Floor panel for forming a floor covering, floor covering formed of such floor panels, and method for manufacturing such floor panels

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9556620-B2
Application number	US-201414760131-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 13, 2014
Priority date	Jan 11, 2013
Publication date	Jan 31, 2017
Grant date	Jan 31, 2017

Abstract

A floor panel for forming a floor covering includes coupling parts on at least one pair of opposite arranged to allow that two of such floor panels can be joined by means of a downward movement (M) of one floor panel in respect to the other floor panel. The coupling parts allow a locking in a first direction perpendicular to the plane of the floor panels as well as in a second direction perpendicular to the respective edge and in the plane of the floor panels. A longitudinal recess located on at least one of the edges is present underneath the upper surface with a locking element. The shape and/or the position of the recess and/or the configuration of the coupling parts is such that deformations are avoided.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A floor panel for forming a floor covering, wherein the floor panel substantially consists of synthetic material and is of the supple type;
wherein the floor panel, on at least one pair of opposite edges, comprises coupling parts which allow joining two of such floor panels by means of a downward movement (M) of one floor panel in respect to the other floor panel, wherein these coupling parts allow a locking in a first direction (V) perpendicular to the plane of the floor panels as well as in a second direction (H) perpendicular to the respective edge and in the plane of the floor panels;

wherein the coupling parts comprise a first locking system for the locking in said first direction and a second locking system for the locking in said second direction;
wherein the second locking system substantially is formed of an upwardly directed lower hook-shaped part situated on an edge, as well as of a downwardly directed upper hook-shaped part situated on the opposite edge, which hook-shaped parts can be engaged behind each other by said downward movement M;
wherein the lower hook-shaped part consists of a lip which extends laterally from the lower edge of the panel and which is provided with an upwardly directed locking element with a locking surface, whereas the upper hook-shaped part consists of a lip which extends laterally from the upper edge of the panel and which is provided with a downwardly directed locking element with a locking surface;
wherein said first locking system comprises a separate locking element;
wherein the locking element is provided in a longitudinal recess which is present on the respective edge at a distance underneath the upper surface, and is separated from the upper surface by a lip-shaped part;
wherein the lip-shaped part, in a cross-section, comprises a proximal end and a distal end and wherein the distal end defines an upper edge;
wherein the lip-shaped part, near the proximal end, has a thickness, herein below denominated proximal thickness (B), wherein the proximal thickness (B) is formed by a distance perpendicular to the upper surface, measured from the upper surface to a tangent point determined by a line at an angle (A 1 ) of 60° with said upper surface, which is directed downward in proximal direction and which is tangential to said recess;
wherein the lip-shaped part, in a cross-section, has a horizontal length (A) which is formed by the horizontal distance between the most distal end of the lip-shaped part and the most proximal point of said recess; and
wherein the floor panel combines the following two features:
said locking surfaces are configured such that in the coupled condition, on a location where they contact each other, they form an angle (A 2 ) different from 90 degrees with the plane of the floor panel; and
said lip-shaped part shows at least one of the following features or a combination of any two or three of the following features, or all four of the following features:
the ratio (B/A) of said proximal thickness (B) to said horizontal distance (A) is larger than 0.75;
said recess is situated over its entire depth, possibly with the exception of the first 10% of its depth, below an imaginary line which extends through said upper edge and is inwardly sloping downward over an angle (A 3 ) of 36 degrees;
said horizontal length (A), or thus the depth of the recess, is less than 2.4 mm;
said horizontal length (A) is smaller than 0.4 times the overall thickness (T) of the floor panel;

wherein said floor panel has a suppleness defined such that when the floor panel has a rectangular shape with a pair of short sides and a pair of long sides, with a width of less than 50 centimeters measured along one side of the short sides, and when the floor panel is fixedly clamped on one side of the pair of short sides of the floor panel to project over a length of 100 centimeters, the floor panel, starting from a flat horizontal position, will bend under the influence of its own weight, such that at a height of a free extremity portion of the floor panel, the bending is at least 10 centimeters in respect to a clamped portion of the floor panel, when a bending time of at least 10 seconds is considered.

2. The floor panel of claim 1 , wherein the locking element is at least composed of an attachment portion and a pivotable blocking body.

3. The floor panel of claim 1 , wherein the locking element is made in the form of a displaceable tongue.

4. The floor panel of claim 1 , wherein the floor panel has a thickness (T) of less than 6 mm.

5. A floor panel for forming a floor covering, wherein the floor panel substantially consists of synthetic material and is of the supple type;
wherein the floor panel, on at least one pair of opposite edges, comprises coupling parts which allow joining two of such floor panels by means of a downward movement (M) of one floor panel in respect to the other floor panel, wherein these coupling parts allow a locking in a first direction (V) perpendicular to the plane of the floor panels as well as in a second direction (H) perpendicular to the respective edge and in the plane of the floor panels;
wherein the coupling parts comprise a first locking system for the locking in said first direction and a second locking system for the locking in said second direction;
wherein the second locking system substantially is formed of an upwardly directed lower hook-shaped part situated on an edge, as well as of a downwardly directed upper hook-shaped part situated on the opposite edge, which hook-shaped parts, when interconnecting two such floor panels, can be engaged behind each other by said downward movement (M);
wherein the lower hook-shaped part consists of a lip which extends laterally from the lower edge of the panel and which is provided with an upwardly directed locking element with a locking surface, whereas the upper hook-shaped part consists of a lip which extends laterally from the upper edge of the panel and which is provided with a downwardly directed locking element with a locking surface;
wherein said first locking system comprises a separate locking element;
wherein the locking element is provided in a longitudinal recess which is present on the respective edge at a distance underneath the upper surface and is separated from the upper surface by a lip-shaped part;
wherein the lip-shaped part, in a cross-section, comprises a proximal end and a distal end and wherein the distal end defines an upper edge;
wherein the lip-shaped part, near the proximal end, has a thickness (B), herein below denominated proximal thickness (B), wherein the proximal thickness (B) is formed by a distance perpendicular to the upper surface, measured from the upper surface to a tangent point determined by a line at an angle (A 1 ) of 60° with said upper surface, which is directed downward in proximal direction and which is tangential to said recess;
wherein the lip-shaped part, in a cross-section, has a horizontal length (A) which is formed by the horizontal distance between the most distal end of the lip-shaped part and the most proximal point of said recess; and
wherein the floor panel combines the following two features:

said recess is bordered by a bottom wall consisting at least of a first portion and a second portion, of which the second portion is situated more inwardly than the first portion and also is situated lower than the first portion;
said lip-shaped part shows at least one of the following features or a combination of any two or three of the following features, or all four of the following features:
the ratio (B/A) of said proximal thickness (B) to said horizontal length (A) is larger than 0.75;
said recess is situated over its entire depth, possibly with the exception of the first 10% of its depth

Assignees

• Flooring Ind Ltd Sarl

Inventors

• Cappelle Mark
• Devos Pieter
• Naeyaert Christophe

Classifications

• E04F15/10 Primary

  of other materials, e.g. fibrous or chipped materials, organic plastics, magnesite {tiles}, hardboard {, or with a top layer of other materials} · CPC title

• Y10T403/54

  Flexible member is joint component · CPC title

• E04C2/20

  of plastics · CPC title

• E04F2201/0523

  Separate tongues; Interlocking keys, e.g. joining mouldings of circular, square or rectangular shape · CPC title

• E04F2201/0138

  by moving the sheets, plates or panels perpendicular to the main plane · CPC title