps a seam between adjacent lower carpet tiles, since would adversely affect the stability of the composite carpet at such a location. Here, the term shifted is to be understood in a horizontal direction, and implies that a corner point of an upper carpet tile does not lie on a corner point of a lower carpet tile.

The upper carpet tile 10 and the lower carpet tile 20 are shown as rectangular or 20 square carpet tiles, but they may take other forms as well.

The upper carpet tile 10 comprises a top structure layer 11 and a backing structure layer 12, both of which in turn may comprise further distinctive layers. The top structure layer 11 may e.g. be a tufted or woven structure comprising yarns fit for the intended use of the upper carpet tile 10. The top structure layer 11 may be provided with a pre-coating for 25 anchoring the yarns to a support or backing material included in the top structure layer 11, and for an improved adherence of the top structure layer 11 to the backing structure layer 12. The backing structure layer 12 may comprise e.g. a latex or bitumen compound layer and a reinforcement (e.g. scrim) and/ or cover layer, such as a layer comprising glass fibers, possibly a non-woven. The upper carpet tile 10 may be a standard type of carpet tile which 30 e.g. is most frequently used in a number of varieties for covering floors.

The lower carpet tile 20 comprises e.g. reinforcement or cover layers 21,25, such as a layer comprising glass fibers, possibly a non-woven, bitumen compound layers 22, 24, and a foam material layer 23 sandwiched between the bitumen compound layers 22, 24. The lower carpet tile 20 functions to provide a modified backing for the upper carpet tile 10, and is 35 manufactured separately from the upper carpet tile 10 to be used with different varieties of upper carpet tiles 10.

-5-

The lower carpet tile 20 may comprise more or less layers, and layers from different materials than the layers 21-25. In one alternative embodiment, the layers 21 and 22 are absent, or may be replaced by a protective and/ or reinforcing cover layer of a polymer material, such as a material comprising a polyvinylchloride, PVC, or polyolefin material. In a 5 further alternative embodiment, the layers 24 and 25 may be absent, or may be replaced by a protective and/ or reinforcing layer of a polymer material, such as a material comprising a polyvinylchloride, PVC, or polyolefin material.

Figure 2a illustrates a part of an upper carpet layer 35 comprising upper carpet tiles 30. The upper carpet tiles 30 may be interconnected at their lower surface, such as at the 10 corners thereof, by carpet tile connectors 32. For illustration, only one carpet tile connector 32 is shown. The carpet tile connector 32 comprises a film having an adhesive side which is to face the lower surface of the upper carpet tiles 30.

Figure 2b illustrates a part of a lower carpet layer 45 comprising lower carpet tiles 40. The lower carpet tiles 40 may be interconnected at their lower surface, at the corners thereof, 15 by carpet tile connectors 32. The lower carpet tiles may be adhered to a floor. It is noted that in some applications the lower carpet tiles 40 may be unconnected to each other and/or to the floor.

The carpet tile connectors 32 may be adhesive at one side (facing upwards) only, whereby no connection between the upper carpet tiles 30 and the lower carpet tiles 40 exists, 20 when the upper carpet layer 35 comprises the carpet tile connectors 32 and rests on the lower carpet layer 45.

The upper carpet layer 35 or a part thereof can be removed from the lower carpet layer 45 without damaging the lower carpet layer 45. Upper carpet tiles 30 may be separated from each other by disconnecting the carpet tile connectors 32. After removing the upper 25 carpet tiles 30 of the upper carpet layer 35, the lower carpet layer 45 may be left on the floor to be covered later with the same or different upper carpet tiles 30. Thus, the lower carpet tiles 40 may be semi-permanently installed on the floor.

As explained above, a composite carpet comprises a plurality of upper carpet tiles and plurality of lower carpet tiles. The plurality of upper carpet tiles form an upper carpet layer, 30 and the plurality of lower carpet tiles form a lower carpet layer. The upper carpet tiles are connected to each other by carpet tile connectors comprising a film and an adhesive layer. The lower carpet tiles are also connected to each other by such carpet tile connectors. The upper carpet tiles are unconnected to the lower carpet tiles.

As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein; 35 however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which can be embodied in various forms. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis -6- for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention in virtually any appropriately detailed structure. Further, the terms and phrases used herein are not intended to be limiting, but rather, to provide an understandable description of the invention.

5 The terms "a" or "an", as used herein, are defined as one or more than one. The term plurality, as used herein, is defined as two or more than two. The term another, as used herein, is defined as at least a second or more. The terms including and/or having, as used herein, are defined as comprising (i.e., open language, not excluding other elements or steps). Any reference signs in the claims should not be construed as limiting the scope of the 10 claims or the invention.

The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.

Claims

A composite carpet comprising a plurality of upper carpet tiles and a plurality of lower carpet tiles, the plurality of upper carpet tiles forming an upper carpet layer, and the plurality of lower carpet tiles forming a lower carpet layer.

Composite carpet as claimed in claim 1, wherein the upper carpet tiles are not connected to the lower carpet tiles. 10

Composite carpet as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the upper carpet tiles are connected to each other.

4. Composite carpet as claimed in claim 3, further comprising: carpet tile connectors, each comprising a film and an adhesive layer covering one side of the film, the adhesive layer side of each carpet tile connector facing a lower surface of a carpet tile for interconnecting at least two adjacent carpet tiles.

A composite carpet according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the upper carpet tile comprises an upper surface structure and a backing.

Composite carpet as claimed in any of the foregoing claims, wherein the lower carpet tile comprises a cushion layer. 25

Composite carpet as claimed in claim 6, wherein the cushion layer comprises a foam material.

8. Composite carpet as claimed in any of the foregoing claims, wherein the lower carpet tile comprises a bitumen layer.

Composite carpet according to claims 6 and 8, wherein the bitumen layer borders on the cushion layer.

The composite carpet of claim 9, wherein the cushion layer is placed between an upper bitumen layer and a lower bitumen layer.

Composite carpet as claimed in any of the foregoing claims, wherein the lower carpet tile comprises a cover layer at the top surface and / or the bottom surface thereof.

The composite carpet of claim 11, wherein the cover layer comprises a polymeric material, such as a polyvinyl chloride, PVC, material or a polyolefin material.

13. Composite carpet according to claim 11, wherein the cover layer comprises a glass fiber material.

Composite carpet according to claims 6 and 11, wherein the cover layer borders on the cushion layer.

Composite carpet according to claims 8 and 11, wherein the cover layer borders on the bitumen layer.

16. Composite carpet as claimed in any of the foregoing claims, wherein the upper carpet tile has length and width dimensions and the lower carpet tile has length and width dimensions, and wherein one of the length dimension of the upper carpet tile and the length dimension of the lower carpet tile is a whole multiple n (n = 1.2, 3, ...) of the other, and one of the width dimension of the upper carpet tile and the width dimension of the lower carpet tile is an integer multiple n (n = 1.2, 3 .. .) of the other. 25

A carpet tile assembly comprising an upper carpet tile and a lower carpet tile, in particular for use in the assembled carpet according to any of the preceding claims,

A lower carpet tile for use in the assembled carpet of any one of claims 1-16 or for use in the carpet tile assembly of claim 17.