Mechanical locking of floor panels

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10640989-B2
Application number	US-201414503780-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 1, 2014
Priority date	Dec 8, 2006
Publication date	May 5, 2020
Grant date	May 5, 2020

Abstract

Floor panels ( 1, 1 ′) are shown, which are provided with a mechanical locking system on long ( 5 a, 5 b ) and short edges ( 4 a, 4 b ) allowing installation with angling of long edges and where the short edge locking system has a displaceable tongue that is displaceable essentially in one direction from an inner unlocked position to an final locked position.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. Method of locking a set of floor panels provided with a locking system comprising a separate flexible tongue arranged in a displacement groove at an edge of one floor panel, and a tongue groove at an adjacent edge of a similar floor panel, wherein the method comprises the step of inserting a needle shaped tool into the displacement groove and displacing the flexible tongue into the tongue groove to obtain a vertical locking of the edge of the one floor panel and the adjacent edge of the similar floor panel.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the locking system comprises a friction connection.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the one floor panel and the similar floor panel are installed in last row adjacent to a wall.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the one floor panel and the similar floor panel are installed in a first row adjacent to a wall.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the flexible tongue is bendable.

6. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the friction connection is on the flexible tongue.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the displacing of the flexible tongue is by a bending principle.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the displacing of the flexible tongue is by a link principle in which a portion of the flexible tongue is rotated around a point.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the displacing of the flexible tongue is by a wedge principle.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the one floor panel and the similar floor panel are configured to be locked with angling or a vertical motion.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the displacing of the flexible tongue causes at least a part of the flexible tongue to be bent in a length direction of the flexible tongue.

Assignees

• Valinge Innovation Ab

Inventors

• Pervan Darko

Classifications

• E04F2201/0588

  of organic plastics with or without reinforcements or filling materials · CPC title

• E04F2201/0547

  adapted to be moved perpendicular to the joint edge · CPC title

• E04F2201/0541

  adapted to be moved along the joint edge · CPC title

• E04F2201/0176

  with snap action of the edge connectors · CPC title

• E04F2201/0169

  by rotating the sheets, plates or panels around an axis which is perpendicular to the abutting edges and parallel to the main plane, possibly combined with a sliding movement · CPC title