Mechanical locking of floor panels, methods to install and uninstall panels, a method and an equipement to produce the locking system, a method to connect a displaceable tongue to a panel and a tongue blank

A method to install floor panels with a mechanical angling locking system at long edges and a mechanical locking system at short edges comprising a tongue and a tongue groove each provided with protrusions and cavities wherein the method comprises the steps of:

• bringing a new and a second panel into a position were upper parts of their short edges are in contact, in which position the new and a second panels are in the same plane and in a second row with the long edges offset and with the short edges unlocked vertically and preferably locked horizontally;
• displacing one of the panels along the short edges until the long edges are aligned and some of the protrusions at one of the short edges vertically overlaps some of the protrusions at the other of the short edges to lock the short edges vertically and horizontally;
• bringing the aligned long edges into contact with a long edge of a first panel in a first row;
• and
• angling down the second and the new panel along the aligned long edges to lock the long edges of the first, the second and new panel vertically and horizontally.

A method to install floor panels with a mechanical angling locking system at long edges and a mechanical locking system at short edges comprising a tongue groove and a displaceable tongue whereby the said tongue and tongue groove each comprises protrusions and cavities configured such that adjacent short edges can obtain a vertically unlocked position where the protrusions of one of the adjacent short edges match the cavities of the other adjacent short edge and a vertically locked position where some of the protrusions of respectively adjacent short edges vertically overlap each other wherein the method comprises the step of:

• connecting long edges of a second and a new panel in a second row to a long edge of a first panel in a first row with angling;
• positioning the second and the new panel in essentially the same plane and with their adjacent short edges in contact;
• and
• displacing the displaceable tongue along the adjacent short edges to a position where some of the protrusions, of respectively adjacent short edge, overlap each other to lock the adjacent short edges vertically.

A method to install floor panels with a mechanical locking system at long edges comprising protrusions and cavities and a mechanical locking system at short edges comprising a displaceable locking element allowing horizontal snapping of short edges whereby said long edges can obtain a vertically and/or horizontally unlocked position where the protrusions of one long edge match the cavities in another adjacent long edge and a vertically and/or horizontally locked position where some of the protrusions, of respectively long edge, overlap each other vertically and/or horizontally wherein the method comprises the steps of:

• locking, at least partially vertically and horizontally, the long edge of a first panel in a first row to a long edge of a second panel in a second row;
• connecting the long edge of a new panel in the second row to the first panel in the first row by bringing the upper parts of the adjacent long edges in contact;
• and
• displacing the new panel along the long edge of the first panel to a position where some of the protrusions of the new and the first panel overlap each other and until a short edge of the new panel snaps into an adjacent short edge of the second panel.

A method of uninstalling floor panels with long and short edges provided with a locking system on the short edges comprising a displaceable tongue at one edge of a first floor panel and a tongue groove in an adjacent edge of a similar second floor panel for connecting the short edges vertically, the tongue and the groove each comprises protrusions and cavities configured such that the short edges can obtain a vertically unlocked position where the protrusions of on of the adjacent short edges match the cavities in the other of adjacent short edges and a vertically locked position where some of the protrusions, of respectively adjacent short edges, overlap each other vertically wherein the method comprises the steps of:

• applying a pressure force at an edge of the displaceable tongue in vertically locked position;
• displacing the displaceable tongue to obtain the vertically unlocked position;
• and
• separating the short edges from each other by angling upward one of the panels along its long edge.