Patent ID: 8460757

Claim:
A method of making a floor covering having variable tactile surface characteristics comprising: a) forming a high performance coating comprising texture particles on a substrate, b) then at least partially curing the high performance coating, c) then while controlling the temperature of the high performance coating below a melting point or a softening point of the texture particles and above temperature and pressure conditions at which the texture particles deform under an applied mechanical embossing pressure, mechanically embossing the high performance coating with a mechanical embossing tool wherein (i) a first portion of the high performance coating is subjected to a first average pressure and a second portion of the high performance coating is subjected to a second average pressure, or (ii) controlling the temperature of a first portion of the high performance coating at a first temperature and controlling the temperature of a second portion of the high performance coating wherein the first portion of the high performance coating and the second portion of the high performance coating are subjected to substantially the same average pressure, or (iii) controlling the temperature of a first portion of the high performance coating at a first temperature and controlling the temperature of a second portion of the high performance coating wherein the first portion of the high performance coating is subjected to a first average pressure and the second portion of the high performance coating is subjected to a second different average pressure, and d) then cooling the mechanically embossed high performance coating, whereby the tactile surface characteristic of the first portion is different than the tactile surface characteristic of the second portion by at least an average RPc of 4.