ADHESIVE MAT FOR GLUING A TILE TO A WALL

Abstract

An adhesive mat for gluing a the onto a well includes a plate-side adhesive layer for connection with the tile by a material union and a wall-side adhesive layer for gluing onto the well. In this way, tiles can be handled in a clean and dry manner. The adhesive mat may already be connected to a tile at the manufacturer's end to thereby form a tile unit. The adhesive mat can have at least one overhang over the border of the tile, such that several such tile units can be arranged in a grid pattern with the adhesive mats overlapping.

Claims

1.-15. (canceled)

16. An adhesive mat for gluing a covering panel to a wall, said adhesive mat comprising: a panel-side adhesive layer for connection to the covering panel by a material union; and a wall-side adhesive layer for gluing to the wall.

17. The adhesive mat of claim 16, further comprising a carrier layer arranged between the panel-side adhesive layer and the wall-side adhesive layer.

18. The adhesive mat of claim 17, wherein the carrier layer is water-impermeable.

19. The adhesive mat of claim 17, wherein the carrier layer contains a plastic foam.

20. The adhesive mat of claim 16, wherein at least one of the panel-side adhesive layer and the wall-side adhesive layer contains or is made of at least one of the following adhesives: butyl, synthetic rubber, acrylic foam, hot melt, cross-linked or non-cross-linked acrylate, UV-cross-linked acrylate adhesive and/or an adhesive dispersion.

21. The adhesive mat of claim 16, further comprising a removable protective film configured to entirely or partially cover at least one of the panel-side adhesive layer and the wall-side adhesive layer.

22. The adhesive mat of claim 21, wherein the protective film is tear resistant and/or has a non-adhesive surface on both sides.

23. A tile unit, comprising: a covering panel; and an adhesive mat arranged on a wall side of the covering panel, said adhesive mat comprising a panel-side adhesive layer for connection to the covering panel by a material union, and a wall-side adhesive layer for gluing to the wall.

24. The tile unit of claim 23, wherein the covering panel is a tile.

25. The tile unit of claim 23, further comprising a carrier layer arranged between the panel-side adhesive layer and the wall-side adhesive layer, said carrier preferably being water-impermeable.

26. The tile unit of claim 25, wherein the carrier layer contains a plastic foam.

27. The tile unit of claim 23, wherein at least one of the panel-side adhesive layer and the wall-side adhesive layer contains or is made of at least one of the following adhesives: butyl, synthetic rubber, acrylic foam, hot melt, cross-linked or non-cross-linked acrylate, UV-cross-linked acrylate adhesive and/or an adhesive dispersion.

28. The tile unit of claim 23, wherein the adhesive mat includes a removable protective film configured to entirely or partially cover at least one of the panel-side adhesive layer and the wall-side adhesive layer, said protective film being preferably tear resistant and/or has a non-adhesive surface on both sides.

29. The tile unit of claim 23, wherein the covering panel has a wall side configured to deviate from a flat surface by less than 10%, preferably less than 5%, particularly preferably less than 2% of a panel thickness

30. The tile unit of claim 23, wherein the adhesive mat has an overhang on at least one border of the covering panel, so as to enable several of said tile units to be arranged in a grid with overlapping edges of the adhesive mats.

31. A wall structure, comprising: a wall (W); a covering panel; and an adhesive mat arranged between the wall and the covering panel, said adhesive mat comprising a panel-side adhesive layer for connection to the covering panel by a material union, and a wall-side adhesive layer for gluing to the wall.

32. The wall structure of claim 31, further comprising a sealing sheet made of a water-impermeable material and being arranged between the wall and the adhesive mat.

33. The wall structure of claim 31, further comprising at least two of said covering panels arranged in abutting relationship.

34. The wall structure of claim 31, wherein the adhesive mat is arranged in the absence of any void between the covering panel and the wall.

35. A method for attaching a covering panel to a wall, said method comprising: connecting a panel-side adhesive layer of an adhesive mat on the covering panel by a material union; and gluing a wall side adhesive layer of the adhesive mat to the wall.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the wall-side adhesive layer of the adhesive mat is in full-surface contact with the wall.

37. The method of claim 35, further comprising arranging a sealing strip between two covering panels and the wall such as to cover a boundary line between the covering panels.

38. The method of claim 35, further comprising arranging a, preferably water-impermeable, carrier layer arranged between the panel-side adhesive layer and the wall-side adhesive layer.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the carrier layer contains a plastic foam.

40. The method of claim 35, wherein at least one of the panel-side adhesive layer and the wall-side adhesive layer contains or is made of at least one of the following adhesives: butyl, synthetic rubber, acrylic foam, hot melt, cross-linked or non-cross-linked acrylate, UV-cross-linked acrylate adhesive and/or an adhesive dispersion.

41. The method of claim 35, further comprising arranging a removable protective film such as to entirely or partially cover at least one of the panel-side adhesive layer and the wall-side adhesive layer, with the protective film being preferably tear resistant and/or having a non-adhesive surface on both sides.

Description

[0043] Exemplary embodiments of the invention will be explained in greater detail hereinafter with reference to the attached figures. It is shown in:

[0044] FIG. 1 a schematic cross section through a tile unit according to the invention with a the and an adhesive mat;

[0045] FIG. 2 a possible structure of the adhesive mat of FIG. 1;

[0046] FIG. 3 a possible wall structure when using the tile unit of FIG. 1 and a sealing sheet;

[0047] FIG. 4 a plan view of a tile unit with the adhesive mat having an overhang on all sides;

[0048] FIG. 5 a plan view of an alternative tile unit with an overhang on only two sides;

[0049] FIG. 6 the arrangement of several tile units according to FIG. 5 in a grid with gapless overlap of the adhesive mats;

[0050] FIG. 7 a structure of an adhesive mat with protective films on both sides;

[0051] FIG. 8 a seamless wall structure with press joints.

[0052] FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic cross section, not to scale, of a tile unit 100 (generally also designated by the letter sign FE). The tile unit 100 is made of a conventional, for example ceramic, tile 150 (F) as a covering panel, and of a (tile) adhesive mat 110 (FKM) which is connected to the wall side of the tile by a material union. Such a connection can already be made in the factory after the tile has been produced. Optionally, however, the adhesive mat may also be produced at first as a separate unit and subsequently glued to the tile, for example on site at the construction site. It is important that the adhesive mat FKM has an adhesive layer on the wall side (left in FIG. 1) to enable the tile unit FE to be glued onto a vertical wall. This enables a particularly simple and clean processing of the tile units.

[0053] Furthermore, it is indicated in the figure that the wall-side surface of the the F can deviate from a geometrically exact flatness by a maximum dimension A. In the present case, however, this deviation should be less than approx. 5% of the tile thickness d, i.e. (/d)0.05 (or even less). This ensures in this case that the adhesive mat can completely contact a wall.

[0054] The format of the tile unit FE can in particular be very large, for example a rectangle with an area of one to several square meters.

[0055] FIG. 2 shows also a schematic cross section, not to scale, of a possible structure of an adhesive mat FKM, for example the adhesive mat 110 used in FIG. 1. The FKM adhesive mat contains as essential components a panel-side adhesive layer 120 and a wall-side adhesive layer 130. In the illustrated exemplary embodiment, these two adhesive layers are on the opposite surfaces of a plastic foam layer 140. This can in particular be a plastic foam according to WO 2016/128170 A1.

[0056] In particular, the plastic foam layer 140 may be made of a physically cross-linked plastic foam having tile-side and wall-side surfaces which are corona-treated in order to attain a good connection to the respective adhesive layer 120, 130. The thickness of the plastic foam layer 140 is preferably between approx. 0.2 mm and 2 mm.

[0057] FIG. 3 shows a schematic cross section of a wall structure, as created by attaching the tile unit FE from FIG. 1 to a wall W. The tile unit with the tile F and the adhesive mat FKM is hereby not glued directly to the wall W (i.e. typically the interior plaster), though this would also be possible, but to a sealing sheet DB. This can involve, for example, a sealing sheet according to EP 2 584 113 A2 or WO 2016/128170 A1, which includes a water-impermeable carrier layer TS and a wall-side adhesive layer KL. The sealing sheet DB is firmly glued with the wall-side adhesive layer KL to the wall while exhibiting a surface toward the room for allowing adherence of the adhesive layer of the FKM adhesive mat.

[0058] FIG. 4 shows a plan view of the room side of a possible embodiment of a tile unit 200. This includes a rectangular the F and a likewise rectangular adhesive mat FKM, which has an overhang on all four borders of the tile. Adjacent tiles or tile units can be glued onto the overhang. In order to prevent the adhesive mat from lying upon the top of a tile, the respective overhanging borders may e.g. be folded away or trimmed away.

[0059] FIG. 5 shows an alternative embodiment of a tile unit 100, in which such a trimming away of overhangs has already been carried out on two adjacent borders of the tiles at the manufacturers end.

[0060] In this regard, FIG. 6 shows how several such tile units 100 can be arranged in a grid, with the adhesive mats FKM overlapping everywhere. There are therefore no butt lines or abutment points where water could penetrate. Care should be taken to the provision of a small overhang X on a tile corner, by means of which a spot-shaped passage without covering with adhesive mats is avoided.

[0061] In order to prevent excessive thicknesses as a result of material doubling or even tripling in the zones shown in FIG. 6, the adhesive mats can be made correspondingly thinner in these regions, so that the overall thickness has always the same value everywhere.

[0062] FIG. 7 shows by way of a cross section analogous to FIG. 2, an adhesive mat 210 (FKM), which likewise is made of a plastic foam layer 240 with adhesive layers 220, 230 applied on both sides. Furthermore, two protective films 221 and 231 are illustrated (one of which is partially detached), which cover the adhesive surfaces until processing. In particular, the protective films 231 on the wall-side adhesive layer 230 should hereby be tear-resistant so as to enable a removal thereof over a greater distance without tearing. This is important when, for example, a large the is glued to a wall, because when already being partially glued, there is not enough space behind the tile to remove a torn protective film if need be.

[0063] If necessary, the protective film 221, 231 can be divided into required pieces by scoring or cutting with a knife. Due to the relatively high thickness of the plastic foam layer 240 (for example approx. 0.8 mm) compared to a plastic film, the knife tip may even slightly penetrate into the layers 230, 240 lying under the protective film, without adversely affecting the impermeability of the FKM adhesive mats to water.

[0064] Furthermore, both the adhesive-side rear side R and the front side V of the protective film 231 are preferably non-adhesive or detachable (e.g. siliconized) so as to prevent interference with the assembly through inadvertent sticking of the front V upon the already exposed adhesive layer. For example, PET, HDPE or PP are suitable as materials for the protective films.

[0065] The panel-side protective film 221 may also be omitted when the adhesive mat FKM is glued directly to the tile at the manufacturer's end.

[0066] FIG. 8 shows four tile units 300 (FE) which (unlike the tile units 100 and 200 of FIGS. 4 and 5) do not have an adhesive mat FKM that protrudes at the border. So as to still maintain tightness along the boundary line between adjacent tiles, water-impermeable sealing strips DS are glued on and underlap the boundary lines, before the tile units 300 are mounted onto the wall. To avoid unevenness, the sealing strips DS are configured relatively thin, for example with a thickness between 0.1 mm and 0.5 mm.

[0067] It is hereby also apparent that the tile units 300 contact one another, i.e. they are attached to the wall without gaps or with press joints. This is possible because the plastic foam layer of the adhesive mat provides a floating support that decouples the wall and the tiles. The creation of shadow gaps is also possible.

[0068] In conclusion, it should be pointed out that in the above explanations the term tile is to be understood more generally in the sense of a covering panel. Such a covering panel can be used not only on building walls or floors, but also in or on vehicles, on furniture (e.g. kitchen fronts) or other objects. The covering panel may hereby be made entirely or partially of ceramic material such as earthenware, of glass, of plastic (PE, PP etc.), of metal (aluminum), of wood or the like.