Building product and method of manufacture and use
AssigneeEovations, LLC
InventorsKevin L. Nichols, Claude Brown, JR., Brett M. Birchmeier, Bruce A. Malone
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A building product and method for manufacturing a building product made from an oriented polymer composition which can be split to provide a surface of the building product with a plurality of visible fibrils to form an aesthetic representative of split wood.
Claims23
A building product comprising a body having a length and width both greater than a thickness thereof, the body having a first outer surface bordered by the body length and width, and having a first surface area, and a second outer surface bordered by the body length and width, juxtaposed with the first outer surface thereof, and having a second surface area, the building product comprising:
- an oriented polymer composition forming the body comprising long chain polymer strands that are aligned with the length of the board;
- and
- a plurality of oriented polymer composition fibrils extending from at least one of the first or second outer surfaces on substantially the entire first or second surface area;
- wherein the fibrils extending from the at least one of the first or second outer surfaces provide an aesthetic representative of a real wood split surface.
A method for manufacturing a building product comprising the steps of:
- providing a polymer composition having a softening temperature;
- drawing the polymer composition through a drawing die at a drawing temperature less than the softening temperature of the polymer composition, the polymer composition exiting the drawing die in an axial, lengthwise orientation, to form an oriented polymer composition comprising long chain polymer strands that are aligned lengthwise with the drawn oriented polymer composition;
- moving the oriented polymer composition against a splitting assembly to separate the oriented polymer composition lengthwise along a longitudinal axis of the oriented polymer composition into at least two planar portions, each planar portion comprising a split face where the oriented polymer composition is split;
- and
- splitting a plurality of the long chain polymer strands to form a plurality of oriented polymer composition fibrils extending from the split face of each planar portion on substantially the entire split face of each planar portion;
- wherein the fibrils extending from the split face of each planar portion provide an aesthetic representative of a real wood split surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.