Mechanical locking of floor panels with vertical snap folding
AssigneeVälinge Innovation AB
InventorsDarko Pervan, Marcus Nilsson Ståhl
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Floor panels are shown, which are provided with a mechanical locking system on long and short edges allowing installation with vertical snap folding that could be accomplished automatically without tools and where the short edge locking system has a tongue made in one piece with the panel.
Claims17
A set of essentially identical floor panels, each floor panel comprising long and short edges provided with a mechanical locking system comprising first and second connectors integrated with the floor panels, and wherein immediately juxtaposed upper parts of two adjacent joint edges of two joined floor panels together define a vertical plane perpendicular to the main plane of the panels, the first connector comprises a locking strip with an upwardly directed locking element, at a first edge of a floor panel, configured to cooperate with a downwardly open locking groove at an adjacent second edge of another floor panel for connecting the adjacent edges in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the vertical plane, the second connector comprises a tongue, either at the first or at the second edge, extending horizontally perpendicular to the vertical plane, configured to cooperate with a horizontally open tongue groove at the other of said first or second edge for connecting the adjacent edges in a vertical direction parallel to the vertical plane, the connectors at the long edges are configured to be locked with angling and the connectors at the short edge are configured to be locked with vertical snap folding, whereby a long edge of a new panel in a second row is configured to be connected to a long edge of a first panel in a first row by angling, whereby a second short edge of the new panel and a first short edge of a second panel in the second row are configured to be connected with the same angling motion,
- wherein the tongue at one of the short edges is formed in one piece with the panel and protrudes from a substantially vertical upper surface at said one short edge,
- wherein the locking strip at the short edges is bendable, to obtain a resilient bending during the vertical snap folding action, which bending facilitates the assembling of the tongue and the tongue groove, and
- wherein the extension of the locking element along the short edge is shorter than the length of the locking strip along the short edge.
A set of essentially identical floor panels each comprising long and short edges provided with a mechanical locking system comprising first and second connectors integrated with the floor panels, and wherein immediately juxtaposed upper parts of two adjacent joint edges of two joined floor panels together define a vertical plane perpendicular to the main plane of the panels, the first connector comprises a locking strip with an upwardly directed locking element, at a first edge of a floor panel, configured to cooperate with a downwardly open locking groove at an adjacent second edge of another floor panel for connecting the adjacent edges horizontally in a direction perpendicular to the vertical plane, the second connector comprises a tongue, either at the first or the second edge, extending horizontally perpendicular to vertical plane, configured to cooperate with a horizontally open tongue groove, at the other of said first or second edge, for connecting the adjacent edges in vertical direction parallel to the vertical plane, the connectors at the long edges are configured to be locked with angling and the connectors at the short edge are configured to be locked with vertical snap folding,
- whereby a long edge of a new panel in a second row is configured to be connected to a long edge of a first panel in a first row by angling,
- whereby a second short edge of the new panel and a first short edge of a second panel in the second row are configured to be connected with the same angling motion,
- wherein the tongue at one of the short edges is formed in one piece with the panel and configured to protrude from a substantially vertical upper surface at the one short edge,
- wherein the locking strip at the short edges is bendable, to obtain a resilient bending during the vertical snap folding action, which bending facilitates the assembling of the tongue and the tongue groove, and
- wherein a recess extends through the locking element at the short edge.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.