Method for producing laminated panels having folds

Abstract

A method of producing a laminated panel having a backside formed of a normally rigid substrate, such as a polymer/filler composition, in an essentially self-supporting thickness of typically between 1 and 10 mm and a frontside formed of a differentially segmented cover layer, e.g. having segments of differing materials and/or colors, bonded to said substrate by laminatingly interconnecting, typically at elevated temperatures and pressures, a layer of said substrate in a moldable, e.g. thermally plastified state and a differentially segmented sheet for forming said cover layer; the sheet has at least one seam line between adjacent segments; in order to compensate the effects of an off-set between the position of the seam line of the segmented sheet and the desired position of the seam line between segments of the laminated panel the novel laminating method includes the step of forming a fold to protrude from the backside of the final laminate; the fold consists of a folded double layer of the segmented sheet as an inner fold portion and of an outer fold portion formed of the substrate; the folded double layer has a length corresponding to at least about 100%, typically between 100 and 300%, of the self-supporting thickness of the substrate and embeds the seam line of the segmented sheet within the fold so that the visible junction between differing segments on the frontside will be defined by the visible end of the folded double layer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.