Coated mat of inorganic fibers, and functional decorative layers, manufactured therefrom, in floor, ceiling and wall coverings

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10005102-B2
Application number	US-201414551855-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 24, 2014
Priority date	Dec 5, 2013
Publication date	Jun 26, 2018
Grant date	Jun 26, 2018

Abstract

A method for manufacturing a mat of inorganic fibers including the manufacture or supply of a mat of inorganic fibers having two major surfaces, which is strengthened with a chemical binder, or by means of a hydrodynamic method, coating of a first major surface of the mat by means of the application of an aqueous solid dispersion on one of the two sides of the mat, drying the coated mat, printing the coated mat by means of rotary printing, digital printing, screen printing, or offset printing on the first major surface of the coating, optional application of a protective layer onto the first major surface, application of a binder, at least partial drying and at least partial crosslinking of the mat to which binder has been applied, and rolling up of the obtained material web, or cutting to size as sheets.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for the manufacture of mats of inorganic fibres, which on one of two major surfaces have at least one printed coating comprising the steps:
(i) manufacture or supply of a mat of inorganic fibres, the mat comprises two major surfaces, which is strengthened with a chemical binder, or by means of a hydrodynamic method,
(ii) coating of one side of the mat by means of the application of an aqueous solid dispersion on a first major surface of the two major surfaces of the mat,
(iii) drying of the coated mat obtained in accordance with step (ii),
(iv) printing of the coated mat obtained in accordance with step (iii) by means of rotary printing, digital printing, screen printing, or offset printing on the first major surface of the coating,
(v) optional application of a protective layer onto the first major surface,
(vi) application of a binder,
(vii) at least partial drying and at least partial crosslinking of the mat to which binder has been applied,
(viii) rolling up of the obtained material web, or cutting to size as sheets, characterised in that,
(a) the mat manufactured in step (iii) has a permeability to air (in accordance with Gurley) in the range from 5 to 50 sec/100 ml, and smoothness values (in accordance with Bekk) between 100 and 500 sec,
(b) the aqueous dispersion applied in step (ii) comprises particles with a grain size in the range from 0.1 μm to 5 μm,
(c) the aqueous dispersion applied in step (ii) is applied using transfer coating or slot bead coating,
(d) the coating applied in step (iii) after drying corresponds to a mass per unit surface area of between 50 and 200 g/m 2 ,
(e) the printing executed in step (iv) takes place directly onto the surface coating obtained in accordance with step (iii),
(f) the binder in step (vi) is a binder system capable of B-stage curing, and the binder system capable of B-stage curing is transferred in step (vii) into a B-stage state,
(g) the application of the B-stage capable binder system in step (vi) takes place on a second major surface of the two major surfaces of the mat, or by impregnation of the mat, and
(h) the quantity of the B-stage capable binder system applied in step (vi) is between 40 and 80% by mass.

2. The method according to claim 1 , characterised in that, the mat of inorganic fibres takes the form of one or more of glass fibre mats or mats of inorganic mineral and ceramic fibres.

3. The method according to claim 1 , characterised in that, the mat of inorganic fibres takes the form of mats based on mineral fibres, in which the average length of the mineral fibres is between 5 and 120 mm.

4. The method according to claim 1 , characterised in that, the mat of inorganic fibres takes the form of mats based on mineral fibres, in which the average fibre diameter is between 5 and 30 μm.

5. The method according to claim 1 , characterised in that, the mat of inorganic fibres takes the form of mats based on mineral fibres in which the mass per unit surface area is between 25 and 150 g/m 2 , wherein these numbers relate to a planar structure with binder.

6. The method according to claim 1 , characterised in that, the mat of inorganic fibres takes the form of mats based on glass fibres, in which the average length of the glass fibres is between 5 and 120 mm.

7. The method according to claim 1 , characterised in that, the mat of inorganic fibres takes the form of mats based on glass fibres, in which the average fibre diameter is between 6 and 30 μm.

8. The method according to claim 7 , characterised in that, the mat has less than 30% by mass of additional glass microfibres, relative to the total content of inorganic fibres, or glass fibres; the average diameter of the glass microfibres is between 0.1 and 6 μm.

9. The method according to claim 1 , characterised in that, the mat of inorganic fibres takes the form of mats based on glass fibres in which the mass per unit surface area is between 25 and 150 g/m 2 , wherein these numbers relate to a planar structure with binder.

10. The method according to claim 1 , characterised in that, the mat has glass fibres and mineral fibres as the inorganic fibres, wherein the mat can also have a layered structure of mineral fibres and glass fibres.

11. The method according to claim 1 , characterised in that, the mat of inorganic fibres, in particular of glass fibres, has a proportion of binder of between 5 and 30%, wherein these numbers relate to the total mass of the mat with binder.

12. The method according to claim 1 , characterised in that, the mat of inorganic fibres, in particular mats of glass fibres, have a permeability to air (a) in the range between 1,000 and 3,000 l/cm 2 ·sec, measured in accordance with DIN-EN9237, if the mat has been strengthened in step (i) with a binder, or (b) values between 1,200 and 4,000 l/cm 2 ·sec, if the mat has been strengthened in step (i) by means of a hydrodynamic method.

13. The method according to claim 1 , characterised in that, the coating applied in step (ii) has a thickness of between 50 and 1,000 μm, after the drying process in step (iii).

14. The method according to claim 1 , characterised in that, the coating applied in step (ii) is formed in two or more layers.

15. The method according to claim 1 , characterised in that, the drying process in step (vii) at least partially cures the binder capable of B-stage curing, but not completely, such that a residual moisture content of between 1% and 5%, remains in the binder capable of B-stage curing.

16. The method according to claim 1 , characterised in that, the aqueous dispersion applied in step (ii) comprises particles with a grain size in the range from 0.1 μm to 5 μm, and functional materials in the form of particles being with the same size range, said particulate functional materials being selected from the group consisting of: materials for purposes of increasing fire resistance (flame retardants), materials for purposes of dissipating electrostatic charges, materials for purposes of screening electromagnetic radiation, and organic or inorganic pigments wherein the aforementioned aqueous dispersion consists of said particles with a grain size in the range from 0.1 μm to 5 μm, and functional material or mixtures of functional materials.

Assignees

• Johns Manville

Inventors

• Ketzer Michael
• Gleich Klaus Friedrich
• Schneider Simone

Classifications

• C03C2217/72

  Decorative coatings · CPC title

• B44C1/24

  Pressing or stamping ornamental designs on surfaces · CPC title

• E04F13/002

  made of webs, e.g. of fabrics, or wallpaper, used as coverings or linings (of a number of similar elements carried by a common web E04F13/0862; paperhanging, tapestry work B44C7/00) · CPC title

• E04C2/16

  of fibres, chips, vegetable stems, or the like · CPC title

• B05D7/50

  Multilayers · CPC title