SE438878B - MARKING OR FLOORING, Separate for use on tennis courts - Google Patents

Description

15 20 25: 30 35 7903222-3 Since all art materials are to a greater or lesser extent always exposed to contraction or expansion depending on the ambient temperature, it is practically-economically impossible to produce such coatings which do not exhibit these negative properties. The object of the invention is to provide a coating of the kind initially indicated, in which each element within a plate as well as each individual plate has the ability to expand or contract under weather influences under little or relatively little ability to affect adjacent elements and plates. and to design the plates' resp. the abutment means of the elements against the ground in such a way that in particular the unavoidable expansion force affects the adjacent plate in such a way that the whole unit (playing field) is given a horizontal displacement, so that initially mentioned ridges and pits do not arise. The coating can thereby be used unhindered by the weather conditions.

The coating according to the invention is characterized by the combination that a) the edges of the elements adjoining the neighboring elements are formed by an edge rib provided with a gap or shallow gap running along and between the element edges, the gap opening facing upwards, b) the underside of the edge rib forms abutment surface for the element against the base, c) the abutment means further comprise a central perpendicular rib cross or alternatively with an opening between the facing ends of the ribs and four diagonal ribs, one on the bisector for each imaginary or actual cross angle, I _ d) both the edge ribs sub-sides such as rib crosses and diagonal ribs are flush with each other and have a downwardly to slightly rounded profile to facilitate sliding against the ground, and e) at the corners of the elements the bottoms of each intersecting columns have a cross-shaped urtag.

Through the proposed measures, there is the possibility of some self-expansion resp. self-contraction for each individual element within a slab and thus between adjacent slabs within an entire coating. Due to the design and configuration of the abutment members specified in the characteristic, the plates are imparted in the event of an unavoidable expansion in a purely horizontal displacement in each affected direction.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described in more detail in connection with an exemplary embodiment shown in the accompanying drawing.

Fig. 1 shows a side view of a plate within a pavement for playing field; Fig. 2 shows the plate according to Fig. 1 from below; Fig. 3 shows parts of two mutually assembled plates; Fig. 4 Shows a gap between two elements of a plate.

As can be seen from the drawing, each plate of the coating is made up of sixteen equally square elements 1. Each element 1 has a top surface with a flat surface consisting of a number of ribs with intermediate openings 12 in a certain pattern and with the rib and opening dimensions adapted for the current purpose of the plate, for example tennis. It is obvious that the invention is not limited with regard to possible patterns for the upper side of the elements, nor with the fact that the elements have a square shape. The elements 1 are limited on the underside (shown facing upwards in Figs. 2 and 3) by downwardly directed edge ribs 5 in a special construction, by means of which they are connected to adjacent elements 1. The corner elements resp. the edge elements of a plate differ in their design from the more central elements of the same plate. Thus, the corner element shown in Fig. 1 at the top left has, of course, only two and other edge elements which do not lie in any corner, three, while the other elements have four such edge ribs 5. These ribs 5 together with a central cross-rib projection 3 and four diagonal ribs 4 on the bisection of the cross-angles serve as a support or abutment element against the base and their abutment surface is suitably edge-bevelled and these ribs thus have a slightly rounded profile in cross section.

To replace the missing edge rib 5, the edge and corner elements of the plate instead have support pins 11 and corner pins 13 of semicircular resp. quartz circle section.

The ground contact surfaces are shown in Fig. 2 filled to make it easier to distinguish them from the element surface's network of ribs. These abutment and sliding means facilitate the movement of the element 1 in all directions on the substrate, i.e. facilitates the self-expansion or self-contraction of the elements and entails, together with the design of the elements in general, that, for example, an expansion force exerted by individual plates causes the entire coating within the expansion tolerance to be displaced horizontally.

It can be seen that the sliding surfaces against the ground are distributed in the form of ribs in eight directions (excluding the edge parts) with approximately 400 angular intervals in order to obtain the least possible friction when moving in any direction under the temperature effect on the elements 1.

The edge part 5, which connects adjacent elements 1 within one and the same plate, is as shown in Figs. 1 and 4 in sections V- or U-shaped, wherein legs 14 form the element edges themselves and the connection between the elements consists of the bridge 15 between the legs. The bridge 15 is also the actual abutment surface against the base at the element edges.

A gap 2 between adjacent elements 1 is formed in this way enabling some expansion and shrinkage of the elements. For optimal mobility of the bridge 15 and drainage of the gap 2, there is an opening 7 between adjacent bridges (edge parts 5), so that the abutment surfaces at this point have a certain relative distance from each other allowing relative movement under the influence of temperature. Fig. 4 shows the gap 2 between two elements and it can be seen that the depth of the gap 2 does not exceed the thickness of an element.

Fig. 3 shows parts of two adjacent interconnected paving slabs. The interconnection takes place by means of interconnection parts consisting of a pin 9 centrally on resp. free outer edge (s) of the element 1 of one plate cooperating with an insertion sleeve 8 centrally on the edge of the adjacent element 1 of the other plate. As can be seen from Fig. 2, a plate on two facing edges has four sleeves 8 and on these pairs of opposite, mutually facing edges four pins 9. The pin 9 has a smaller diameter than the hole 8 of the sleeve, so that there is some play for relative movement , under the temperature influence of these parts.

In summary, it is thus arranged according to the invention so that the expansions of each plate resp. plate element 1 due to heat resp. the contraction of the same parts due to cold will be optimally taken up by resp. plate and elements and that, especially due to strong heat, the force impact, to which at least some of the neighboring plates are inevitably exposed, gives the whole coating a pure horizontal displacement. For the realization of the invention, it has emerged from the above that it is a combination of features that define the new coating.

Claims (3)

79uz222 ~ s Å 6 P a t e n t k r a v Ground or floor covering, in particular for use on tennis courts, both indoors and outdoors, consisting of a number of interlocking plates of a castable and resilient art material, each plate being composed of a number of, preferably equal, interconnected elements ( 1) with a plane, with an upper surface provided with openings and from this downwardly directed abutment means intended to rest against the ground or other surface for the pavement, - characterized in combination with a) the edges of the elements (1) adjoining the neighboring elements being formed by a edge rib (5) provided with a gap (2) extending along and between the element edges, the gap opening being turned upwards, 7 b) the underside of the edge rib (5) forming an abutment surface for the element (1) against the base, ' c) the abutment means further comprise a central perpendicular rib cross (3) alternatively with an opening between the opposite ends of the ribs and four diagonal ribs (4), one on the bisector for each imaginary or actual cross angle, d) both the undersides of the edge ribs and the rib cross (3) and diagonal ribs (4) are flush with each other and have a down to slightly rounded profile to facilitate sliding against the ground, and 'e) at the corners of the elements (1) the bottoms of the intersecting columns (2) have a cross-shaped recess. '_ _ l- Coating according to Claim 1, characterized in that on the free outer edges of such elements (1), which are located at the outer edges of the plate, the edge ribs are replaced by section semicircular support pins (11) resp. at the element corners of quartz circular pins (13), which are in moisture with other abutment means. Coating according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by coupling means at the edges of the plate for connection to adjacent plates and in the form of pins (9) along two adjoining plate edges and sleeves (8). along opposite converging plate edges, for connection with corresponding sleeves resp. pins of adjacent plates, the diameter of the pins being smaller than the diameter of the holes in the sleeves.