COATING MATERIAL FOR FLOORINGS EQUIPPED WITH A SUPPORT AND PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING SUCH COATING MATERIAL

Abstract: A coating material for floorings (1) is disclosed, that is composed of at least one layer of coating material (3), preferably granite, steel, glass, ceramics, marble, stone, recomposed materials or agglomerates made of marble, stone, granite, wood and the like, and at least one layer of support material (5) made of natural self-extinguishing vulcanized rubber adapted to be placed above a surface (9) to be coated, that preferably is cement, metal, wood, or surfaces for self-bearing technical floorings. A process for manufacturing such material is also disclosed.

Description: COATING MATERIAL FOR FLOORINGS EQUIPPED WITH A SUPPORT AND PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING SUCH COATING MATERIAL The present invention refers to a coating material for floorings equipped with a support to be used for paving tiles or other products that can be employed in floorings, and to a process for manufacturing such coating material. Tiling of floors or other similar surfaces is commonly realised through products such as different types and materials for paving tiles, that are mutually joined and secured to the surface through different methods. These operations are obviously lengthy and costly given the need of securing the tiles to the surface. Then, there are particular applications (such as for example loft flooring) in which the presence of heavy paving tiles that are impossible to secure to the surface makes the resulting floors uneven and subjected to misalignments between the paving tiles, that can also become dangerous. In the art there are no products and materials for floorings that are composed of a lightweight material, coupled to a support to increase the mechanical strength thereof, improve its adherence to the surfaces and make it impermeable. Object of the present invention is solving the above prior-art problems, by providing a a coating material for floorings that allows realising a product, for example of the paving tile type, that has an optimum adherence to surfaces, without requiring the use of lengthy and costly securing procedures, has an optimum mechanical strength and guarantees its impermeability. The material of the invention, due to the support with which it is equipped, that is made integral with the material by vulcanizing natural self-extinguishing rubber, is equipped with an optimum acoustic insulation, guarantees an unconstrained laying and the impermeability of contact joints between the paving tiles. The above and other objects and advantages of the invention, as will appear from the following description, are obtained by a coating material and a process for manufacturing it as claimed in Claims 1 and 12 or 13, respectively. Preferred embodiments and non-trivial variations of the present invention are claimed in the dependent Claims. The present invention will be better described by some preferred embodiments thereof, given as a non-limiting example, with reference to the enclosed drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a partial side sectional view of an embodiment of the coating material according to the present invention; and Figure 2 is a partial side sectional view of an alternative embodiment of the coating material according to the invention. With reference to the Figures, a preferred embodiment of the coating material and of the process for manufacturing it, is disclosed. The common coating materials for floorings, like, as a non-limiting example, granite, steel, glass, ceramics, marble, stone, recomposed materials or agglomerates made of marble, stone, granite, wood and the like, all fall within the scope of the invention. Thanks to the inventive arrangement, the coating material can be freely placed, without glueing or other securing means, on a surface such as cement, metal, wood, or by coupling (glueing) it with traditional self-bearing surfaces for technical floorings, solving the problems of weight (given its lightness) and mutual adherence between its various parts (paving tiles) of material. The following description will further be applied to a coating product for floorings of the paving tile type, that obviously could be of any type, shape, size and substance without departing from the scope of the invention. With reference to Fig. 1, the coating material for floorings 1 is composed of at least one layer of coating material 3 and at least one layer of rubber support material 5 adapted to be placed over the surface 9 to be coated, that, as stated above, can be, in a non-limiting way, cement, metal, wood or another surface. In order to coat the surface 9, the material 1 is shaped as a paving tile of any shape and size, and particularly, in a preferred embodiment, the thickness of a paving tile is commonly equal to about 10 mm, while the thickness of the rubber layer 5 is about 2 mm. The layer of rubber support material 5 covers the layer of coating material 3 (for example granite) along its width and length sizes, that is along the side that will come in contact with the surface 9. In the preferred embodiment, shown in Fig. 1, the layer 5 covers the layer 3 also along its whole thickness 11, roughly till the walking area level, and preferably on all the tile thickness sides. Through this arrangement, when paving tiles are mutually approached when paving, the mutual contact between the different rubber support layers 5 realizes a better anti-skid adherence between the paving tiles. According to the practical application, then, the coating of layer 5 on layer 3 can also occur, as shown in Fig. 2, only for part of the thickness of the layer 3, obtaining a suitable recess 13 into the layer 3. In this way, once having completed the flooring, the paving tiles will be directly joined one to the other, while in the previous case they will be separated by the two rubber layers 5 of the mutually contacting paving tiles. What has been so far described refers to the preferred embodiment, in which the paving tiles are coated on all their sides apart one (the one on the walking area surface) with the rubber support layer 5. Obviously, arrangements are possible in which the coating occurs only on some sides, or partially and in suitable positions along the side themselves. All this provided that strength, acoustic insulation, unconstrained placement and joint impermeability between the tiles are anyway guaranteed. In order to further improve the strength of the layer of support material 5, it is possible to further provide it with a reinforcement structure 7 buried therewithin. Such reinforcement structure 7 is preferably composed of a fiberglass netting, but could also be made of carbon or another equivalent material . The rubber of which the layer of support material 5 is composed is preferably natural self- extinguishing vulcanized rubber, or polyurethane, of a known type and commercially available, or other equivalent materials. The above-described material will be used, as paving tiles or the like, by freely laying it on a support made of cement, metal, wood or the like, or coupled with (for example through glueing) traditional supports for self-bearing technical floorings . The process for manufacruting the material according to the present invention will now be described. First of all, the layer of coating material 3 is laid, and is possibly subjected to a treatment with primer for facilitating the following vulcanizing step of the layer of rubber support material 5 over the layer of coating material 3. If a reinforcement structure 7 is provided, the process is identical to the above-described one, with the addition of the laying of the reinforcement structure 7 onto the layer of coating material 3: afterwards, the layer of rubber support material 5 is vulcanized over the layer of coating material 3 through injection molding in which the reinforcement structure 7 is buried.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. Coating material for floorings (1), characterised in that it is composed of at least one layer of coating material (3) and at least one layer of rubber support material (5) adapted to be placed above a surface (9) to be coated. 2. Coating material (1) according to Claim 1, characterised in that said layer of rubber support material (5) covers said layer of coating material (3) also along its whole thickness (11) . 3. Coating material (1) according to Claim 1, characterised in that said layer of rubber support material (5) covers said layer of coating material (3) also along part of its thickness (11) . 4. Coating material (1) according to Claim 1, characterised in that said layer of support material (5) is equipped with a reinforcement structure (7) buried therewithin. 5. Coating material (1) according to Claim 4, characterised in that said reinforcement structure (7) is made of a fiberglass netting. 6. Coating material (1) according to Claim 4, characterised in that said reinforcement structure (7) is made of carbon. 7. Coating material (1) according to Claim 1, characterised in that said layer of support material (5) is made of natural self- extinguishing vulcanized rubber. 8. Coating material (1) according to Claim 1, characterised in that said layer of support material (5) is made of synthetic rubber. 9. Coating material (1) according to Claim 1, characterised in that said layer of support material (5) is made of polyurethane . 10. Coating material (1) according to Claim 1, characterised in that said layer of coating material (3) is made of granite. 11. Coating material (1) according to Claim 1, characterised in that said layer of coating material (3) is made of any one chosen among the following: steel, glass, ceramics, marble, stone, recomposed materials or agglomerates made of marble, stone, granite, wood and other coating materials for floorings. 12. Process for manufacturing a coating material for floorings according to any one of Claims 1 to 3 and 7 to 11, characterised in that it comprises the steps of: - laying said at least one layer of coating material (3) ; - possibly subjecting to a treatment with primer said at least one layer of coating material ( 3 ) ; and - vulcanizing said at least one layer of rubber support material (5) over said at least one layer of coating material (3). 13. Process for manufacturing a coating material for floorings according to any one of Claims 4 to 11, characterised in that it comprises the steps of: - laying said at least one layer of coating material (3) ; - possibly subjecting to a treatment with primer said at least one layer of coating material (3); - laying said reinforcement structure (7) on said at least one layer of coating material (3) ; and - vulcanizing said at least one layer of rubber support material (5) over said at least one layer of coating material (3) . 4. Process according to Claim 12 or 13, characterised in that said vulcanizing step is realised through injection molding.

Inventors: DALGO SARIO, DALGO, SARIO
Applicants: COMBISTONE ITALIA S P A, DALGO SARIO, COMBISTONE ITALIA S.P.A., DALGO, SARIO
Application year: 2001
Main classification: E04F15
IPC codes: B32B25, E04F15