Method, apparatus and system for producing a polyurethane sports flooring

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11015302-B2
Application number	US-201715564064-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 2, 2017
Priority date	Mar 11, 2016
Publication date	May 25, 2021
Grant date	May 25, 2021

Abstract

A method for producing polyurethane flooring includes providing polyurethane reactive components including a isocyanate component and a polyol component, determining environmental data, determining process parameters for mixing the polyurethane reactive components, wherein the process parameters depend on the environmental data, mixing the foam for the polyurethane flooring by mixing the isocyanate component and the polyol component using a froth foam process with the process parameters, applying a first lane of the liquid foam to a ground, applying a second lane of the liquid foam to the ground, wherein a side edge of the second lane gets in contact with a side edge of the first lane, wherein the process parameter are determined so that the foam of the first lane is not cured before applying the foam of the second lane. Furthermore, the invention relates to an apparatus and a system for producing a polyurethane flooring.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for producing a polyurethane flooring for a sports ground, wherein a polyurethane foam for the polyurethane flooring is applied to a ground in at least two lanes using a vehicle, wherein the at least two lanes are arranged adjacent to each other, wherein each lane of polyurethane foam has a first surface in contact with the ground, a second surface opposite the first surface and side edges joining the first surface and second surface, and wherein a side edge of a first lane is in contact with a side edge of an adjacent second lane of the polyurethane flooring, comprising the following steps:
providing polyurethane reactive components comprising an isocyanate component and a polyol component in a tank of the vehicle;
determining environmental data at the sports ground, wherein the determining environmental data at the sports ground comprises at least one of measuring the environmental data via at least one sensor at the sports ground and receiving the environmental data from a meteorology service;
determining process parameters for mixing the polyurethane reactive components, wherein the process parameters depend on the environmental data, wherein the environmental data comprise one or more of air temperature, ground temperature or relative humidity;
mixing the foam for the polyurethane flooring by mixing the isocyanate component and the polyol component using a froth foam process with the process parameters by a mixing unit of the vehicle, wherein the process parameters comprise one or more of whisking air into the polyurethane foam, compression and expansion of the polyurethane foam, adding frothing agents to the polyurethane foam or adding compressed air to the polyurethane foam;
applying the first lane of the foam to the ground using an application unit connected to the mixing unit;
applying the second lane of the foam to the ground, after applying the first lane of the foam to the ground, using the application unit connected to the mixing unit, wherein the side edge of the second lane is in contact with the side edge of the first lane,
wherein the process parameters are determined so that the foam of the first lane is not cured before applying the foam of the second lane, and wherein the process parameters are adjusted based on a length of the lanes, a speed of the vehicle applying the polyurethane foam to the ground and a thickness of the polyurethane flooring.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein polyurethane forming ingredients added to the foam comprise one or more of the frothing agents, the compressed air, additives or activators, wherein a type and a quantity of the polyurethane forming ingredients depends on the measured environmental data and wherein the polyurethane forming ingredients are chosen so that the foam of the first lane is not cured before applying the foam of the second lane.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the environmental data are continuously measured and wherein the process parameters and the type and quantity of the polyurethane forming ingredients are adjusted continuously to the measured environmental data.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the measured environmental data are stored in a memory of a control unit and the process parameters and the type and quantity of polyurethane forming ingredients are adjusted depending on the stored environmental data.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein a position and/or the speed of the vehicle for applying the foam to the ground is measured and the process parameters and the type and quantity of polyurethane forming ingredients are adjusted depending on the position and the speed of the vehicle.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the environmental data further comprises any one of the following: a weather forecast, time of day, or combinations thereof.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the environmental data are measured at various positions of the ground.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the environmental data is measured by the vehicle for applying the foam to the ground.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the process parameters are entered into a control unit, wherein the control unit is configured to control the mixing of the foam to adjust a curing time of the foam based on the process parameters in response to changes in the environmental data.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising determining a minimum curing time using the environmental data, and wherein the control unit is configured to adjust the curing time such that the curing time is longer than the minimum curing time.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mixing unit comprises an oscillating tube fed with the isocyanate component and the polyol component, and wherein the oscillating tube is configured to cause the foaming of the polyurethane flooring by effects of the compression and expansion.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the foam comprises an MDI based NCO terminal prepolymer which is a reaction product of the isocyanate component and the polyol component, wherein the MDI based NCO terminal prepolymer is produced from an isomeric mixture of 2,4′; 4,4′ and 2,2′ MDI monomer based prepolymer with an NCO content of between 1.5 and 18 weight % and with 2,2 MDI between 1 and 40% by weight.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein a high molecular weight primary hydroxyl terminated diol of molecular weight 2000-4000 with hydroxyl numbers of 25-60 mg KOH/g is used to produce the NCO terminal prepolymer.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the NCO terminal prepolymer and the polyol component are held within a predetermined temperature range and pumped in a prefixed ratio through a static mixer before being turned into the foam in the froth foam process, wherein the predetermined temperature range is between 5° C. and 35° C.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the NCO terminal prepolymer and the polyol component are held within a predetermined temperature range and pumped in a prefixed ratio through a static mixer before being turned into the foam in the froth foam process, wherein the predetermined temperature range is between 10° C. and 25° C.

16. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises mixing rubber granulates into the foam before applying the foam to the ground.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sports ground has a length and a width, wherein the vehicle is configured for applying a lane of foam to the ground having a lane width which is smaller than the width of the sports ground, and wherein applying the second lane of the foam to the ground, after applying the first lane of the foam to the ground, comprises applying the second lane of the foam to the ground over the length of the sports ground, after applying the first lane of the foam to the ground over the length of the sports ground.

Assignees

• Polytex Sportbelage Produktions Gmbh

Inventors

• Sick Stephan
• Finder Zdenka
• Lohr Ivo

Classifications

• C08L75/04

  Polyurethanes · CPC title

• E01C13/065 Primary

  at least one in situ layer consisting of or including bitumen, rubber or plastics · CPC title

• C08G2110/0008

  flexible · CPC title

• E01C7/356

  with exclusively synthetic resin as a binder; Aggregate, fillers or other additives for application on or in the surface of toppings having exclusively synthetic resin as binder · CPC title

• E01C19/174

  Apparatus with pump-discharge · CPC title