POLYMER FLOOR ELEMENT

Abstract

A polymer floor element includes a decorative top layer on a substrate made of polymer. The floor element has a rectangular or square surface, for which it is valid that for a strip of the floor element with a first point Q defined as a vertex of the strip, and a point P at a distance of 40 cm with respect to Q along a side of the strip, suspended over a rod with diameter 2 cm with its side on which P and Q are defined, perpendicular to the axis of the rod, so that P is located in the vertical direction at the highest point where the floor element touches the rod. The strip, with point Q along one side, hangs down from the rod under the strip's own weight; the straight line PQ intersects the vertical through P at an angle less than 15°.

Claims

1.-15. (canceled)

16. A polymer floor element comprising a decorative top layer on a substrate made of polymer, wherein the floor element has a rectangular or square surface with a longest side less than 3.0 m and greater than 0.4 m, for which it is valid that for a strip of the floor element with a first point Q defined as a vertex of the strip, and a point P at a distance of 40 cm with respect to Q along a side of the strip, suspended over a rod with diameter of 2 cm with its side on which P and Q are defined, perpendicular to the axis of the rod, so that P is located in the vertical direction at the highest point where the floor element touches the rod; and the strip, with point Q along one side, hangs down from the rod under the strip's own weight; the straight line PQ intersects the vertical through P at an angle less than 15°.

17. The polymer floor element of claim 16, wherein the floor element has a rectangular or square surface with the short side less than 0.5 m and greater than 0.08 m.

18. The polymer floor element of claim 16, wherein the floor element has a weight per unit area between 1500 g/m.sup.2 and 3000 g/m.sup.2.

19. The polymer floor element of claim 16, wherein the floor element has a thickness between 1 mm and 8 mm.

20. The polymer floor element of claim 16, wherein the polymer is polyvinyl chloride.

21. The polymer floor element of claim 16, wherein the floor element is sheet vinyl.

22. A floor element, being a sheet vinyl floor element, wherein the floor element has a rectangular or square surface with a longest side less than 3.0 m and greater than 0.4 m.

23. The floor element of claim 22, wherein the floor element has a rectangular or square surface with the short side less than 0.5 m and greater than 0.08 m.

24. A floor covering comprising a plurality of floor elements of claim 16.

25. The floor covering of claim 24, wherein the floor elements are glued on a subfloor.

26. The floor covering of claim 25, wherein the floor elements are glued on a subfloor by means of a nonpermanent glue.

27. The floor covering of claim 25, wherein the subfloor is a foamed polymer subfloor.

28. The floor covering of claim 24, wherein the floor elements are glued on the supporting floor structure.

29. The floor covering of claim 28, wherein the floor elements are glued on the supporting floor structure by means of a nonpermanent glue.

30. A polymer floor element comprising a decorative top layer on a substrate made of polymer, wherein the floor element has a rectangular or square surface with a longest side less than 3.0 m and greater than 0.4 m, wherein said floor element passes the flexibility test according to ASTM F137 with a cylinder of 6 mm.

Description

[0085] For better illustration of the features of the invention, some preferred embodiments are described hereunder, as examples without any limiting character, referring to the appended drawings, in which:

[0086] FIGS. 1 and 2 show floor coverings according to the invention;

[0087] FIG. 3 shows a schematic cross section of a floor element according to the invention; and

[0088] FIG. 4 shows schematically the test setup to which floor elements according to the invention are subjected.

[0089] The present invention is described hereunder making use of specific embodiments.

[0090] It should be noted that the term “comprising”, as used for example in the claims, is not to be interpreted in a limiting sense, limiting to the elements, features and/or steps given thereafter. The term “comprising” does not exclude the presence of other elements, features or steps.

[0091] Thus, the scope of an expression “an object comprising the elements A and B” is not limited to an object that only contains the elements A and B. The scope of an expression “a method comprising the steps A and B” is not limited to a method which only contains the steps A and B.

[0092] In light of the present invention, these expressions only signify that the relevant elements or steps for the invention are the elements or steps A and B.

[0093] In the specification following hereunder, reference is made to “an embodiment” or “the embodiment”. Such a reference signifies that a specific element or feature, described on the basis of this embodiment, is comprised in at least this one embodiment.

[0094] The presence of the terms “in an embodiment” or “in the embodiment” at different points in this description does not necessarily refer, however, to the same embodiment, although it may however indeed refer to one and the same embodiment.

[0095] Moreover, the properties or the features may be combined in any suitable way in one or more embodiments, as would be obvious to a person skilled in the art.

[0096] A floor covering 10 and 11 according to one aspect of the invention is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. In FIG. 1, the floor covering 10 consists of floor elements laid side by side 100, which are attached with a nonpermanent glue 102 to the screed of an underlying supporting floor structure 104. The nonpermanent glue is a so-called tackifier, for example MAPEI Ultrabond eco Tack and was applied in an amount from 100 to 200 g/m.sup.2. The individual floor elements 100 have the shape of a rectangle with dimensions 988 mm by 163 mm. These floor elements are explained further in FIG. 3.

[0097] In FIG. 2, the floor covering 11 consists of floor elements laid side by side 100, which are attached with a nonpermanent glue 102 to a subfloor 105. This subfloor 105 lies freely on the screed of an underlying supporting floor structure 104. The nonpermanent glue may be identical or similar in nature and amount as described for FIG. 1. The individual floor elements 100 have the shape of a rectangle with dimensions 988 mm by 163 mm. These floor elements are explained further in FIG. 3.

[0098] The subfloor is a subfloor made of foamed PU with a weight per unit area of 2.5 to 3 kg/m.sup.2.

[0099] In an alternative, the floor elements may be glued to the screed with a permanent glue, for example a pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA glue). The glue is applied in an amount of 70 g/m.sup.2.

[0100] As shown in more detail in FIG. 3, the floor element 100 is a rectangular piece of sheet vinyl, with dimensions L being 988 mm B being 163 mm and thickness D of 2 mm. It has a weight per unit area of 2170 g/m.sup.2. The floor element 100 is built up from a top layer 210, which itself consists of a heat-curing PU coating 201 of thickness 10 μm, located on a wearing layer 202 of flexible PVC (40 phr plasticizer) with a density of 1.2 to 1.3 g/cm.sup.3 and thickness 0.3 mm. Under this wearing layer there is a decorative layer 203.

[0101] This top layer 210 lies on a substrate layer 211, which is itself also layered. The substrate 211 comprises flexible foamed PVC. On the upper side there is a layer 204 of flexible foamed PVC with a density from 0.5 to 0.8 g/cm.sup.3 and a thickness of about 0.45 mm. The amount of plasticizer in this PVC is 60 phr, and it further comprises 40 wt % filler. The filler is preferably white, so that this layer may preferably have a white color. This flexible foamed PVC may itself be built up from a number of layers of flexible foamed PVC (not shown in FIG. 3). In an alternative embodiment, this layer 204 is not foamed and it has a density from a good 1.6 to 1.6 g/cm.sup.3. The decorative layer 203 may be a very thin rigid PVC film provided with a decorative print, but in this embodiment it is a print that is printed directly on the upper side of the PVC layer 204.

[0102] On the underside of this flexible foamed PVC there is a layer 205 with a glass-fiber fleece with weight per unit area of 35 g/m.sup.2, which acts as a reinforcing layer. This glass-fiber fleece is fully impregnated with flexible PVC and is about 0.3 mm thick.

[0103] The polymer used for this reinforcing layer is PVC with a density from 1.5 to 1.6 g/cm.sup.3, comprises a good 60 phr plasticizer and about 40 wt % filler. Underneath the substrate there is then a backlayer 206 that consists of flexible PVC about 0.95 mm thick, a 60 phr plasticizer and about 50 wt % filler. The layer may be foamed and have a density of a good 1 to 1.3 g/cm.sup.3, or may be unfoamed with a density from 1.5 to 1.9 g/cm.sup.3.

[0104] All PVC polymer has a K value between 50 and 90.

[0105] This floor element 100 was tested for flexibility as shown in FIG. 4. The floor element 100 has an upper side and an underside, 111 and 110 respectively. On the underside and along the edge 112, points P and Q are defined. Point Q is the vertex of the rectangular floor element on the underside of the floor element. Point P lies at a distance of 40 cm from this point Q along the edge 112. The floor element is conditioned at 23° C. and 50% RH. It is suspended over a rod 300 with a diameter of 2 cm, as shown in FIG. 4. Point P is located in the vertical direction 150 at the highest point where the floor element touches the rod. In FIG. 4 on the right next to the rod, 40 cm of the floor element hangs freely under the action of gravity, which acts on this floor element in the vertical direction 150. Between the vertical line 151 through point P and the line 152 joining points P and Q (line PQ), an angle a is measured, after the floor element has had time to come to a stable hanging state. The angle measured for floor element 100 is 9°.

[0106] An alternative floor element is a floor element with the same dimensions and weight per unit area as described for the floor element 100. The alternative floor element is built up identically as shown in FIG. 3, but the wearing layer 202 has a thickness of 0.5 mm, whereas the backlayer 206 is only 0.75 mm thick. This embodiment has a weight per unit area of 2240 g/m.sup.2.

[0107] Measurement of the angle as reproduced in FIG. 4 in this case gives an angle a of 7°.

[0108] It is clear that although the embodiments and/or the materials are discussed for supplying embodiments according to the present invention, various changes or modifications may be applied while remaining within the scope and/or the spirit of the present invention. The present invention is by no means limited to the embodiments described above, but may be implemented in accordance with different variants while remaining within the scope of the present invention.