Classifications

• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E04—BUILDING
  • E04F—FINISHING WORK ON BUILDINGS, e.g. STAIRS, FLOORS
  • E04F15/00—Flooring
  • E04F15/02—Flooring or floor layers composed of a number of similar elements
• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E04—BUILDING
  • E04F—FINISHING WORK ON BUILDINGS, e.g. STAIRS, FLOORS
  • E04F2201/00—Joining sheets or plates or panels
  • E04F2201/01—Joining sheets, plates or panels with edges in abutting relationship
  • E04F2201/0107—Joining sheets, plates or panels with edges in abutting relationship by moving the sheets, plates or panels substantially in their own plane, perpendicular to the abutting edges
  • E04F2201/0115—Joining sheets, plates or panels with edges in abutting relationship by moving the sheets, plates or panels substantially in their own plane, perpendicular to the abutting edges with snap action of the edge connectors
• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E04—BUILDING
  • E04F—FINISHING WORK ON BUILDINGS, e.g. STAIRS, FLOORS
  • E04F2201/00—Joining sheets or plates or panels
  • E04F2201/01—Joining sheets, plates or panels with edges in abutting relationship
  • E04F2201/0153—Joining sheets, plates or panels with edges in abutting relationship by rotating the sheets, plates or panels around an axis which is parallel to the abutting edges, possibly combined with a sliding movement
• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E04—BUILDING
  • E04F—FINISHING WORK ON BUILDINGS, e.g. STAIRS, FLOORS
  • E04F2201/00—Joining sheets or plates or panels
  • E04F2201/05—Separate connectors or inserts, e.g. pegs, pins, keys or strips
• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E04—BUILDING
  • E04F—FINISHING WORK ON BUILDINGS, e.g. STAIRS, FLOORS
  • E04F2201/00—Joining sheets or plates or panels
  • E04F2201/07—Joining sheets or plates or panels with connections using a special adhesive material
• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E04—BUILDING
  • E04F—FINISHING WORK ON BUILDINGS, e.g. STAIRS, FLOORS
  • E04F2201/00—Joining sheets or plates or panels
  • E04F2201/08—Joining sheets or plates or panels hook and loop-type fastener or similar fixing means

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a panel joint comprising friction enhancing means intended for impeding assembled panels from sliding in a direction along the edges.
• Prefabricated floor panels provided with tongue and groove at the edges are quite common nowadays. These can be installed by the average handy man as they are very easy to install.
• Such floors can, for example, be constituted of solid wood, fibre board or particle board. These are most often provided with a surface layer such as lacquer, or some kind of laminate.
• the panels are most often installed by being glued via tongue and groove.
• the most common types of tongue and groove are however burdened with the disadvantage to form gaps of varying width between the floor panels in cases where the installer hasn't been thorough enough. Dirt will easily collect in such gaps. Moisture will furthermore enter the gaps which will cause the core to expand in cases where it is made of wood, fibre board or particle board, which usually is the case.
• Such a joint is known through WO 94/26999 which deals with a system to join two floor panels.
• the floor panels are provided with a locking device at the rear sides.
• the floor panels are provided with profiles on the lower side at a first long side and short side. These profiles, which extends outside the floor panel itself, is provided with an upwards directed lip which fits into grooves on the lower side of a corresponding floor panel. These grooves are arranged on the second short side and long side of this floor panel.
• the floor panels are furthermore provided with a traditional tongue and groove on the edges. The intentions are that the profiles shall bend downwards and then to snap back into the groove when assembled.
• the profiles are integrated with the floor panels through folding or alternatively, through gluing.
• the floor panels may be joined by turning or prizing it into position with the long side edge as a pivot point. It is then necessary to slide the floor panel longitudinally so that it snaps into the floor panel previously installed in the same row. A play is essential in order to achieve that. This play seems to be marked A in the figures. A tolerance of ⁇ 0.2 mm is mentioned in the application. Such a play will naturally cause undesired gaps between the floor panels. Dirt and moisture can penetrate into these gaps.
• WO 97/47834 does also show how the tongue and groove with heels and recesses according to the invention is tooled by means of cutting machining.
• This invention does also have the disadvantage that the best mode of joining floor panels includes longitudinal sliding for joining the short sides of the floor panels, which also here will require a play which will cause unwanted gaps between the floor panels. Dirt and moisture can penetrate into these gaps.
• the invention relates to a panel joint for positioning and holding panels together via their respective edges in order to form a surface comprising a plurality of said panels assembled together.
• the edges of said panels are provided with a core and means for mechanically locking said panels towards one another via interacting locking surfaces.
• the invention is characterised in that said edges further comprises friction enhancing means intended for impeding assembled panels from sliding in a direction along the edges. This friction enhancing means will show its greatest effect when arranged on the long sides of rectangular panels and will radically reduce the stress on the short side edge joints of these panels. It is according to different embodiments of the invention also possible to arrange the friction enhancing means on other sides of panels as well.
• the panels may also be square shaped or any other shape that may be used for panels.
• the force needed to overcome the static friction along the joint between two assembled panels is larger than 100 N per meter of joint length, preferably larger than 1000 N per meter of joint length.
• predetermined surfaces of the edge is coated with a high friction polymer.
• This high friction polymer may be a natural rubber or a synthetic rubber.
• suitable rubber materials can be mentioned; silicon rubber, latex based rubber, ethylene-propylene-diene-terpolymer rubber, ethylene-propylene-copolymer rubber, styrene-butadiene rubber and acrylic co-polymer dispersions.
• predetermined surfaces of the edge are provided with a rough surface.
• This rough surface is comprised by particles bonded to the predetermined surfaces of the edges.
• the particles suitably have a size in the range 50 ⁇ m to 2 mm. It is also suitable if the particles have a higher hardness index than the material of the core.
• a natural choice of particles for this purpose would be minerals like sand or the like and it is indeed advantageous if the particles are irregular and have sharp edges as more rounded particles could act as a ball bearing.
• spherical particles are properly forced into the core material during the assembly they might work as well. Irregular particles having sharp edges will in any case require a lower assembly pressure in order to obtain the same friction effect and is therefore preferred.
• particles made of polymeric materials as long as they have a higher hardness index than the core material.
• suitable materials can be mentioned; styrene, acrylic, high density polyethylene, polypropylene, polycarbonate, phenolic resins and melamine resins. These materials may also contain fillers like cellulose, talcum or mica.
• the sharp edges of these polymeric particles are advantageously achieved by grinding and therefore scrap material is a suitable source.
• Another advantage with polymeric materials is that they won't dull the edges of tools used for cutting the panels having the edges herein described to the same extent mineral particles like sand would.
• predetermined surfaces of the edges is provided with splines. These splines are arranged at an angle towards the extension of the edge of the panel.
• a jagged profile is arranged between predetermined surfaces of the edges.
• This profile may be made of metal, thermoplastic material or of thermosetting material.
• metal thermoplastic material
• thermosetting material Like with the particles previously discussed there may be advantages in selecting materials that don't blunt tools used during assembly of the panels. It is however possible to use smaller lengths of jagged edge profiles made of metal which are put into the joints just before the assembly. This way the friction enhancing device can be arranged only at critical locations identified by the installer.
• the panels according to the present invention comprises a core.
• the core is most often comprised of particles or fibre of wood bonded with resin or glue. It is advantageous to coat the surface closest to the joint in cases where the floor will be exposed to high levels of moisture since the cellulose based material is sensitive to moisture. This coating may suitably incorporate resin, wax or some kind of lacquer.
• the panels suitably comprises an upper decorative layer which may be constituted of a decorative paper impregnated with melamine-formaldehyde resin.
• One or more so called overlay sheets of ⁇ -celluloce, impregnated with melamine-formaldehyde resin may possibly be placed on top of the decorative layer.
• the abrasion resistance may be improved by sprinkling one or more of the sheets with hard particles of for example ⁇ -aluminium oxide, silicon carbide or silicon oxide. It is also possible to coat the upper surface with lacquer or some kind of thermoplastic foil. The lower side may suitably be coated with lacquer or a layer of paper and resin.

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

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Cited By (42)

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Citations (19)

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• 2003
  • 2003-03-18 SE SE0300741A patent/SE526691C2/sv not_active IP Right Cessation
• 2004
  • 2004-03-09 EP EP04718776.0A patent/EP1604078B1/fr not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2004-03-09 WO PCT/SE2004/000335 patent/WO2004083557A1/fr active Application Filing
  • 2004-03-16 US US10/800,915 patent/US20040182033A1/en not_active Abandoned

Patent Citations (20)

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