US1725646A - Floor covering and process of making same - Google Patents

Description

Aug. 20, 1929. 1.. KIRSCHBRAUN FLOOR COVERING AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME Original Filed April 18, 1921 Surface Coaflhg.

Ph es Con aiming Asphalf.

Patented Aug. 20, 1929.

UNITED STATES 1,725,646 PATENT OFFICE.

IilliS'JKER KIRSCHBRAUN, OF EVANSTON, ILLINOIS.

FLOOR COVERING AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME.

Application filed April 18, 1921, Serial No. 462,355. Renewed February 4, 1929.

and products of said earlier application, but

is more particularly directed in the specific application hereinafter referred to, to a floor covering such as felt base linoleums, the exposed surfaces of which may be either ornamented or monotone in appearance.

In the present manufacture of felt base linoleums, the dry felt is first made on the usual single cylinder machine, and heretofore it has not been practical to make this felt on a multicylinder machine for the reason that the plies would separate, more particularly during the tank saturating operation. In addition, it is well understood in the art that felt formed under a single cylinder machine will not be as smooth or as strong as if it were formed on a multicylinder machine.

There is still another objection to the present method of making felt base linoleums, in that before the upper surface can be ornamented, it is necessary to neutralize or blank off the black asphalt with which thesheetis entirely saturated, by means of a plurality of paint coats before coloring or printing the upper surface of the sheet. In addition, these paint coats are necessary in order to produce a smooth, even surface upon which the desired design or other ornamentation may be printed. The single figure is a cross sectional.

perspective view of the product produced by this process disclosing the separate plies which are united in the felting of the sheet.

Still further, the use of a single cylinder machine very materially limits the character of the fibre which may be used. For example, the fibres must be relatively free, such as rags or rag stock. On the other hand, a multicylinder machine permits the use of a large va riety of fibres, and in addition, fibres of different character for different plies.

The flooring of the present invention can be made on the standard multicylinder paper machine, a wide variety of fibres may be used, which fibres may be of a different character in different plies. The tank saturation operation may be entirely eliminated. Instead, the sheet, and more particularly, the inner plies, are saturated or impregnated with a pitchy or bituminous material, such as asphalt. l urthermore, different plies may have different amounts of bitumen or asphalt of different character. Furthermore, in the present invention the necessity of. the usual paint coats for blanking offthe asphalt, before the base is printed, is obviated. Instead, one or both of the outermost plies are or may be calender coated as the sheet passes through the calender rolls of the paper machine. This calender coating not only serves to waterproof the outer plies which are more or less devoid of the bitumen or asphalt, but also produces a particularly effective surface for printing, es'-' pecially where the calender coating is made of linseed oil, stearine pitch, ehinawood oil, or the like. A surace of this character becomes permanently bonded with the print coats forming in effect a unitary flooring of permanent character.

It is also desirable that the color of the outer plies and the calender coating should be of a more or less neutral tone, or adapted as an effective background to the subsequent pattern or design printed thereon. This may be accomplished by treating the fibre Which forms the outer plies or the plies on which the design is printed with suitable dies or pigments in the heaters or in the calender coat itself. As for example, the linseed oil itself ma contain soluble dyes.

ne manner in which the process can be carried out may be described as follows:

First, make a non-adhesive emulsion, which may be made as follows: A heavy paste is made of clay, which is highly colloidal in character, with water. This paste is heated to a temperature approximately above the melting point of the asphalt to be used. An emulsion mixer is provided which is capable of producing by agitation an emulsification of the clay mixture with asphalt. The clay mixture is first established in the emulsifier and, after being brought to the proper temperature, the asphalt in heated, liquid condition, and above the boiling point of water, is gradually introduced. The action of the blades of the mixer produces a complete dispersion of the asphalt throughout the clay and water mixture. The mixer is so constructed that after the preliminary emulsion is made of the proper viscosity, a stream of asphalt and a stream of clay-water suspension can be fed constantl to the mixer, While the finished emulsion is heing continuously withdrawn therefrom. Various kinds of asphalts .may. be used for this purpose; also various pitches such as animal and vegetable pitches, drying oils hardened with suitable gums, coal tar, gas tar pitches and analogous bodies, either bituminous or of a pitchy nature. Oxidized asphalts and stearine pitches are particularly adapted for the purposes of pro ducing this flooring, especially in the case of stearine pitch which lends itself to the production of a colorable product.- These pitches will vary in melting point from approximately 120 degrees F. to 220 degrees F., depending upon the end to be achieved, and emulsification is so carried out and the proportions of the clay and asphalt and water so regulated, that the resulting productis non-adhesive, smooth, readily thinned with water, and contains the asphalt particles in a very fine state of dispersion, carrying the adsorbed clay as a protective coating. In making the emulsion, it is sometimes advisable to add a small percentage of aluminum sulphate to the clay in order to enable the asphalt to more readily stock with its contained asphalt distributed retain thecolloidal protective coating.

It is to be understood, of course, that the emulsion may be made in the manner above stated, or may be perhaps made in other ways, so'long as a non-adhesive emulsion is formed, in which the water and clay form the external and the bitumen or asphalt the internal phase of the emulsion.

By a non-adhesive emulsion, as more particularly applied to the present invention, I mean that the asphalt or pitch is so emulsified with clay or analogous material that it may be commercially run over a paper machine with fibre stock, contacting with wires or blankets under pressure or couch and press rolls, without gumming up the machine or materially interfering with its operation. Whereas, the same asphalt or pitch, unless treated in the manner above described, or in some similar manner, could not be run over the paper machine without gumming up and stopping the felting operation.

This emulsion is then mixed with the fibrous pulp either in the beater engine, or is introduced with the stock through the screens.

In connection with the use of the asphalt in the form described, it is extremely advantageous to use therewith a fixing agent which has the properties of causing the asphaltic prior to its passing particles with its clay protecting agent to seek contact with the fibrous stock, and for the articles thereof to attach themselves to the fibres. In this way, theasphalt is most readily carried into the sheet during the felting operation, together with its protective agent. In order to produce this fixing eflt'ect, the emulsion described above is first treated with silicate of soda, in proportion, for example, of l to,2 percent of silicate of, soda to the amount ofasphalt used by weight. After the thorough admixture of the silicate of soda and dilution with water, an excess aluminum sulphate is added, producing the fixing efl'ect previously described. This fixing effect may be produced by other agents than those mentioned.

The introduction of silicate of soda and aluminum sulphate may be accomplished readily in the heaters where the asphalt is mixed in this way, but when introduced with the stock at the screens, the treatment of the and set upon the fibres.

The emulsion previously referred to is preferably mixed only with the fibrous pulp which is to be used for making the inner plies. For example, on .a five cylinder paper machine where the same stock is used for both liner and filler, it is prefer-able to introduce the asphalt for each mould at the screen. This is accomplished by flowing the emulsion in its proper proportion and with the proper amount of water into the intake of the centrifugal pump which drawsthe water from the inside of the cylinder mould, and returns the same toa mix box and screens for mixture with the thick pulp. In this way, the asphalt may be incorporated into any one or all of the plies, and the quantities of the asphalt relative to the fibre can be regulated in any desired proportion and upon any desired mould.

For the purpose, however, of making a free stock, but the essential requirement in this particular is a stock that will form smooth and will have great strength capable at the same time of taking a color advantageously. The fibres for the outer ply may be kraft, sulphite or rope stock. In certain cases leather can be advantageously introduced into the outer plies. When it is desired to carry a color in the outer plies, this is accomplished by introducing either an aniline color or a pigment into the heaters, and setting the same in the usual manner with alum. Where leather is used, this is advantageously treated with caustic soda, and subsequently precipitated with alum. -Any sizing material can be introduced so as to make it water resistant or oil resistant in to the liner in the well known manner, thus lessening the amount of impregnating coating applied to the calender rolls or the sheet may be coated with casein at the calender-s prior to the application of the oil.

In carrying out this operation on a fivecylinder machine, three filler moulds usually carry the asphalt, whereas the outer moulds form the fibre stock. Each mould forms its web in the usual manner, the plies being united at the couch rolls, the sheet being carried along from the blankets through the process in the usual manner. The introduction of the asphalt does not interfere with the paper-forming operation in the usual way. After the sheet passes from the wet end of the machine, it is transferred to the driers, where the water is evaporated and heat is .maintained suflicient to cause the asphalt in the in-, ner plies to fuse and coalesce. The effect of the outer plies is to blank off from contact with the blankets and apparatus the asphaltcarrying inner plies, thereby making it possible to maintain the liners in substantially asphalt-free condition.

After passing the driers, the sheet may be fed through the calender rolls where there is applied the treating oils previously described. The oils which are used for this treatment must be of sutficiently liquid nature either normally or through the application of heat that when passing the calender rolls on the hot sheet, they are uniformly spread over the surface and strike into the sheet, so that the paper may be immediately rolled up without tendency for the laps to stick to gether.

In certain cases, the sheet thus treated may be used as a finished flooring. In such case, however, it will have a monotone appearance, and preferablythe Wearing surface, which in this case, is the liner, will be composed of a wear-resisting stock such as an admixture of kraft and leather. This, when subsequently treated on the calenders as described, either with linseed oil or with any suitable drying varnish, will leave a finished wearing surface which is relatively tough, durable, water-resisting, and impenetrable to the grinding in of grit.

On the other hand, where a printed. product is required, the liner stock is prepared and colored accordingly and the sheet which has been manufactured as described, is transferred in rolls to a printing machine where the desired pattern is printed thereon.

For example, where a flooring isto be prepared carrying a white tile design, the liner may be made of a mixture of half kraft and half news, colored either with ochre in the heaters or with auramine. -The machine should be so adjusted as to form this liner of about .007 of an inch in thickness. The filler in such case may be advantageously formed of a mixture of 50% news, 25% dark cottons, and 25% of cotton linters, carrying asphalt to the extent. of 100 to 150% by weight relative to the Weight of the fibres in the inner ply. This stock may be formed on three inner moulds of about .015 of an inch in thickness in each mould, giving a total thickness of .045 of an inch of saturated inner stock, and approximately .015 of asphalt free outer stock.

For a sheet of the above character, the calender coating may be oxidized chinawood oil, which is of such a degree of fluidity as to strike into the outer plies without leaving an excess upon the surface such as would prevent the immediate reeling of the prodnot into large rolls.

I claim as my invention:

1. A floor covering consisting of a base formed of a plurality of felted plies, the fibres of one ply being of a different char acter than the fibres of another ply, a continuous pitchy medium extending and saturating through the inner ply or plies, the exposed, outer ply being substantially devoid of such medium, an oily saturant for said outer ply, and a predetermined color and a designapplied on said outer ply.

2. A floor covering consisting of a base formed of a plurality of felted plies, a con-.

tinuous pitchy medium extending through the inner ply or plies, the exposed, outer ply being substantially devoid of such medium, an oily saturant for said outer ply, and a predetermined color and a design applied on said outer ply.

3. A floor covering consisting of a base formed of a plurality of felted plies, the fibres of one pl being of a difierent character than the ti b tinuous pitchy medium extending through the inner ply or plies, the exposed, outer ply being substantially devoid of such medium, a drying oil forming an impregnating coating for said outer ply, and a predetermined color applied to said outer ply.

4; A-floor covering consisting of a base.

res of another ply, a conpitchy body dispersed therethrough, over the cylinders of a multicylinder paper machine, slmultaneously forming a felted ply of a fibrous stock on an outer cylinder of said machine without the addition of said emulsified matrix, sheeting and drying the stock,

coalescing the pitchy binder in the inner plies, calendering the sheet and thereafter a lyin an impre mating coating to an outer pl the i' eof of a difi'erent character, than said pitchy medium, and thereby providing a surface on which a pattern or design may be readily printed. I v

6. A process of making a floor "covering, consisting in passing a mixture of fibrous stock and a non-adhesive emulsified matrix containing water, a colloidal agent and a pitchy body dispersed therethrough, over the cylinders of a multicylinder paper machine, simultaneously forming a felted ply of a. fibrous stock on.an outer cylinder of said machine without the addition of said emulsified matrix, sheeting and dryingthe stock, coalescing thepitchy binder in the inner plies, calenderingthe sheetand simultaneously applying an impregnating coating to. an outer ply thereof in the form of a drying oil of a different color than that of 1 said pitchy medium, and thereby providing a surface on which a pattern or design may be readily printed.

LESTER KIRSCHBRAUN, v

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