WO2008136039A1

WO2008136039A1 - Semifinished wood product comprising luminescent trims, and finished products thereof

Info

Publication number: WO2008136039A1
Application number: PCT/IT2008/000308
Authority: WO
Inventors: Piero Caponi
Original assignee: Piero Caponi
Priority date: 2007-05-07
Filing date: 2008-05-07
Publication date: 2008-11-13
Also published as: ITPI20070055A1

Abstract

A semifinished wood product (10) provides, on its external surface natural or purposely made grooves (21), holes or trims that are filled with luminescent fluids (16). In particular, in case of semifinished products for veneering, slices of wood are jointed together in order to obtain boards or logs of various size and the joints between adjacent slices are filled with said luminescent fluids that act as gluing and/or filling means. Such luminescent fluids are also applied to possible further holes or grooves of the surface of the slices of wood. The semifinished wood product obtained can be applied on any type of supporting board to produce furniture, doors or furniture accessories and it gives them peculiar and innovative aesthetic effects.

Description

SEMIFINISHED WOOD PRODUCT COMPRISING LUMINESCENT TRIMS, AND FINISHED PRODUCTS THEREOF.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns a semifinished wood product for furniture, doors or furniture accessories.

Specifically, but not exclusively, the invention concerns a a semifinished product for veneering.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

Among furniture-manufacturers are searched solutions apt to render the surface of semifinished wood products used to make parts of furniture more resistant to wear and to give them specific aesthetic features.

In particular, it is known since centuries the veneering technique that consists of covering wood or fibreboards with thin slices of wood in order to give them a better quality.

Slices of wood used for veneering are thin slices of valuable wood made by slicing trees according to specific slicing angles and techniques.

Afterwards the slices of wood are jointed together to make boards or logs that are then glued and pressed upon less valued wood and/or raw boards of any type (multilayered, chipboards, blockboards, plywood, hollow core boards, etc.) in order to obtain parts of furniture, doors or furniture accessories made of valued wood having an impressive aesthetic effect, at lower costs, with lower thermal sensitiveness, lower risks of woodworms attack, more homogeneous for mass-production and with the chance of accurately choosing the visible details of the surface, with respect to furniture made of block wood.

Nevertheless, to obtain a good aesthetic effect, the veneer jointing has to be made with the maximum care in order to make the jointing less visible and that causes increase of production costs.

Furthermore, when specific types of slices of wood are used, such as burrs, which have natural grooves and holes, there is a high number of rejects or, in alternative, the need of filling the surface of the veneer with further increase of production costs.

Obviously, in some cases, for the production of furniture, door or furniture accessories is preferred the use of non veneered semifinished wood product, where the external surface is directly treated and machined to_. give it specific aesthetic features and resistance to wear.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Aim of the present invention is to propose a semifinished wood product apt to overcome the limits above described of the known art, in particular as regards production costs, satisfying, at the same time, specific aesthetic requirements. Further aim of the present invention is to propose a semifinished wood product for veneering having innovative aesthetic features without substantially changing the production techniques and without making them more expensive.

The above objects are attained through a semifinished wood product comprising at least one external surface provided with uneven portions, such as engravings, grooves, holes or similar, in which are housed luminescent substances.

Preferably, the semifinished product comprises slices of wood jointed together to obtain boards or logs for veneering where, in uneven portions of the surface of said semifinished products are housed luminescent substances.

Advantageously, the luminescent substances are housed along the joint of two adjacent slices of wood and they act as gluing means, otherwise they are housed in natural or appositely made grooves or holes of the surface of the slices of wood.

Said substances are, in particular luminescent fluids dropped or rubbed _. on said uneven portions to fill them, and they are then hardened.

Advantageously the luminescent substances comprise calcium sulphide and/or zinc sulphide.

The semifinished wood product for veneering above described is glued and/or pressed un wood boards, or other supporting elements from which are realized furniture, pieces of furniture or furniture accessories. From the characteristics above outlined are clear the advantages of the semifinished wood product of the invention since filling the joints of adjacent slices of wood with luminescent substances creates luminescent trims on the surface which gives a pleasant appearance to portions of the surface that are otherwise defects. In addiction, the displacement of the various slices of wood to create boards or logs is quicker since bringing two slices of wood adjacent one to another in a rough manner produces a pleasant random effect of the jointing and allows a reduction of the production costs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

However, for a better understanding of the above-mentioned advantages and characteristics of the present invention, this will now be described by way of embodiment examples, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: figure 1 shows a perspective view of a log of semifinished wood product for veneering according to the invention; figure 2 shows a perspective view of the semifinished product of fig.1 assembled on a wood blockboard; figure 3 shows a detail of fig.2; figures 4 to 6 show front views of two different embodiments of semifinished wood products according to the invention; figure 7 shows a frame for pictures or mirrors comprising semifinished wood products according to the invention. DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to fig.1 , it is labelled, as a whole, with 10, a semifinished wood product for veneering partially wound to form a log, 11. The log is made of slices of valuable wood, 12, whose veins, 13, peculiar of almost all the valuable types of wood, form on its surface specific patterns which give the product a high aesthetic value.

To obtain the log 11 the slices are jointed together, that is they are placed adjacent one to the other and connected together according to the specific know-how of the sector. Between the edges, 14 and 15, shown in detail in fig.3, of two adjacent slices of wood, is applied a luminescent substance, 16, apt to fill the joint, 18.

In the pieces of furniture obtained using the semifinished product of the invention the presence of the luminescent substance 16 in the joints 18 produces an innovative aesthetic effect since, when exposed to a normal natural or artificial illumination the joints show the colour of the used luminescent fluid, whilst, in poor light conditions, they emit a certain amount of light function of the type of luminescent fluid.

The log 11 is produced, as already said, according to the specific techniques of the sector.

In particular, according to one of the most spread and used producing methods the slices of wood are selected as a function of their size and patterns 13. They are then placed adjacent one to another along a stripe of adhesive tape which is then rewound to form a log. The displacement of two adjacent slices of wood, which is usually manually effected, can be very rapid, according to the invention, since no need to pay a specific care at accurately bring the edges 14 and 15 close one to another.

Through an automatic machine the log is unwound, glued on a cloth tape or other supporting material and then rewound to form a log.

During such operation, while the unwound section of the web material lays on a belt conveyor, are performed the usual filling operations of the surface of the slices of wood. To fill the material is used the luminescent fluid 16, instead of, or together with, the standard plaster used for this kind of work.

Then, the semifinished product 10 passes through a furnace kiln where, very rapidly, the plaster and the luminescent fluid 16 become solid.

The production cycle is completed by machining phases apt to clean the surface, varnishing or polishing it, and to cut the product to the desired size.

As you can see in fig.2 the obtained semifinished product can be applied according to known technologies of gluing and pressing on boards, 19, of . less valuable wood. The assembled semifinished product is used to make pieces of furniture, frames of doors, pictures or mirrors, such as the frame shown in fig.7.

Figures from 4 to 6 show different embodiments of the semifinished wood product of the invention.

The semifinished product 10' of fig.4 is made of slices of burrs, 12', that, together with the veins, 13', have the peculiar knots that causes holes and grooves, 21 , in the slices of wood, produced when the wood is sliced in ^• thin sheets. Said holes and grooves 21 are filled with the same luminescent fluid that fills the joints 18' or even with a different fluid in order to obtain even more specific aesthetic effects. A further different aesthetic effect is obtained in the semifinished product 10" of fig.5. In this case special cuts, 22, are made on the surface of the semifinished product, and they are filled with luminescent fluid to create a specific pattern on the surface itself. Obviously the cuts 22 can be manually as well as automatically made through specific machines and they can be placed so that they seem to be randomly disposed, otherwise they could form specific patterns.

In the semifinished product 10'" of fig.6 the joints, 18'", are made according to the standard working methods of the sector so that the slices of wood, 12'", are accurately placed one adjacent to the other in order to render not visible the joint. In this case, during the jointing phase, the slices of wood are transversally torn and the two halves are brought adjacent one to another with a certain gap in order to produce cavities, 23, which are then filled with luminescent substances 16. In any case are obtained semifinished products 10, 10', 10", 10'" with innovative aesthetic features and, not only without an increase of the production costs, but reducing them. In fact, in case the luminescent fluids are applied in the joints of two adjacent slices of wood they act as gluing means and filling means and the displacement of the adjacent slices of wood can be performed more rapidly and inaccurately so that the luminescent appearance seems to be randomly obtained.

The above described semifinished products are used to make furniture, pieces of furniture or furniture accessories of valuable wood with very specific and various aesthetic features. The kind of luminescent that can be obtained is extremely various both as regards the patterns and as regards the intensity and colours of the luminescence.

The advantages coming upon the use of semifinished products according to the invention keep safe even if further changes are carried out with respect to what above described.

In fact, the manufacturing process of the semifinished product could be even very different with respect to what above disclosed as an example, most of all in the case that, due to the kind of finished product that has to be made, the semifinished product is a board instead of a log. In fact, while for the production of frames of pictures or mirrors, frames of doors, or other casings, skirting or other furniture accessories is preferable the shape of logs, differently, for the production of doors, furniture or pieces of furniture the semifinished product is assembled on boards of standard size that are the sold as semifinished products, or, otherwise, the product is directly cut to be glued on the pieces of furniture.

Furthermore, the manufacturing process is even more different if the luminescent substance is directly applied to grooves and/or natural or artificial trims of the external surface of a semifinished product such as a board, a parquet board, or a blockboard not covered with a veneering material but that is instead used as such to realize furniture, doors, frames or other furniture accessories.

Still as regards the preferred embodiment of semifinished products for veneering the slices of wood can be of any type of valuable wood such as walnut, cherry, mahogany, rosewood or even if they are obtained from specific sections of the tree such as the crotch or the burr. Also the supporting material could comprise any type of boards for veneering such as multilayered, chipboard, blockboard, plywood, hollow core boards or even different types of boards.

The luminescent substance used could be of any type that can be found on the market, both phosphorescent and fluorescent, having a decay time that, at room temperature, could be of few seconds or even of days. There could be used common calcium or zinc sulphides but also less usual phosphorescent materials. Substances of different colours could be used and differently coloured substances could be applied on a same , semifinished product. The same luminescent substances could be diluted in other substances such as solvents, thermohardening substances, gluing substances or other chemical substances. Finally, the above substances could be applied in the joints of the slices of wood and in other natural or artificial holes or grooves of their surface, in a way that they completely or partially fill them or even part of them in order to obtain the desired aesthetic effects.

These and more modifications may be carried out to the apparatus for performing passive lumbar stretching treatments according to the invention, anyway, within the ambit of protection of the following claims.

Claims

1. Semifinished wood product characterized in that at least one external surface of said semifinished wood product is provided with uneven portions, such as engravings, grooves, holes or similar, in which are housed luminescent substances.

2. Semifinished wood product according to claim 1 characterized in that it comprises slices of wood jointed together to obtain boards or logs for veneering, in uneven portions of the surface of said semifinished products being housed luminescent substances.

3. Semifinished wood product according to ^"the previous claim characterized in that said luminescent substances are housed along the joint of two adjacent slices of wood.

4. Semifinished wood product according to the previous claim characterized in that said luminescent substances act as gluing means of two adjacent slices of wood.

5. Semifinished wood product according to one of the previous claims characterized in that said luminescent substances are housed in natural grooves or holes of the surface of said slices of wood.

6. Semifinished wood product according to one of the claims from 1 to 4 characterized in that said luminescent substances are housed in purposely made grooves or holes of the surface of said slices of wood.

7. Semifinished wood product according to one of the previous claims characterized in that said luminescent substances are applied in a way apt to eliminate all or some of said uneven portions of the surface of said semifinished product.

8. Semifinished wood product according to one of the previous claims characterized in that said luminescent substances are luminescent fluids dropped or rubbed on said uneven portions of the surface, said luminescent fluid being then desiccated.

9. Semifinished wood product according to one of the previous claims characterized in that said luminescent substances comprise calcium sulphide and/or zinc sulphide.

10. Semifinished wood product according to one of the previous claims characterized in that said semifinished wood product is glued and/or pressed un wood boards, or other supporting elements.

Λ 1. Furniture accessory characterized in that it comprises semifinished wood products according to one of the previous claims.

12. Furniture accessory according to the previous claim characterized in that it comprises at least a frame for pictures or mirrors.

13. Furniture characterized in that it comprises semifinished wood products according to one of the previous claims.

14. Door characterized in that it comprises semifinished wood products according to one of the previous claims.