Patent ID: 7454875

Claim:
A new floor panel comprising connectors which are integrated with the new floor panel and adapted to connect the new floor panel to essentially identical first and second floor panels, so that upper joint edges of said new and second floor panels in the connected state define a vertical plane, said connectors being designed to connect said new floor panel with said second floor panel in a horizontal direction perpendicular to said vertical plane and in a vertical direction parallel to the vertical plane, one of the connectors for making a vertical connection comprises a flexible tongue in a sliding groove in one of the new or second floor panels, the sliding groove is formed in an edge of the panel and is open towards the vertical plane, the flexible tongue has a length direction along a lengthwise direction of the joint edges, a width in the horizontal plane perpendicular to the length and a thickness in the vertical direction, the flexible tongue is designed to cooperate, in a connected state with a tongue groove of the other of the new or second floor panels, another one of the connectors for making a horizontal connection comprises a locking strip which projects from said vertical plane in the second panel and carries a locking element, said locking strip is designed to cooperate, in a connected state, with a downward open locking groove of the new floor panel, wherein the new floor panel is adapted to be locked to the first and second floor panels with vertical folding, the flexible tongue during the vertical folding is capable of being displaced two times in the sliding groove, a first displacement is effected by the vertical folding of the new floor panel whereby at least a part of the flexible tongue is capable of being bent in the horizontal direction, a second displacement of the flexible tongue towards its initial position is accomplished substantially by a spring effect caused by said bending of said flexible tongue, wherein the flexible tongue along its length has a middle section and two edge sections on both sides of the middle section and that the middle section could be displaced more than one of the edge sections.