Patent ID: 8353140

Claim:
A set of essentially identical floor panels, each floor panel comprising long and short edges provided with a mechanical locking system comprising first and second connectors integrated with the floor panels, and wherein immediately juxtaposed upper parts of two adjacent joint edges of two joined floor panels together define a vertical plane perpendicular to the main plane of the panels, the first connector comprises a locking strip with an upwardly directed locking element, at a first edge of a floor panel, configured to cooperate with a downwardly open locking groove at an adjacent second edge of another floor panel for connecting the adjacent edges in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the vertical plane, the second connector comprises a tongue, either at the first or at the second edge, extending horizontally perpendicular to the vertical plane, configured to cooperate with a horizontally open tongue groove at the other of said first or second edge for connecting the adjacent edges in a vertical direction parallel to the vertical plane, the connectors at the long edges are configured to be locked with angling and the connectors at the short edges are configured to be locked with vertical snap folding, whereby a long edge of a new panel in a second row is configured to be connected to a long edge of a first panel in a first row by angling, whereby a second short edge of the new panel and a first short edge of a second panel in the second row are configured to be connected with vertical snap folding motion, wherein the tongue at one of the short edges is formed in one piece with the corresponding panel and protrudes from a substantially vertical upper surface at said one short edge, wherein the locking strip at the short edges is bendable, to obtain a resilient bending during the vertical snap folding action, which bending facilitates the assembling of the tongue and the tongue groove, and wherein the first and the second connector at the short edges are configured to overcome friction between connectors on the long edges, facilitating a displacement, by a spring back force from the bending of the short edge locking strip, of the new panel in the horizontal direction along the long edge during the vertical snap folding action so that the connectors on the short edges are pulled together automatically to be in a locked position without a sideward pressure on the new panel from an external force.