US2847046A - Methods of making wall and ceiling tile - Google Patents

Description

Aug.' 12, 1958A c. M. PAGE 2,847,046

- METHODS oF MAKING WALL AND gEILING TILE original` Filed Nov. 29, 195o -2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVEN TOR.

TTORWE Y Aug. l2, 1.958 c. M. PAGE METHODS OF' MAKING WALL AND CEILING TILE Original Filed Nov. 29. 1950 Afro/aver METHODS OF MAKING WALL AND CEILING TILE Chester M. Page, Cresskill, N. J.

Original application November 29, 1950, Serial No. 198,106, now Patent No. 2,694,233, dated November 16, 1954. Divided and this application August 24, 1954, Serial No. 451,779

Claims. (Cl. 144-309) for use as surfacing of a wall or ceiling. They require nishes in the form of paint, varnish, and the like, and may or may not be clean or waterproof. The tile contemplated by the present invention is provided with a covering which has a permanent surface and can be readily cleaned, whereby it is possible to obtain the advantages of cheapness of basic material, retain sound absorbing properties, and avoid the necessity of future finishing.

The tile blanks may have sides at right angles to the faces and may be beveled or not, or they may have interlocking tongues and grooves and beveled edges. While the blocks are typically rectangular so that they may be assembled in right angled patterns, they may be of other polygonal forms such as triangles, hexagons, etc.

According to the present'invention at least two and preferably all sides of the blank are provided with narrow slots (or slits) extending therealong parallel with the front face of the tile. These slots have relatively rough walls so as to frictionally grip the covering material when it is forced into them.

The covering material employed is opaque, tough plastic sheeting, such as sheet vinyl, and it extends over the entire front face of the blank and back over the portions of the sides of the blank in front of the slots and is doubled over onto itself and forced into the slots so that two plies of the sheet material ll the slots and are frictionally gripped by the side walls. in this manner the covering is so firmly secured that application to the covering over the face of the blank of forces likely to be encountered in its use will not remove the doubled edges from the slots. This is accomplished without the use of adhesives which would require time to cure, or dry, and without the use of staples or other mechanical securing devices which would not satisfactorily hold the covering in place in the softer forms of material. Although the covering is securely held for all usual and normal purposes, one can readily remove it along an edge when it is desired to cut down the size of a tile so as to fit into a smaller space.

This application is a division of my application Serial Number 198,106, filed November 29, 1950, now Patent Number 2,694,233, dated November 16, 1954.

Other and further objects of the invention will appear as the description proceeds.

The accompanying drawings show, for purposes of illustrating the present invention, two forms in which the invention may be embodied, together with the method of making the tile blanks and the completed tile units, it being understood that the drawings are illustrative of the invention rather than limiting the same.

In these drawings:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the positioning of the saws used in cutting the tile blanks from the board-like material;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of an arrangement of saws;

Figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6 are views illustrating the successive steps in severing a large sheet into two blanks;

Fig. 7 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the cutting of the slots into the blanks such as formed in Figures l-6;

Fig. 8 is a view to illustrate the shape of the covering sheet and its size relative to the tile blank to be covered;

Fig. 9 is a vertical sectional view illustrating the disposition of the covering sheet and the tile blank in the open assembling machine preliminary to the securement of the sheet to the blank;

Figure 10 is a fragmentary sectional view similar to Figure 9 showing the machine closed;

Fig. ll is a fragmentary top plan view of the same, also showing in dot and dash lines the inner position of the tools used for forcing the margins of the covering sheet into place;

Fig. 12 is a view similar to Figure l0 showing the posi tion of the tools corresponding to the dot and dash lines of Figure 11;

Figure 13 is a cross sectional view at an enlarged scale showing two abutting tile units such as made by the process showing in Figures l to 12 inclusive;

Fig. 14 is a perspective view illustrating a corner of the tile blank and a fragment of the covering having part of the margin in place in the slot;

Fig. 15 is a fragmentary View illustrating the relation of slot width to thickness of the doubled covering sheet;

Fig. 16 is a perspective view of a corner showing the covering in place;

Fig. 17 is a perspective view of a finished tile;

Fig. 18 is an elevational View showing four tiles joined;

Fig. 19 illustrates an outside member; and

Fig. 20 illustrates a modified form of tile.

Inasmueh as the materials used for making the tile blanks are usually manufactured in large sheets and readily available as such, the first operations relate to conversion of these large sheets into smaller pieces which typically are squares and rectangles as these shapes fit the usual wall and ceiling contours.

In the preferred method of making the tile blanks the large sheets are first cut into narrow strips of the length of the sheet and these are again cut into shorter lengths, usually squares.

The machine of Figs. l and 2 has a saw table 20 of suitable size to support the sheet S and a guide 21, shown at the right. The sheet moves to the left, Fig. 2. vBelow the table are two power driven saws 22 and 23, prefer-ably disposed at 45 to the plane of the table, one in front of the other and adjusted higher than the other, and above the table is a third saw 24 adjusted to cut down to a depth approximately that reached by the higher oblique saw. The saw 24 is preferably behind the other two.

The saw 22 makes an oblique saw cut 26 indicated in Figure 3. It extends part way through the sheet S, for example to a depth of from the lower face. The saw 23 makes an oblique cut just deep enough to intersect the cut 26 at about the middle of this cut and the severed material is removed, so that the sheet now has, as shown in Figure 4, a square groove 27 and the upper part 2 of saw cut 26. The saw 24 cuts from above a saw cut 28 of a depth to be about opposite the top of saw cut 26. These cuts are preferably made in this order. The sheet Patented Aug. 12, 1958 3 S now has a narrow connecting Yportion. 29 between slots 26 and 28.

The fibrous boards can readily be broken between these saw cuts so that the 'right hand edge of the left hand strip s has thetc'onfiguration shown in Figure 6 at 30 and the left hand edge of the right hand strip s has the configuration shown at 31. These are `shown at a larger scale in Figure 13. The former configuration includes a relatively wide deep beveled surface 30a, a rearwardly facing surface 30b forming with 30a an acute angled nose 30C, and a rearwardly extending surface 30d forming with 3017 an inside corner. The latter configuration (31) includes a narrow bevel 31a, a reverse bevel 31b, forming a right angled corner, a forwardly facing surface 31e and with a rearwardly 'extending surface 31d forming a tiange 31e. K

The strip s' is shifted over to the guide and againlpassed through the saw and the sawing repeated until the large board is reduced to narrow strips having yconfigurations 30 and 31 so that in cross section they appear as in Figures 7, 9, 10 and VV13 where the blanks, or finished tile units, are shown. The strip s is similar edged, the guide 21 being shifted to the proper position.

The strips (edged along both side edges) are now turned through 90 and passed through the machine in the same manner so as to produce square or rectangular tile-blanks b as shown in Figure 11. The anges 31e, 30e are adjacent and nose-like edges 30C, 30e` 'are adjacent. In this way the square area of the rear surface of the blank is offset` from the square area of the front surface.

In'icarrying out the operations above set forth -fron'a sheet,'say 4 x 8,one cancut thirty two blanks one-foot square in extreme dimension, but those blanks will not, when laid edge to edge cover 32sq. ft. Theeffectivear'ea of each lblank is 1113/16 by 1119/16.

The method above described in detail is well suited for use upon the ordinary soft wall boards, but not for use with plywood or lumber as it may not break apart satisfactorily. If the configuration shown is desired for such materials it can be had by using tools of appropriate contour on blanks cut approximately to size. Any of the blanks may be used without covering if desired, as for example to provide accents.

To facilitate securement of sheet covering to the blank the blank is then, as' shown in Figure 7, passed between two thin saws 35, 35 which enter the edges of the blank just back of the depth of the bevels (at the region `f the break) so as to cut away irregularities and cut narrow slots 36, 36 parallel with the front face of the blank, and about a quarter inch in depth in the material of the blank. These slots extend the entire length of the side of the blank and preferably along all four sides. The saw cuts have rough walls as' indicated by the rough lines at 36a, 36b, Figure l5.

Figure 8 shows a covering sheet 37 for use with a rectangular tile. The sheet is square, with cut away eorners 38 and is of such size relative to the tile blank B (shown in dotted lines in this figure) as to extend beyond it at all four edges, but not at the corners, and leave sufficient material to pass surfaces 30h, 31h and have just enough material to form a doubled edge in the saw cuts 36. A very desirable form of covering material is twelve gage vinyl sheeting without cloth backing or the like, to allow for some stretching. It is thick enough to have adequate strength, and flexible so as to be readily handled. It may bev made up in a wide variety of colors so as to provide aI finished surface which `is permanent, easily cleaned, and not likely tol be injured.

Figure 9 illustr-ates the principal parts of a machine for assembling the tile units. For clearness much of the operating mechanism is omitted. The process can be carried out by hand. The machine has a recessed bed 40 which carries an upwardly biased plate 41`. A sheet 37 of thecovering material is positioned face'down on 4 this plate 41, suitable guides (not shown) insuring the proper location. The blank B is then placed face down on the sheet and similarly aligned. The presser element 42 of the machine is then lowered as in Figure 10 and suitably held in position. This lowers the blank and covering into the recessed bed 40 which bends it upwardly as shown at the left of Figure 10 so that its' edges are now above the level of the slots 36.

In the machine shown there are two rows of thin dulledged rollers 43 mounted on a common carrier and normally spaced wider than the bed 40 of the machine and at an elevation to be opposite the saw cuts 36 in the blank, when the machine is closed as in Figures 10 and l2. In this closed position the edges of the covering sheet extend up 'past the rollers. These rollers are mounted for longitudinal reciprocation as indicated by arrows 43a and for lateral reciprocation as indicated by the arrows 43h. l

The rollers are reciprocated back and forth 'and pressed toward the covering sheet to bring them to the dot and dash line position of Figure 11 or the full line position 0f Figure 12. This operation has formed the extreme edge into a fold and forced the fold into the slots 36-36, opposite one another, as shown more clearly in Figures 13 and 16. The saw cuts 36 have rough sides, and as shown in Figure 15 are narrower than the thickness of a doubled fold of covering material. The material'of the blank yields sufiiciently to allow the covering sheet and roller to enter, but so tightly grips the covering sheet and presses the faces together after the rollers are removed as to prevent unintentional removal.

In a simple machine for making square tile, the tile blank with covering attached along two opposite sides is removed from the machine, turned through and the covering sheet similarly secured along the other two sides. Where manufacturing operations are carried out in a complex machine the clamped assemblage may be subjected to another pair of rollers or it may be shifted through 90 and treated by the same rollers. For nonstandard sizes a hand roller such as indicated at 44, Figure,14, may be used.

The completed tile units may then be shipped and handled much the same as uncovered pieces of tile. The edges and corners are protected by the covering. The other tiles are similarly treated with cement and forced against the wall and the previously placed tile or tiles so that the fianges pass behind noses. When the tiles are thus assembled the covering sheets are tightly engaged along the joint and deeply beveled, tight, overlapping joints are provided as shown in Figures 13 and 18. The tiles are self-leveling and aligning, but should there be shifting along the joint to open it up, the open joint would not be obvious.

If a tile is too large for a space, one can readily pull out the tucked-in edge, cut the blank with a knife, or other tool, trim off excess covering sheet, pull it tightly over the rear surface and secure it in place by staples or tacks. The doubled edges are returned to the slots by a putty knife and the smaller tile secured in place. Inside corners and fittings to moldings are readily made and the finished job is free of visible means of tile support. The corner number 45, Figure 19, made of narrow strips of material of any desired length properly edged, and cemented or nailed together, and covered, is suitable for outside corners.

Where tile of square edge is desired, ordinary precut tile, boards or the like, such as shown at 50, Fig. 20, beveled if desired, are slotted asshown at 51. The covering material 52 is forced into the slots as above described. This treatment is particularly well suited where tile of modular dimension are available or required.

It is obvious that theinvention may be embodied in many forms and constructions, and carried out in various manners, and I wish it to be understood that while particular forms are shown various modifications and changes are possible, and I do not limit myself in any way with respect thereto.

What is claimed is:

1. The method of manufacturing tile blanks out of a board-like material which comprises making one cut from one face part way through the blank, making a second cut at right angles to the rst and cutting from the same face only to the first cut, making a cut from the opposite face substantially opposite the line of entry of the rst cut into the sheet and to a depth insufficient to intersect the first cut, and breaking the sheet apart so that the separated blanks are of the length of the sheet, the blank to one side of the cuts having a narrow beveled portion, a reversely beveled portion and a flange extending to an outside corner, and the blank to the other side having a deeper beveled edge and an oppositely facing shoulder extending to an inside corner.

2. The method of manufacturing tile blanks as claimed in claim 1, wherein the opposite edges of the blanks formed are also cut in the same manner to produce along the said opposite edges like but opposite configurations to those which were first produced.

3. The method of manufacturing tile blanks such as claimed in claim 2, wherein the blanks thus formed are successively cut in directions at right angles to the first said cuts to produce along edges at right angles to the first edges, similar, oppositely disposed edges.

4. The method of cutting a rectangular sheet of wallboard, or the like, of a predetermined dimension and substantial thickness, into a plurality of rectangular tile blanks having when assembled edge to edge an overall transverse dimension slightly less to that of the original sheet, which comprises making in the material a plurality of pairs of longitudinal, parallel cuts, one cut of each pair reaching the other intermediate its depth, and opposite to the line of entry of said cuts and normal to the face of the tile a single series of second cuts parallel to the first cuts and to a depth equal to the depth unsevered by the first cuts, and breaking the material apart between the bottoms of the first and second cuts to form strips of rectangular tile whose edges conform to the cuts and breaks. l

5. The method of cutting a rectangular sheet of wallboard, or the like, of a predetermined dimension and substantial thickness, into a plurality of rectangular tile blanks having when assembled edge to edge and side to side overall dimensions slightly less to those of the original sheet, which comprises making in the material a plurality of pairs of longitudinal, parallel cuts angularly disposed relative to the plane of one face, one cut of each pair reaching the others intermediate its depth, and opposite to the line of entry of said cuts, and normal to the face of the tile a single series of second cuts parallel to the rst and to a depth equal to the depth unsevered by the rst cuts, breaking the material apart between the bottom s of the cuts to form strips of rectangular tile whose edges conform to the cuts and breaks, and thereafter similarly cutting the rectangular strips transversely to form each strip into smaller tile blocks.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 367,675 Shimer Aug. 2, 1887 1,757,017 Matovitz May 6, 1930 1,761,021 Nutt `Tune 3, 1930 1,795,953 Johnson Mar. 10, 1931 1,986,770 Farley Ian. l, 1935 2,663,527 l)'oslyn a-.. -.r. y Dec. l2,2, 1953

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