Methods to provide a floor covering

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12128582-B2
Application number	US-201917251836-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 5, 2019
Priority date	Jul 2, 2018
Publication date	Oct 29, 2024
Grant date	Oct 29, 2024

Abstract

A method to provide a floor covering, including the steps of: providing a sheet vinyl; providing a PVC intermediate including at least a first layer of PVC material and at least a first reinforcing sheet, the first layer of PVC material providing the upper side of the PVC intermediate. The method also includes adhering the sheet vinyl to the PVC intermediate by laminating the lower side of the sheet vinyl to the upper side of the PVC intermediate.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method to provide a floor covering, comprising the steps of:
providing a roll of sheet vinyl, said sheet vinyl being prefabricated and comprising at least a sequence of layers including;
a lower reinforced PVC (polyvinyl chloride) layer providing a lower side of the sheet vinyl;
a decorative layer contacting the reinforced PVC lower layer; and
a wear layer contacting the decorative layer;

providing a PVC intermediate comprising at least a first layer of PVC material and at least a first reinforcing sheet, the first layer of PVC material providing an upper side of the PVC intermediate;
adhering said sheet vinyl to the PVC intermediate by laminating the lower side of the sheet vinyl to the upper side of the PVC intermediate;
wherein the lower reinforced PVC layer comprises PVC material and a reinforcing element, which is a glass fiber woven or nonwoven sheet.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method comprises the step of embossing at least the wear layer after laminating the lower side of the sheet vinyl to the upper side of the PVC intermediate.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the PVC material of the PVC intermediate comprises foamed PVC.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the PVC material of the PVC intermediate comprises non-foamed PVC material.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said PVC material of the PVC intermediate comprises semi-rigid or rigid PVC material.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the PVC material present in the PVC intermediate is extruded PVC material.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the extruded PVC intermediate is provided by extruding the first layer of extruded PVC material on one side of the first reinforcing sheet.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the extruded PVC intermediate comprises two layers of extruded PVC material, a first layer of PVC material is provided by extruding PVC material on a first side of the first reinforcing sheet, a second layer of extruded PVC material being provided by extruding PVC material to a second side of the first reinforcing sheet.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the extruded PVC intermediate comprises at least the first reinforcing sheet and a second reinforcing sheet, the method comprises the steps of
providing the first layer of extruded PVC material by extruding PVC material on a first side of first reinforcing sheet,
providing the second layer of extruded PVC material by extruding PVC material to the second side of the first reinforcing sheet and on a first side of the second reinforcing sheet.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein
the first layer of extruded PVC material is a multilayered stack of two co-extruded PVC sublayers, obtained by co-extrusion of a first PVC material providing the first of the two sublayers, and a second PVC material providing the second of the two sublayers,
the second layer of extruded PVC material is a multilayered stack of two co-extruded PVC sublayers, obtained by co-extrusion of a third PVC material providing the first of the two sublayers, and a fourth PVC material providing the second of the two sublayers, and wherein
the second of the two sublayers of the first layer of extruded PVC material is in contact with the first of the two sublayers of the second layer of extruded PVC material, optionally in contact through the first reinforcing sheet;
the first and fourth PVC material are identical and the second and third PVC material are identical.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the PVC intermediate is provided by
providing PVC granulate, said granulates consisting of PVC material;
providing the first reinforcing sheet;
deposit the first reinforcing sheet on a transporting device;
strewing said PVC granulate on said first reinforcing sheet;
passing said PVC granulate by the transporting device along a heating means for heating said PVC granulate on said first reinforcing sheet;
passing said heated PVC granulate by the transporting device along a continuous pressing device for consolidating said PVC granulate thereby providing the PVC intermediate;
optionally cooling said PVC intermediate.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the PVC intermediate comprises at least a first and a second reinforcing sheet, the method comprises the step of providing the second reinforcing sheet prior to the strewing of the PVC granulates of a first PVC material on the transporting device.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the PVC intermediate comprises two layers of PVC material, each of the two layers being a multilayered stack of at least two PVC sublayers, the method comprising the steps of
strewing PVC granulates of a first PVC material on the transporting device to provide a second sublayer of a second layer of the PVC material;
strewing PVC granulates of a second PVC material on the strewn first PVC material on the transporting device to provide a first sublayer of the second layer of PVC material;
providing the first reinforcing sheet on the strewn second PVC material on the transporting device;
strewing PVC granulates of a third PVC material on the first reinforcing sheet on the transporting device to provide the second sublayer of the first layer of PVC material;
strewing PVC granulates of a fourth PVC material on a strewn third PVC material on the transporting device to provide the first sublayer of the first layer of PVC material;
optionally providing the second reinforcing sheet prior to the strewing of the PVC granulates of a first PVC material on the transporting device;
wherein optionally the first PVC material and a fourth PVC material are identical and the second and third PVC material are identical.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first and fourth PVC material is non-foamed rigid PVC material, the second and third PVC material being foamed, rigid or semi-rigid PVC material.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein said lamination is thermal lamination.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein said sheet vinyl is unembossed prior to said lamination.

17. A method to provide a floor covering element, comprising the steps of
providing a floor covering according to claim 1 ;
dividing the floor covering in at least two floor covering elements.

Assignees

• Ivc Bv
• Unilin Bv

Inventors

• Van Vlassenrode Kristof

Classifications

• B29K2105/06

  containing reinforcements, fillers or inserts · CPC title

• B29K2027/06

  PVC, i.e. polyvinylchloride · CPC title

• B29C2793/009

  after shaping · CPC title

• B29C2793/0027

  Cutting off · CPC title

• B29C70/506

  and impregnating by melting a solid material, e.g. sheet, powder, fibres (B29C70/508 takes precedence) · CPC title