WO2003010734A2

WO2003010734A2 - Tile

Info

Publication number: WO2003010734A2
Application number: PCT/CZ2002/000042
Authority: WO
Inventors: Karel PÀLKA
Original assignee: Palka Karel
Priority date: 2001-07-17
Filing date: 2002-07-17
Publication date: 2003-02-06
Also published as: CZ20012592A3; WO2003010734A3; AU2002346278A1

Abstract

A tile meant for the building industry, especially as an informational and advertising tool, consists of at least two layers, one of these layers at the front is transparent and at least one transparent layer and/or layer adjacent to it has at least one graphic element placed on the surface adjacent to the next layer. The improved visibility of the information placed on the tile is achieved by light emitting diodes arranged on the side of the trasnparent layer. The transparent layer is preferably made of glass, the non-transparent layer is preferably made of ceramics. Individual layers are connected by a transparent binding material. The graphic element can be a drawing and/or a letter and/or a number.

Description

TLLE

Technology field

This invention concerns tiles, especially informational tiles, which are provided with a layer that is resistant to mechanical stress, especially to weather influence and abrasive wear.

The currently used technology

Tiles for sidewalk and road surfaces are made mostly from natural or artificial stone. The artificial stone is produced using binding materials like cement or asphalt, or in the form of ceramics. The advantage of the artificial stone is the fact that it can be painted as required. Afterwards you can create pictures or you can differentiate surfaces by different colours according to their purpose, e.g. marking a traffic lane in an area which is primarily used by pedestrians, or the other way round. Natural stones of different colours exist, but seldom there are stone deposits with sufficiently differentiating colour; and, moreover, the milling of natural stone costs today more than the production of artificial stone. Often, ceramics are more fragile than natural stone, but they can also be painted easily, at least their view area, and you can provide them with optional graphics like letters or pictures. In all these cases, the tile is provided with a surface layer which is resistant to mechanical stress caused by weather and by the movement of people or vehicles on its surface. The disadvantage of the above materials is the fact that their coloured patterns, especially the signs created by coloured surfaces, are not sufficiently resistant to abrasive wear, and they become badly visible in the daylight or under artificial lighting, of course they totally disappear in the dark.

The purpose of this invention is an informational tile with improved visibility and legibility of surface signs even at an insufficient external illi iination.

The essence of the invention

The above purpose is achieved by a special tile with a layer which is resistant to mechanical stress. The essence of the invention lies in the fact that the tile has a minimum of two layers. At least one of these layers at the front is transparent, and at least one transparent layer and/or the adjoining layer has at least one graphic element on the surface adjacent to the next layer. Further, according to this invention, at least one light enήtting element is mounted on the side of at least one transparent layer. It is advantageous, to use a light emitting diode as the light emitting element. In the advantageous make, the individual layers are connected to each other with a transparent binding material. Furthermore, it is advantageous, if the transparent layer is made of glass, synthetic resin, plastic material or their combination and the non-transparent layer is made of ceramics, synthetic resin, plastic material, glass or any combination of these materials. The graphic element can be a drawing or a letter/letters or a number/numbers or any combination of these grapliic elements. According to this invention, a foil can also be used as at least one of the transparent layers, which has at least one grapliic element on at least one surface.

The advantage of a tile produced according to this invention is its increased utility value, because such a tile will be able to provide the required information winch will be very well-legible regardless of day or night.

Tile - example

The simplest example is a two-layer tile. The first layer on the tile's front surface is transparent, made of glass, Plexiglass, synthetic resin, plastic material etc. The most important qualities are sufficient transparency and resistance to abrasive wear. The front surface is the part of a tile, which is exposed to external forces like weather, mechanical stress. It is also exposed to peoples' looks. It is the surface upon which people will walk or vehicles will go. The second, non- transparent layer sticks tightly to the first layer. The primary function of the non- transparent layer is to provide contrasting ground for the grapliic elements and to guarantee, together with the first layer, the sufficient mechanical stiffness of the whole tile. Tins non-transparent layer can be made of ceramics or other artificial aggregate, glass, Opaxit, plastic material, synthetic resin etc. Both layers should have approximately the same thermal expansivity. The second layer has on its surface at least one graphic element. Both layers are connected by a transparent binding material which is applied either on the whole contact surface or at least on its part in such a way that the graphic symbol is situated towards the front layer. For a perfect connection of both layers and in order to increase the climatic resistance of the tile, the same or a different binding material can be apphed also on the sides all along the tile's perimeter. The tile can be manufactured as follows: a graphic element is painted, sprayed, glued or otherwise apphed on the non-transparent layer. On this ground layer, an interlayer of transparent, non-hardened binding material with high adhesion to the ground layer as well as to the covering, transparent layer is apphed. This binding material must be able to harden even without the access of oxygen. A suitable binding material can be for example a material based on silicon or epoxy resins. Then the transparent layer is put on it in such a way that no air bubbles remain between the two layers, and the tile is left to harden. After the adhesive interlayer has hardened, a plastic material, which protects the contact edges of the connected surfaces from weather influences, is apphed on the sides of the tile.

The graphic element can be a letter, a word or a sentence, a number, a picture or even a combination of these. The number of graphic elements on a tile depends on the size of the tile so that the information is intelligible; however, one piece of information can be spread over more tiles. An example of such information is an order for the public, like a direction sign, a no-entry sign, a company name, a promotion slogan etc. Such a graphic element or elements can be alternatively also on the back, bottom surface of the transparent layer, i.e. on the surface which is adjacent to the non-transparent layer. It is also possible to place one part of graphic elements on the bottom surface of the transparent layer and one part on the front surface of the non-transparent layer.

The light emitting elements, e.g. light emitting diodes (so called LEDs), which are arranged on the side (i.e. on the perimeter) of the transparent layer guarantee the visibility of graphic elements regardless of external illumination. The light enήtting elements can be spaced regularly along the tile's perimeter, they can be arranged into groups or put on just one part of the tile's perimeter. Their number, light colour and arrangement is given by the luminosity of the used elements, by the size of the tile and by the purpose of the tile. The terminals of the light emitting elements enable a power supply connection. The individual light enήtting elements can be easily attached from outside, e.g. glued on the side of the transparent layer; they can be inserted into the layer from the side and glued, or they can be connected with this layer directly during its production. The above mentioned covering of the sides of the tile covers also the light emitting elements. The illumination can be permanent, intermittent, with various light effects, e.g. the light raining along the tile's perimeter, flickering of the even and odd light emitting elements, various changes of the hghting colour etc. The transparent layers distribute the light all across the informational tile's surface. The effect of an external iUumination would be less expressive. Both ways of ill nination of the informational surface can be combined, but the tile will become less legible and less conspicuous.

The front part of a tile can consist of many transparent layers. The first layer, i.e. the layer directly exposed to external forces, can serve just as a protective, covering layer. Only the following transparent layers can bear graphic elements on their front or back surfaces. By inserting one or more transparent or semitransparent layers, e.g. rnirror layers, with graphic elements between the first and the second layer, a three-dimensional effect of the graphic element may be created. It is obvious that the individual ttansparent layers must be connected by a transparent binding material as described above. A foil can be a ttansparent layer too, the graphic elements may be arranged on one surface or on both surfaces of the foil.

Also in the case of a multiple ttansparent layer, a part of the graphic elements or all of them may be placed on the non-transparent layer. A group of graphic elements can form an advertisement or a company name. The tile according to this invention can also be used for horizontal signs on the roads. This tile can be used as an informational element for tiling of non- horizontal surfaces. The installation of the tiles according to this invention is to be done preferably on a prepared, sufficiently thick concrete slab which will guarantee the necessary load-carrying capacity. The tile is put on this concrete slab into a tnin cement paste in such a way that the tile sits down with its whole surface, and then it is levelled. Then the prepared conductors for feeding the light emitting elements are attached; the gap along the tile's perimeter is filled with an appropriate silicon material and smoothed on the surface. After the cement and the silicon have set, the tiles can be gradually loaded. In an extreme case, the graphic element can also be a one-colour surface. A tile with such a simple graphic element would be suitable for example for marking a walking route, including the iUumination of such a route. By this way, the orientation of the pedestrians would be improved and walking in the dark would become safer.

Industrial utilization

The invention is meant for the building industry, especially as an informational or advertising tool.

Claims

PATENT CLAIMS

1. A tile which has a layer that is resistant to mechanical stress, especially to weather influence and abrasive wear, its characteristic sign is that it consist of at least two layers, at least one of these layers at the front is ttansparent and at least one transparent layer and/or a layer adjacent to it has at least one graphic element on the surface adjacent to the next layer or without any graphic element.

2. A tile according to claim 1; its characteristic sign is that there is at least one light enύtting element arranged on the side of at least one ttansparent layer.

3. A tile according to claim 1 or 2; its characteristic sign is that the individual layers are connected with a transparent binding material.

4. A tile according to at least one of the previous claims; its characteristic sign is that the ttansparent layer is made of glass and/or plastic material and/or synthetic resin.

5. A tile according to at least one of the previous claims; its characteristic sign is that the non-transparent layer is made of ceramics and/or synthetic resin and/or plastic material and/or glass.

6. A tile according to at least one of the previous claims; its characteristic sign is that the grapliic element is a drawing and/or a letter and/or a number.

7. A tile according to at least one of the previous claims; its characteristic sign is that at least one of the ttansparent layers is a foil that has at least one graphic element on at least one of its surfaces.