Floor member with cork substrate
AssigneeTower IPCO Company Limited
InventorNorman Stone
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The floor member is a laminated structure of flexible compressible cork sheet material and flexible plastic sheet material in the form of a floor tile or a floor plank. The cork sheet material and plastic sheet material are offset, from each other and have respective predetermined thicknesses to enable the floor member to be bendable to facilitate assembly of a plurality of the floor members into a floor covering. The compressible cork sheet material provides sound and heat insulation and the flexible plastic sheet material is yieldable to surface irregularities of a floor base. The cork sheet material is sandwiched between two layers of clear plastic material to provide a distinct sight of the structural presence and thickness of the cork sheet at an edge of the floor member.
Claims19
A floor member comprising,
- a) a first floor member portion having a first polygonal shape with at least two side edges, said first floor member portion having a substrate layer of flexible compressible composite cork sheet material with an upper surface, a top layer for walking upon formed of transparent plastic material provided over the upper surface of the composite cork sheet material and double flexible plastic underlayers provided between the top layer for walking upon and the upper surface of the composite cork sheet material to prevent the upper surface of the composite cork sheet material from dimpling through or telescoping through to the top layer for walking upon, the upper surface of the composite cork sheet material or one of the double flexible plastic underlayers being provided with a cork design pattern or wood design pattern visible through the top layer, said first floor member portion having a first lower surface,
- b) a second floor member portion of flexible plastic material having a second polygonal shape with at least two side edges, a second upper surface and a second lower surface,
- c) said first and second floor member portions being laminated together in offset relationship, and wherein the first lower surface of the first floor member portion contacts the second upper surface of the second floor member portion,
- d) the offset lamination of said first and second floor member portions defining a first offset marginal portion of said first floor member portion and a second offset marginal portion of said second floor member portion, said first marginal portion of said first floor member portion extending beyond at least one of the side edges of said second floor member portion, and said second marginal portion of said second floor member portion extending beyond at least one of the side edges of said first floor member portion,
- e) said first offset marginal portion having a first marginal lower surface that is part of the first lower surface of said first floor member portion, and said second offset marginal portion having a second marginal upper surface that is a part of the second upper surface of said second floor member portion, at least one of the first marginal lower surface and the second marginal upper surface having an exposed adhesive coating,
- f) the first and second floor member portions having respective predetermined thicknesses to enable the floor member to have a flexibility that permits the floor member to be bendable to facilitate assembly of the floor member into an assembly of floor members,
- g) the plastic material of said second floor member portion having a predetermined yieldability to surface irregularities of the floor base upon which the floor member is laid, such that said second floor member portion, when lying in flat contact on the floor base can conform to surface irregularities of the floor base.
A method of preventing a substrate layer of cork material in a floor member from dimpling through or telescoping through to a top layer for walking upon comprising,
- a) providing a floor member having side edges with a first floor member portion having a substrate layer of compressible composite cork sheet material having an upper surface and a lower surface defining upper and lower surface boundaries of the layer of cork sheet material,
- b) providing the first floor member portion with a top layer of transparent plastic material for walking upon, over the layer of cork sheet material,
- c) providing the first floor member portion with double flexible plastic underlayers between the top layer for walking upon and the upper surface of the composite cork sheet material to prevent the upper surface of the composite cork sheet material from dimpling through or telescoping through to the top layer for walking upon,
- d) providing the first floor member portion with a lower layer of transparent or dark colored plastic material below the lower surface of the layer of composite cork sheet material, and
- e) laminating a second floor member portion in offset relationship from the first floor member portion and forming the second floor member portion of flexible plastic sheet material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.