Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20030115812A1/en
Timestamp: 2019-06-25 12:46:14
Document Index: 189849953

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 40', 'art 44', 'art 44', 'art 44', 'art 72', 'art 72', 'art 72']

US20030115812A1 - Locking system and flooring board - Google Patents
US20030115812A1
US20030115812A1 US10/361,815 US36181503A US2003115812A1 US 20030115812 A1 US20030115812 A1 US 20030115812A1 US 36181503 A US36181503 A US 36181503A US 2003115812 A1 US2003115812 A1 US 2003115812A1
US6922964B2 (en
2000-11-22 First worldwide family litigation filed litigation Critical https://patents.darts-ip.com/?family=20411582&utm_source=google_patent&utm_medium=platform_link&utm_campaign=public_patent_search&patent=US20030115812(A1) "Global patent litigation dataset” by Darts-ip is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
A floorboard [0005] 1 of known design is shown from below and from above in FIGS. 3a and 3 b, respectively. The board is rectangular and has a top side 2, an underside 3, two opposite long sides 4 a, 4 b which form joint edges, and two opposite short sides 5 a, 5 b which form joint edges.
Both the long sides [0006] 4 a, 4 b and the short sides 5 a, 5 b can be joined mechanically without any glue in the direction D2 in FIG. 1c. To this end, the board 1 has a planar strip 6 which is mounted at the factory and which extends horizontally from one long side 4 a, the strip extending along the entire long side 4 a and being made of a flexible, resilient aluminium sheet. The strip 6 can be mechanically fixed according to the illustrated embodiment, or fixed by means of glue or in some other fashion. Other strip materials can be used, such as sheet of some other metal, and aluminium or plastic sections. Alternatively, the strip 6 can be integrally formed with the board 1, for instance by some suitable working of the body of the board 1. The strip, however, is always integrated with the board 1, i.e. it is not mounted on the board 1 in connection with laying. The width of the strip 6 can be about 30 mm and its thickness about 0.5 mm. A similar, although shorter strip 6′ is arranged also along one short side 5 a of the board 1. The edge side of the strip 4 facing away from the joint edge 4 a is formed with a locking element 8 extending along the entire strip 6. The locking element 8 has an active locking surface 10 facing the joint edge 4 a and having a height of e.g. 0.5 mm. In connection with laying, the locking element 8 cooperates with a locking groove 14, which is formed in the underside 3 of the opposite long side 4 b of an adjacent board 1′. The short side strip 6′ is provided with a corresponding locking element 8′, and the opposite short side 5 b has a corresponding locking groove 14.
FIGS. 1[0008] a-1 c show how two such boards 1, 1′ can be joined by downwards angling. FIGS. 2a-2 c show how the boards 1, 1′ can instead be joined by snap action. The long sides 4 a, 4 b can be joined by both methods whereas the short sides 5 a, 5 b—after laying of the first row are normally joined after joining of the long sides and merely by snap action. When a new board 1′ and a previously laid board 1 are to be joined along their long sides according to FIGS. 1a-1 c, the long side 4 b of the new board 1′ is pressed against the long side 4 a of the previously laid board 1 according to FIG. 1a, so that the locking tongue 20 is inserted into the recess 16. The board 11 is then angled downwards to the subfloor 12 according to FIG. 1b. Now the locking tongue 20 completely enters the recess 16 while at the same time the locking element 8 of the strip 6 enters the locking groove 14. During this downwards angling, the upper part of the locking element 8 can be active and accomplish a guiding of the new board 1′ towards the previously laid board 1. In the joined state according to FIG. 1c, the boards 1, 11 are locked in both D1 direction and D2 direction, but may be displaced relative to each other in the longitudinal direction of the joint.
FIGS. 2[0009] a-2 c illustrate how also the short sides 5 a and 5 b of the boards 1, 1′ can be mechanically joined in both D1 and D2 direction by the new board 1′ being moved essentially horizontally towards the previously laid board 1. This can be carried out after the long side 4 b of the new board 1′ has been joined as described above. In the first step in FIG. 2a, bevelled surfaces adjacent to the recess 16 and the locking tongue 20 cooperate so that the strip 6′ is forced downwards as a direct consequence of the joining of the short sides 5 a, 5 b. During the final joining, the strip 6′ snaps upwards as the locking element 8′ enters the locking groove 14. By repeating the operations shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the entire floor can be laid without glue and along all joint edges. Thus, prior-art floorboards of the above-mentioned type are joined mechanically by, as a rule, first being angled downwards on the long side, and when the long side is locked, the short sides are snapped together by horizontal displacement along the long side. The boards 1, 1′ can be taken up again in reverse order, without the joint being damaged, and be laid once more.
In addition to the disclosure of the above-mentioned patent specifications, Norske Skog Flooring AS (licensee of Valinge Aluminium AB) introduced a laminate flooring with a mechanical joining system according to WO 94/29699 in January 1996 in connection with the Domotex fair in Hannover, Germany. This laminate flooring marketed under the trademark Alloc® is 7.6 mm thick, has a 0.6 mm aluminium strip [0011] 6 which is mechanically fixed to the tongue side and the active locking surface 10 of the locking element 8 has an inclination of about 70°-80° to the plane of the board. The joint edges are impregnated with wax and the underside is provided with underlay board which is mounted at the factory. The vertical joint is designed as a modified tongue-and-groove joint. The strips 6, 6′ on long side and short side are largely identical, but slightly bent upwards to different degrees on long side and short side. The inclination of the active locking surface varies between long side and short side. The distance of the locking groove 14 from the joint edge, however, is somewhat smaller on the short side than on the long side. The boards are made with a nominal play on the long side which is about 0.05-0.10 mm. This enables displacement of the long sides and bridges width tolerances of the boards. Boards of this brand have been manufactured and sold with zero play on the short sides, which is possible since the short sides need not be displaced in connection with the locking which is effected by snap action. Boards of this brand have also been made with more bevelled portions on the short side to facilitate snapping in according to FIGS. 2a-c above. It is thus known that the mechanical locking system can be designed in various ways and that long side and short side can be of different design.
A strip made of the same material as the body of the board and formed by working of the body of the board can in some applications be less expensive than an aluminium strip, especially for floorboards in lower price ranges. Aluminium, however, is more advantageous in respect of flexibility, resilience and displaceability as well as accuracy in the positioning of the locking element. Aluminium also affords the possibility of making a stronger locking element. If the same strength is to be achieved with a locking element of wood fibre, it must be wide with a large shearing surface, which results in a large amount of waste material in manufacture, or it must be reinforced with a binder. Depending on the size of the boards, working of, for instance, 10 mm of a joint edge may result in six times higher cost of waste per m[0015] 2 of floor surface along the long sides compared with the short sides.
On the other hand, locking of the short side is carried out by the long side being displaced so that the strip of the short side can be bent down and snap into the locking groove. Thus the short side must have means which accomplish downwards bending of the strip in connection with lateral displacement. The strength requirement is also higher on the short side. Guiding and displaceability are less important. [0018]
In one embodiment, said two parts may comprise an inner part closest to the joint plane and an outer part at a distance from the joint plane. There may be further parts outside the outer part. Specifically, an outer part can be formed of fewer materials than an inner part. For instance, the inner part may consist of wood fibre and rear laminate, whereas the outer part, by machining from above, consists of rear laminate only. In one embodiment, the projecting portion may comprise—seen from the joint plane outwards—an inner part, an outer part and, outside the outer part, a locking element supported by the outer part. The locking element may differ from both inner and outer part in respect of said material parameters. [0029]
Within the scope of the fourth aspect of the invention, there are several possibilities of combination. For example, it is possible to select an aluminium strip for the long side and a machined wood fibre strip for the short side or vice versa. Another example is that for the short side or the long side a “combination strip” according to the first and the second aspect of the invention is selected, and for the other side a “pure” aluminium strip or a “pure” worked wood fibre strip is selected. [0038]
The strip [0055] 6 is formed with a locking element 8, whose active locking surface 10 cooperates with a locking groove 14 in an opposite joint edge 4 b of an adjacent board 1′ for horizontal locking together of the boards 1, transversely of the joint edge (D2). With a view to forming a vertical lock in the D1 direction, the joint edge 4 a has a laterally open groove 36 and the opposite joint edge 4 b has a laterally projecting tongue 38 (corresponding to the locking tongue 20), which in the joined state is received in the groove 36 (FIG. 7c). The free surface of the upper part 40 of the groove 36 has a vertical upper portion 41, a bevelled portion 42 and an upper abutment surface 43 for the tongue 38. The free surface of the lower part 44 of the groove 36 has a lower abutment surface 45 for the tongue 38, a bevelled portion 46 and a lower vertical portion 47. The opposite joint edge 4 b (see FIG. 7a) has an upper vertical portion 48, and the tongue 38 has an upper abutment surface 49, an upper bevelled portion 50, a lower bevelled portion 51 and a lower abutment surface 52.
In the joined state (FIG. 7[0056] c), the two juxtaposed vertical upper portions 41 and 48 define a vertical joint plane F. As is best seen from FIG. 4, the lower part 44 of the groove 36 is extended a distance outside the joint plane F. The joint edge 4 a is in its underside formed with a continuous mounting groove 54 having a vertical lower gripping edge 56 and an inclined gripping edge 58. The gripping edges formed of the surfaces 46, 47, 56, 58 together define a fixing shoulder 60 for mechanical fixing of the strip 6. The fixing is carried out according to the same principle as in the prior-art board and can be carried out by means of the methods that are described in the above-mentioned documents. A continuous lip 62 of the strip 6 thus is bent round the gripping edges 56, 58 of the groove 54, while a plurality of punched tongues 64 are bent round the surfaces 46, 47 of the projecting portion 44. The tongues 64 and the associated punched holes 65 are shown in the broken-out view in FIG. 6a.
There is a significant difference between the inventive floorboard shown in FIGS. [0057] 4-7 and the prior-art board according to FIGS. 1-3. The area P in FIG. 4 designates the portion of the board 1 which is positioned outside the joint plane 1. According to the invention, the portion P has two horizontally juxtaposed parts P1 and P2, which differ in respect of at least one of the parameters material composition and material properties. More specifically, the inner part P1 is, closest to the joint plane F, formed partially of the strip 6 and partially of the worked part 44 of the body. In this embodiment, the inner part P1 thus comprises the material combination aluminium+wood fibre core+rear laminate whereas the outer part P2 is a made of aluminium only. In the prior-art board 1 in FIGS. 1a-c, the corresponding portion outside the joint plane is made of aluminium only.
As described above, this feature of the invention means that the cost of material can be reduced. Thanks to the fact that the fixing shoulder [0058] 60 is displaced towards the locking element 8 to such an extent that it is positioned at least partially outside the joint plane F, a considerable saving can be achieved in respect of the consumption of aluminium sheet. A saving in the order of 25% is possible. This embodiment is particularly advantageous in cheaper floorboards where waste of wood fibre as a result of machining of the body is preferred to a high consumption of aluminium sheet. The waste of material, however, is limited thanks to the fact that the projecting portion can also be used as abutment surface for the tongue, which can then be made correspondingly narrower perpendicular to the joint plane with the ensuing reduced waste of material on the tongue side.
This constructional change to achieve saving in material does not have a detrimental effect on the possibility of resilient vertical motion that must exist in the projecting portion P. The strength of the locking element [0059] 8 is not affected either. The outer part P2 of aluminium is still fully resilient in the vertical direction, and the short sides 5 a, 5 b can be snapped together according to the same principle as in FIGS. 2a-c. The locking element 8 is still made of aluminium and its strength is not reduced. However, it may be noted that the degree of resilience can be affected since it is essentially only the outer part P2 that is resilient in the snap action. This can be an advantage in some cases if one wants to restrict the bending-down properties and increase the strength of the lock.
The angling together of the long sides [0060] 4 a, 4 b can also be carried out according to the same principle as in FIGS. 1a-c. In general—not only in this embodiment—a small degree of downwards bending of the strip 6 may occur, as shown in the laying sequence in FIGS. 7a-c. This downwards bending of the strip 6 together with an inclination of the locking element 8 makes it possible for the boards 1, 1′ to be angled down and up again with very tight joint edges at the upper surfaces 41 and 48. The locking element 8 should preferably have a high guiding capability so that the boards, in connection with downwards angling, are pushed towards the joint edge. The locking element 8 should have a large guiding part. For optimal function, the boards should, after being joined and along their long sides 4 a, 4 b, be able to take a position where there is a small play between locking element and locking groove, which need not be greater than about 0.02-0.05 mm. This play permits displacement and bridges width tolerances. The friction in the joint should be low.
In the joined state according to FIG. 7, the boards [0061] 1, 1′ are locked relative to each other in the vertical direction D1. An upwards movement of the board 1′ is counteracted by engagement between the surfaces 43 and 49, while a downwards movement of the board 1′ is counteracted on the one hand by engagement between the surfaces 45 and 52 and, on the other hand, by the board 1 resting on the upper side of the strip 6.
FIG. 8 shows a second embodiment of the invention. The board [0062] 1 in FIG. 8 can be used for parquet flooring. The board 1 consists of an upper wear layer 32 a, a core 30 and a rear balance layer 34 a. In this embodiment, the projecting portion P outside the joint plane F is to a still greater extent made of different combinations of materials. The locking groove 14 is reinforced by the use of a separate component 70 of, for instance, wood fibre, which in a suitable manner is connected with the joint edge, for instance by gluing. This variant can be used, for instance, on the short side 5 b of the board 1. Moreover, a large part of the fixing shoulder 60 is positioned outside the joint plane F.
FIG. 9 shows a third embodiment of the invention. The board [0063] 1 in FIG. 9 is usable to provide a strong attachment of the aluminium strip 6. In this embodiment, a separate part 72 is arranged on the joint edge supporting the locking element 8. The part 72 can be made of, for instance, wood fibre. The entire fixing shoulder 60 and the entire strip 6 are located outside the joint plane F. Only a small part of the separate strip 6 is used for resilience. From the viewpoint of material, the portion P located outside the joint plane F has three different areas containing the combinations of materials “wood fibre only” (P1), “wood fibre/balance layer/aluminium” (P2) and “aluminium only” (P3). This embodiment with the fixing shoulder 6 positioned entirely outside the joint plane F can also be accomplished merely by working the body of the board, i.e. without the separate part 72. The embodiment in FIG. 9 can be suitable for the long side. The locking element 8 has a large guiding part, and the projecting portion P outside the joint plane F has a reduced bending down capability.
When comparing the embodiments in FIGS. 8 and 9, it may be noted that in FIG. 9 the tongues [0064] 64 are higher than the lip 62. This results in a strong attachment of the strip 6 in the front edge of the fixing shoulder 60, which is advantageous when bending down the strip 6. This can be achieved without any extra cost of material since the tongues 64 are punched from the existing material. On the other hand, the lip 62 can be made lower, which is advantageous in respect of on the one hand consumption of material and, on the other hand, the weakening effect of the mounting groove 54 on the joint edge. It should further be noted that the locking element 8 in FIG. 8 is lower, which facilitates the snapping in on the short sides.
FIGS. [0065] 10-12 show three different embodiments of the invention, in which the projecting portion can be made in one piece with the board body or consists of separate materials which are glued to the edge of the board and are machined from above. Separate materials are particularly suitable on the short side where strength and resilience requirements are high. Such an embodiment means that the composition of materials on the long side and the short side can be different.
The above technique of providing the edge of the body, on the long side and/or short side, with separate materials that are fixed to the body to achieve special functions, such as strength, moisture proofing, flexibility etc, can be used also without utilising the principles of the invention. In other words, it is possible also in other joining systems, especially mechanical joining systems, to provide the body with separate materials in this way. In particular, this material can be applied as an edge portion, which in some suitable fashion is attached to the edge of the body and which can extend over the height of the entire board or parts thereof. [0066]
In a preferred embodiment, the edge portion is applied to the body before the body is provided with all outer layers, such as top layer and rear balance layer. Especially, such layers can then be applied on top of the fixed, separate edge portion, whereupon the latter can be subjected to working in respect of form with a view to forming part of the joining system, such as the projecting portion with locking element and/or the tongue with locking groove. [0067]
In FIGS. 10 and 11, the board body is composed of a top laminate [0068] 32, a wood fibre core 30 and a rear laminate 34. The locking element 8 is formed by the projecting portion P being worked from above in such manner that, seen from the joint plane F outwards, it has an inner part P1 consisting of wood fibre 30 and laminate 34, a central part P2 consisting of laminate 34 only, and an outer part P3 consisting of wood fibre and laminate 34.
The embodiments in FIGS. 10 and 11 differ from each other owing to the fact that in FIG. 10 the boundary between the wood fibre core [0069] 30 and the rear laminate 34 is on a vertical level with the lower edge of the active locking surface 10. Thus, in FIG. 10 no significant working of the rear laminate 34 has taken place in the central part P2. On the other hand, in FIG. 11 also the rear laminate 34 has been worked in the central part P2, which gives the advantage that the active locking surface 10 of the locking element 8 is wholly or partly made of a harder material.
The embodiment in FIG. 12 differs from the embodiments in FIGS. 10 and 11 by an additional intermediate layer [0070] 33 being arranged between the wood fibre core 30 and the rear laminate 34. The intermediate layer 33 should be relatively hard and strong to reinforce the active locking surface 10 as shown in FIG. 12. For example, the immediate layer 33 can be made of a separate material which is glued to the inner core. Alternatively, the immediate layer 33 may constitute a part of, for instance, a particle board core, where chip material and binder have been specially adapted to the mechanical joining system. In this alternative, the core and the intermediate layer 33 can thus both be made of chip material, but with different properties. The layers can be optimised for the different functions of the locking system.
Moreover, the aspects of the invention including a separate strip can preferably be implemented in combination with the use of an equalising groove of the type described in WO 94/26999. Adjacent joint edges are equalised in the thickness direction by working of the underside, so that the upper sides of the floorboards are flush when the boards are joined. Reference letter E in FIG. 1[0071] a indicates that the body of the boards after such working has the same thickness in adjacent joint edges. The strip 6 is received in the groove and will thus be partly flush-mounted in the underside of the floor. A corresponding arrangement can thus be accomplished also in combination with the invention as shown in the drawings.
83. A floorboard system as. Claimed in any one of claims 71, 73, 75, and 77, wherein the edge portion is made of wood fiber.
US6922964B2 US6922964B2 (en) 2005-08-02