US1738887A - Method of making inlaid linoleum and the product thereof - Google Patents

Description

E m H A L mm M METHOD OF MAKING INLAID LINOLEUIVI AND THE PRODUCT THEREOF Original Filed Feb. 15, .1924

IN V ENTOR Maw/WE; a m

, M ATTORNEY lid Patented Dec. 10, 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CHARLES G. H. GLAESER, 0F NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGN- MENTS, 'IO CONGOLEUM-NAIBN INC., 015 PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A COB- POBA'IION OF NEW YORK METHOD OF MAKING INLAID LINOLEUM AND THE ERODUCT THEREOF Application filed February 15, 1924, Serial No. 692,948.

This invention concerns methods whereby automatic machinery heretofore used to make inlaid block linoleum from single color blocks onl can be made commercially available for ma ring a novel type of block linoleum in which some or all of theblocks are of variegated, marbled, grained or other non-uniform composition.

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. 1 is a diagram view indicating an automatic machine which may be used for making block linoleum.

Fig. 2 is a plan view illustrating more or less conventionally a fragment of the sur' face of a block linoleum product, the upper half being complete and the lower half in process.

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3, 3, Fig. 2, but on a larger scale.

In these drawings the linoleum comprises a burlap or other fabric backing, 1, having firmly adhering thereto blocks or tesserae of linoleum composition, in a checkerboard pattern which results from the set of dark blocks, 2, 2, 2, etc., in the spaces between which are the set of lighter blocks, 4, 4, 4, etc. In the case of ordinary block inlaid linoleum all of the blocks, 2, 2, would be blue or black or some other single color, and all of the blocks 4, 4, would be white or other single color, contrasting with the color of the blocks 2. Such block inlaid product is commercially manufactured in a manner and according to principles which may be more readily understood from the following description of the automatic machine employed.

As diagrammatically indicated in Fig. 1, the present-day commercial 'machine comprises similar hoppers, 10 and 20, containing the plastic linoleum compositions 5 and 6, respectively; sheeting rolls 12, 1.3 and 22, 23 in operative relation to the respective hoppers; and pressure rolls 14, 24, cooperating with rolls 12, 22, respectively, and producing two different single-color sheets, 15 and 25, each the full width and length of the final product. lVhile still soft, the sheet 15 passes between a presser roll 16 and a pattern roll 17, on which the checkboard pattern is outlined by knives 18. This cuts the entire sheet into Renewed January 30, 1929.

squares lying in pockets between the knives. By ejectors, not shown, lying in the bottoms of all the pockets, alternate square blocks 2 are ejected onto a transversely traveling conveyor belt 19, by which they are carried to the scrap room. This leaves the blocks 2, 2, in the pattern roll with vacant spaces between them exactly as indicated in the lower half of Fig. 2.

The sheet is similarly operated on by presser roll 26 in operative relation to pattern roll 27, which has knives 28, 28, outlining another checkerboard pattern exactly like that of pattern roll 17 and the rolls 17, 27 are geared to rotate with their knives and pocekts in exactly registered relation. Similarly also alternate squares 4 are ejected on a transverse conveyor 29, leading to the scrap room, but the ejected squares from roll 27 are the ones that register exactly with the squares retained in the roll 17 The thus cut and spaced blocks, 2, 2, from sheet 15 are transferred to the burlap or other fabric 1, on an assembly roll 40, by automatic ejectors, not shown, which force the blocks 2, 2, into adhesive engagement with the burlap without in any manner disturbing the spaced relation established by cutting out and ejecting alternate blocks. Continued movement of the burlap and the assembly roll, by suitable gearing brings the empty spaces between these primary blocks 2, 2, into exact registry with the unejected blocks 4, 4, of the sheet 25, and the latter blocks are then forced into said spaces to complete the checkerboard pattern. Thereafter, the fabric-backed mosaic thus produced is finished by pressure perfecting the scams or joints between the blocks and by calendering to harden and finish the thus assembled block material.

The point of chief importance is that in this illustrative case, the commercial method requires cutting out and rejecting half the material of each sheet, a more generic rule covering all cases being that the total quantity of material rejected is equal in volume to one sheet less than the number of sheets being used to produce a selected color pattern. This is entirely practical where the different colors for the pattern are embodied in sets of single-color blocks, because the rejected single-color blocks from each sheet are kept separate from the others, reground and used againin the sheeting hoppers, without any complications. The same thing is true for patterns other than squares and where more than two sets of single-color blocks are used for more than two colors in the pattern; also 'where the cut out and rejected material from one sheet is much greater than that from the other. However, the various products of this single-color block method are all characterized by hard line patterns while the present invention makes it commercially practicable to produce'a shaded effect to soften the lines dividing the colors or to add to the decorative effect. 4

Because of the commercial necessity for reusing in the same process the large percentage of scrap that is being continually rejected from the sheets; together with the commercial necessity for turning out a standardized uniform product, it has heretofore been found impossible to use sets of variegated blocks in place of one or both of the above described single-color sets.

The reason for this is that a variegated reject block, when ground up for reuse, becomes a relatively uniform mixture, either too dark or too light, as the case may be, to serve as additional web sheet to be again variegated by addition of lighter or darker color linoleum composition. This difiiculty is completely overcome by the present method, which depends upon observing certain limitations and precautions which I have discovered are essential but which are not inconsistent with commercial production of a considerable variety of very artistic patterns. The broader aspects or phases of this method may be more readily understood by first explaining one very specific illustrative example, which combines most of the points of novelty, wherein one set of blocks comprises a variegated pattern produced by rolling a ground web and, while the latter is plastic, forming a pattern thereon by rolling and smearing along portions of the upper surface of the web sheet, a relatively small amount of plastic linoleum material in granular form, the ground web material and the granular pattern material bein contrasting shades of the same colors. By fins method, the plastic surface inlay may be a small the material in the ground we percentage of but the result is in fact aninlaid pat-tern and the pat-' tern is of particularly pleasing novelty in addition to the contrasting effects afforded by the darker or lighter shade inlay material. If this specifically novel and pleasing product be selected, there will always be a wide margin of safety as concerns regenerating the ground-up rejects to the standard shade and coloring of the ground web. It is to be borne in mind, however, that Iam the first to conceive the possibility of using such variegated blocks in an automatic inlay machine and the first to observe that the ground-up rejects give a peculiar brilliancy to the product by reason of the fact that the commercial grinding does not homogenize, but merely commmutes and mixes the differently colored particles so that they 've to the casual eye a relatively uniform i A more general idea of the principle of the invention and of the essential characteristics thereof, whereby inlaid block linoleum of variegated patterns ma be successfully commercially manufacture by means of the automatic inlaying machine, is to be had from a reading of the following description and from a study of the accompanying drawing.

Firstly, the predominant essential is that the base or ground color of the linoleum, as determined by the color of the material in the hoppers 10, 20, from which the base sheets 15 and 25 are produced, must be in each case a shade selected within the limits imposed by several factors. For instance, the ground color for one set of variegated blocks, as 2, must be a shade such as is producible from a mixture of the colored ground sheet material 5 after it has been ground up with its much darker inlay material 7. Similarly, the ground color for another set of blocks, as 4, must be such shade as is producible by a mixture of the color of ground sheet 6, with the color of inlaid material 8. Thus, if inlay 7 is dark blue, the ground color of sheet 5 must be a shade of blue. Secondly, the amounts and shades of the darker linoleum material 7 in the one case or 8 in the other case, must be proportioned to the amounts and shade of the basic sheet linoleum materials 5 and 6, respectively so that the change of shade or eneral appearance produced by the regrinding of the waste material and its introduction again into the basic sheet may be corrected and restored b the addition of linoleum material of the ot 161 pure color.

Marbleized or variegated linoleum patterns may be formed in one of several we. 5. More particularly, they may be formed by consolidating lumps of linoleum of different colors which are intermingled in the hopper and simultaneously fed to the sheeting rolls. Another way of producing other greatly superior and more controllable effects may be called the plastic inlay method indicated in the drawings. By this method the sheet while in the plastic state, has rolled into it lines or lumpsof plastic linoleum comp0sition of another shade, as 7 or 8. Such material is supplied intermittently or in small lumps either by hand or by conveyors 50, 60, Fig. 1, and is forced in the sheets by rolls 14 and 24 so as to form an inlay pattern that is much softer in artistic effect than can be obtained by the block inlay method. Moreover,

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such plastic inlay can he further and more artistically softened by rotating the roller 14 or 524i at a difi'erent speed from the cooperating roller 12 or 22, so that the inlaid material is dragged along the sheet, producing a striated or grained eflect. In whatever manner the variegated sheets and blocks are formed, however, my invention is equally applicable in all cases to make possible the continuous production by means of the automatic inlaying machine, of hlock inlaid linoleum embodying such variegated patterns.

By considering the above and other special cases, it will be seen that the principle of the invention consists in predetermining the predominant or hase color of the sheet and the color of the variegating inlay and the amount ot the variegating inlay material with reference to the percentage of scrap rejected in the suhsequent block-inlay process, for the purpose and with the result that the ground up scrap may be restored to the original predominant or hase shade by the addition of linoleum material oil lighter or darker color, in

" amount not greater than the-amount which has gone into the making of the preceding linoleum product.

lt will he evident that my method of regenerating the rejects ot inlaid linoleum used in the hloclr linoleum method is capable of wide variation. The combinations of light and darlr shades tor the plastic inlay sheets may he varied. widely within the limits above indicated and one or more plastic inlay sheets may he used in combination with single-color sheets. Moreover, the above rules may he applied and a very desirable product ohtained where the colors in the hase sheets and 6 are not mixed to a uniform shade. For instance, the proportions oil colors required by the present method may be supplied to a hopper to or 20, in small lumps ot linoleum composition of different colors so that the resulting hase sheet 5 or tl will he a more or less striated shade ot the same color as is the case in the socalled jaspe linoleum. The tact that the materials are not mined to a sin le uniform shade until the reject material is reground, does not prevent practice of the method. In this connection, it may he noted that one ol the preferred products results trom usin a striated or jaspe sheet having undesirahly hlurred striations ot different shades ot the same color, in comhination with a plastic inlay ot pure color. lhis has the elloct of changing the jaspe hlur etlect to an artistic shading tor the pure color inlay.

However, in certain cases the plastic inlay "l or 8 may not he a pure color linoleum composition and in tact may he omitted altogether as to one or all ot the sets at hloclrs; and one or all oil the sets ot hloclrs ol linoleum composition may he dill'erent colors or shades in which the striated inlay results trom the above descrihed method oil using lumps ol linoleum material of different colors in the same hopper, as, for instance, in hopper 10 or in hopper or in both.

One skilled in the art experimenting with this principle will find certain special cases where part or all of the rejects from one set of blocks may be utilized as one of the constituents of the sheets from which the other set of blocks is cut, and in a still more special case, it is possible that the ground up rejects from the lighter set of blocks will he the exact shade of one of the constituents of the darker set of blocks, without the addition of any corrective color material. It will thus be seen that in the case of two sets of variegated block involving four or six linoleum compositions each a different shade of the same color, it is only necessary that the rejects can all be made usable for one or more of the primary constituents by the addition of no more of the colored linoleum material than is being used up in making the finished product.

From the above it will he understood that according to the principles of this invention, black and white as well as dark and light linoleum material may he considered and used as colors within the meaning ot the specification and claims; or they may be con sidered and used as means for lightening or darkening the shade or other linoleum materials of any color.

ll claim:

l. The method of continuous production of variegated machine inlay linoleum having a plurality of diderent sets 0t blocks, each set comprising similarly colored hlochs, which method includes simultaneously and continuously forming separate primary sheets ot linoleum composition, each sheet correspond ing in coloring and width to one ol'" said sets of blocks in the completed product; complementally cutting and rejecting from each primary sheet blocks corresponding in size and location to the blocks retained trom the other sheet or sheets; interfitting the complemental blocks ot all the sheets in their original location and spacing to form a single continuous sheet of inlaid linoleum; grinding the rejects from each sheet and using each set of ground rejects in an endless repeating cycle as a base tor torming further continuous lengths of the same primary sheet from which they were rejected; at least one oi said primary sheets heing variegated by rolling the same from non-unitormly dist rihuted linoleum compositions that are ditlerent shades ol the same color, composition ot one ot the shades predominating in amount and composition ol the other shade or shades heing in controlled smaller amounts, the relative amount ol the latter being such that the composition predominating in amount can he reproduced when using in the reproduction suhstantially all oi the ground rejects ti-om the primary sheet together with t'resh linohit llltl ltlli lllll llh leum composition not greater in amount than the amount of the primary sheet which has been utilized in the formation of the sheet of inlaid linoleum.

2 The method of continuous production of variegated machine inlay linoleum having a plurality of different sets of blocks, each set comprising similarly colored blocks, which method includes simultaneously and continuously forming separate primary sheets of linoleum composition, each sheet corresponding in coloring and width to one of said sets of blocks in the completed product; complementally cutting and rejecting from each primary sheet blocks corresponding in size and location to the blocks retained from the other sheet or sheets; int-erfitting the complemental blocks of all the sheets in their original location and spacing to form a single continuous sheet of inlaid linoleum; separately grinding rejects from each primar sheet and using substantially all of the ground rejects in endless repeating cycles in forming further continuous length of the respective primary sheets; at'least one of said primary sheets being variegated and formed by rolling the same from non-uniformly distributed linoleum composition-comprising a predominating amount of composition of one color and smaller controlled amounts of composition of one or more variegating colors, the relative amounts of the respective compositions being such that the composition predominating in amount can be reproduced in the required amount and color .When using in the reproduction substantially all of the ground rejects from the primary sheet.

3. Variegated-block machine inlaid linoleum comprising a plurality of differently colored sets of blocks, including at least one set of blocks having a variegated pattern, said blocks of variegated pattern consisting of linoleum composition comprising an intimate mixture of differently colored compositions affording a standardized color eifect for said set, and relatively smaller amounts of non uniformly distributed variegating composition of colors contrasting with said standardized color, the first-mentioned composition being characterized as consisting chiefly of the reground particles from blocks that were similarly Variegated by linoleum compositions in the same amounts and colors.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 14th day of February, A. D. 1924.

CHARLES G. H. GLAESER.

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