Patent ID: 7131472

Claim:
A method of producing a three-dimensionally, flexibly deformable surface element of wood or wood composite material for producing layered, three-dimensional formed parts or for coating three-dimensional formed parts, said method including the steps of: providing a workpiece of wood, laminated wood, or a composite of wood and one or more further surface materials, wherein said workpiece has a thickness that is at least 5% greater than a thickness of a three-dimensional surface element that is to be produced; introducing narrow grooves that are spaced from one another into said workpiece, wherein each of said grooves has a depth that is greater than or the same as the thickness of said three-dimensional surface element yet less than the thickness of said workpiece; subsequently separating or otherwise processing the portion of said workpiece that is greater than the thickness of said three-dimensional surface element from the remainder of the three-dimensional surface element in such a way that at least temporarily no fixed cohesion of portions separated by the grooves exists; and prior to, during or after said separating or otherwise processing step, fixing the portions of said workpiece that are separated from one another by the grooves to one another and/or to a substrate by a transverse connection or bond.