ARTIFICIAL FLOOR

Abstract

The present disclosure provides an artificial floor. The artificial floor comprises a plate body with a pad portion on a surface thereof. The pad portion contacts with a subfloor when the plate body is disposed on the subfloor. The plate body could be various kinds of the simulated floor such as linen, wood, or stone. The simulated floor is poor in wear resistance. The vibration or shaking during transportation may cause wearing between the simulated floors so as to damage the surfaces of the simulated floors. The subfloor may have an uneven surface, which may affect the surface flatness of the plate body disposed on the subfloor. Therefore, the pad portion of the plate body could be used as a cushion for the transportation process to protect the collision and wearing between the plate bodies. The pad portion could also be deformed locally to close the surface of the subfloor.

Claims

1. An artificial floor, comprising: a plate body comprising a pad portion on a surface thereof; the pad portion is in contact with a subfloor when the plate body is disposed on the subfloor; wherein the pad portion comprises a first outer layer, an inner layer, and a second outer layer, the inner layer is between the first outer layer and the second outer layer, and the densities of the first outer layer and the second outer layer are larger than the density of the inner layer.

2. The artificial floor according to claim 1, wherein the other surface of the plate body comprises a surface portion disposed on the pad portion; the surface portion comprises a surface material.

3. The artificial floor according to claim 2, wherein the surface material is wood powder, stone powder or plant fibers.

4. The artificial floor according to claim 2, wherein the surface portion is designed in the style of wood, stone, carpet or metal grain.

5. The artificial floor according to claim 2, wherein the hardness of the surface portion is greater than the hardness of the pad portion; the hardness difference between the surface portion and the pad portion ranges from 10 to 75 degrees or 5 to 60 degrees (Shore A) as measured by a spring type ASKER-C tester specified in JIS-56050 and SRIS-0101 hardness standards; the hardness of the pad portion is adjusted based on the hardness of the surface portion; the greater the hardness of the surface portion, the greater the hardness of the pad portion; the hardness of the pad portion is smaller than or equal to the hardness of the surface portion.

6. The artificial floor according to claim 2, wherein the surface portion is bonded to the pad portion by heating or adhesive.

7. The artificial floor according to claim 1, wherein the pad portion comprises a plurality of sealed air holes.

8. The artificial floor according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the pad portion ranges from 0.01 mm to 15 mm.

9. The artificial floor according to claim 1, wherein the pad portion has undergone multiple electro-crosslink foaming.

10. The artificial floor according to claim 1, wherein the peripheral of the plate body further comprises at least one connecting member.

11. The artificial floor according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the first outer layer and/or the second outer layer is 0.05 mm to 1.0 mm.

12. The artificial floor according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the inner layer is 0.1 mm to 15 mm.

13. The artificial floor according to claim 1, wherein the density of the first outer layer and/or the second outer layer is 25 kg/m.sup.3 to 250 kg/m.sup.3.

14. The artificial floor according to claim 1, wherein the density of the inner layer is 20 kg/m.sup.3 to 200 kg/m.sup.3.

15. The artificial floor according to claim 1, wherein the diameter of the sealed air holes is 0.1 mm to 2.0 mm.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0023] The features of the exemplary embodiments believed to be novel and the elements and/or the steps characteristic of the exemplary embodiments are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The Figures are for illustration purposes only and are not drawn to scale. The exemplary embodiments, both as to organization and method of operation, may best be understood by reference to the detailed description which follows taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

[0024] FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an artificial floor of the present disclosure;

[0025] FIG. 2 is a schematic side view of an artificial floor of the present disclosure;

[0026] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the side assembly of an artificial floor of the present disclosure;

[0027] FIG. 4 is a schematic side view of the pad portion of the present disclosure;

[0028] FIG. 5 is a real side view of the pad portion of the present disclosure;

[0029] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of stacking of an artificial floor of the present disclosure;

[0030] FIG. 7 is another schematic diagram of stacking of an artificial floor of the present disclosure;

[0031] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of assembling of an artificial floor of the present disclosure; and

[0032] FIG. 9 is another schematic diagram of assembling of an artificial floor of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0033] The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown. This present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this present invention will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the present invention to those skilled in the art.

[0034] Certain terms are used throughout the description and following claims to refer to particular components. As one skilled in the art will appreciate, manufacturers may refer to a component by different names. This document does not intend to distinguish between components that differ in name but function. In the following description and in the claims, the terms “include/including” and “comprise/comprising” are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted as “including but not limited to”. “Substantial/substantially” means, within an acceptable error range, the person skilled in the art may solve the technical problem in a certain error range to achieve the basic technical effect.

[0035] The following description is of the best-contemplated mode of carrying out the invention. This description is made for the purpose of illustration of the general principles of the invention and should not be taken in a limiting sense. The scope of the invention is best determined by reference to the appended claims.

[0036] Moreover, the terms “include”, “contain”, and any variation thereof are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. Therefore, a process, method, object, or device that comprises a series of elements not only include these elements, but also comprises other elements not specified expressly, or may include inherent elements of the process, method, object, or device. If no more limitations are made, an element limited by “include a/an . . . ” does not exclude other same elements existing in the process, the method, the article, or the device which comprises the element.

[0037] In the following embodiment, the same reference numerals are used to refer to the same or similar elements throughout the invention.

[0038] FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are a schematic perspective view and a schematic side view of an artificial floor of the present disclosure. As shown in the figures, the present embodiment provides a plate body 11 comprising a pad portion 111 disposed on a subfloor 2. The subfloor 2 may be the ground or floor surface. The plate body 11 comes up with various styles, such as various artificial floors with designing in imitation linen floor, wood imitation floor (WPC) or stone imitation floor (SPC). The desired floor style could be chosen according to requirements. The plate body 11 and the subfloor 2 can be adhesively bonded, or the plate bodies 11 can be directly disposed on the subfloor 2 after being spliced to each other.

[0039] Furthermore, one surface of the plate body 11 comprises a pad portion 111. When the plate body 11 is disposed on the subfloor 2, the surface of the plate body 11 with the pad portion 111 is in contact with the subfloor 2. The pad portion 111 of the plate body 11 comprises a plurality of closed-cell foams, wherein the pad portion 111 has been subjected to multiple times of electro-crosslink foaming. There are many ways to irradiate the electron beam. Different electron beam irradiations can be performed through the control of irradiation dose and irradiation depth to control the irradiated pad portion 111 to generate different ways of electro-crosslink. The process of electro-crosslink with electron beam irradiation is simple and fast, which eliminates the harmful organic chemicals. It also reduces the manufacturing cost of adding a cross-linking agent, and can shorten the test time of crosslinking reaction conditions of pad portion 111. The foaming with electron beam improves the physical properties of the pad portion 111, providing an excellent foaming uniformity for the pad portion 111.

[0040] The other surface of the plate body 11 comprises a surface portion 113 provided on the pad portion 111. The surface portion 113 and pad portion 111 are bonded by heating or adhesive. The heat-bonding methods comprises infrared heating or flame heating. Taking the flame heat-bonding method as an example, the pad portion 111 and the surface portion 113 are burned to bond to each other through a high-temperature flame, so there is no issue of rubber residues. In the flame bonding process, the combustion of the plurality of closed air holes of the pad portion 111 causes the air consumption in the closed air holes (that is, the effect similar to the air extraction). These closed air holes would be in a vacuum-like state, thereby reducing heat convection and heat conduction as well as reducing the vibration transmission of sound through the medium of air to achieve thermal and sound insulation.

[0041] Moreover, the surface portion 113 of the plate body 11 comprises a surface material 1131. The plate body 11 is formed after the process of heating and pressurizing to the mixed material made of the surface material 1131, plastic material and other material. The surface material 1131 can be wood powder, stone powder or plant fibers. The surface portion 113 could be designed in the style of wood, stone, carpet, metal grain or other styles. The above designs would be selected based on user requirements and would not be limited herein.

[0042] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the side assembly of an artificial floor of the present disclosure. In this embodiment, the wear resistance of the surface portion 113 of the plate body 11 is poor. The hardness of the surface portion 113 is greater than the hardness of the pad portion 111. The hardness difference between the surface portion 113 and the pad portion 111 ranges from 10 to 75 degrees or 5 to 60 degrees (Shore A) as measured by a spring type ASKER-C tester specified in JIS-56050 and SRIS-0101 hardness standards. The hardness of the pad portion 111 is adjusted based on the hardness of the surface portion 113. The greater the hardness of the surface portion 113, the greater the hardness of the pad portion 111. The hardness of the pad portion 111 is smaller than or equal to the hardness of the surface portion 113. The pad portion 111 is rubbery and can be used as a member for protecting and supporting the surface portion 113.

[0043] The thickness of the pad portion ranges from 0.01 mm to 15 mm. The thickness of the pad portion 111 can be adjusted according to the requirements of the construction environment (such as the hardness of the surface portion 113). In this way, the pad portion 111 can support and cushion the surface portion 113.

[0044] FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 are a schematic side view and real side view of the pad portion of the present disclosure. As shown in the figures, in some embodiments, the pad portion 111 may be a continuous foamed sheet that is heated and expanded by a foaming furnace, and then rolled and cooled by a cooling wheel. After being rolled, the two sides (i.e. the top surface and the bottom surface) of the pad portion 111 are compressed toward the center of the pad portion 111 and two outer layers are formed on the outer surface of the pad portion 111. Therefore, in the side view of the rolled pad portion 111, the pad portion 111 shows three-layer structure that are a first outer layer 1110, an inner layer 1111, and a second outer layer 1112 in sequence. In some embodiments, the thickness of the outer layers of the pad portion 111 may be almost a constant value that is only related to the compression stress of the rolling process. In some embodiments, the thickness of the outer layers of the pad portion 111 may be 0.05 to 1 mm.

[0045] However, the thickness range mentioned above is only an example, and the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In some embodiments, the thickness of the outer layers of the pad portion 111 may be less than 0.05 mm. For example, the thickness may be 0.04 mm, 0.03 mm, 0.02 mm, or less.

[0046] After being rolled, the diameter of the sealed air holes at the outer surface of the pad portion 111 (i.e. the first outer layer 1110 and the second outer layer 1112) decreases, and the density and the hardness of the outer surface of the pad portion 111 (i.e. the first outer layer 1110 and the second outer layer 1112) increase. Accordingly, the support of the pad portion 111 may be effectively improved, and the inner layer 1111 may be protected effectively by the first outer layer 1110 and the second outer layer 1112.

[0047] On the other hand, the diameter of the sealed air holes at the center of the pad portion 111 (i.e. the inner layer 1111) is maintained after being rolled, and the density and the hardness thereof are also maintained. Therefore, the inner layer 1111 still has excellent buffer properties.

[0048] By forming the three-layer structure mentioned above, the protect property and the supportive property of the pad portion 111 are effectively enhanced, while the buffer properties are maintained.

[0049] In some embodiments, the thickness of the rolled pad portion 111 preferred is 0.05 mm to 5 mm, more preferred is 0.3 mm to 2 mm, even more preferred is 1.5 mm. When the thickness of the rolled pad portion 111 is 1.5 mm, the thickness of the first outer layer 1110 and the second outer layer 1112 respectively are 0.3 mm, and the thickness of the inner layer 1111 is 0.9 mm. In addition, the total density of the pad portion 111 is 45 kg/m.sup.3, the density of the first outer layer 1110 and the second outer layer 1112 respectively is about 54 kg/m.sup.3, and the density of the inner layer 1111 is 43 kg/m.sup.3.

[0050] In some embodiments, the density range and the hardness range of the pad portion 111, the diameter range of the sealed air holes, and the 25% compressing force range of the pad portion 111 are shown in Table 1.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 total density (kg/m.sup.3)   20-300 diameter of the sealed air holes (mm)  0.1-2.00 Hardness (degree)   10-75 (SRIS-0101) 25% compression stress of the 0.10-5.00 pad portion 111 (kgf/cm.sup.2)

[0051] In some embodiments, the thickness of the first outer layer and/or the second outer layer is 0.05 mm to 1.0 mm, and the thickness of the inner layer is 0.1 mm to 15 mm. In some embodiments, the density of the first outer layer and/or the second outer layer is 25 kg/m.sup.3 to 250 kg/m.sup.3, and the density of the inner layer is 20 kg/m.sup.3 to 200 kg/m.sup.3. In some embodiments, the diameter of the sealed air holes is 0.1 mm to 2.00 mm.

[0052] Furthermore, take some embodiments of the present disclosure as specific examples, the density and the hardness of the pad portion 111, the diameter of the sealed air holes, and the 25% compressing force of the pad portion 111 of these examples are shown in Table 2. However, the values below are only examples, the present disclosure is not limited thereof.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 total density (kg/m.sup.3) 200 67 33 25 density first outer layer 1110 211 82 46 32 (kg/m.sup.3) inner layer 1111 162 55 30 23 second outer layer 224 78 38 39 1112 diameter of the sealed  0.21-  0.39-  0.68-  0.82- air holes (mm)  0.47  0.56  1.07  1.17 Hardness (degree)  67.5 37 23.5 20.5 (SRIS-0101) 25% compression  3.04  0.66  0.35 0.34 stress (kgf/cm.sup.2)

[0053] In some embodiments, when the artificial floor is stacked and placed during transportation, the bottom of the pad portion 111 (i.e. second outer layer 1112) will contact the upper surface of another artificial floor. In this case, the pad portion with a total density of 30-60 kg/m.sup.3 may be preferred. The outer layer with higher density (i.e. first/second outer layer 1112) makes the pad portion 111 not be damaged by friction with the texture of another artificial floor, and may also prevent the inner layer (i.e. inner layer 1111) of the pad portion 111 from permanent deformation by the weight of other artificial floors. Further, the soft cushioning of the inner layer (i.e. inner layer 1111) enables the lower surface (i.e. second outer layer 1112) of the pad portion 111 to deform in response to the texture, maintain the distance between the subfloor and the surface portion 113, and protect the texture of the surface portion 113 from being damaged by the friction of the subfloor.

[0054] In some embodiments, when the artificial floor is laid on concrete or cement mortar, there is still high unevenness between the artificial floor and concrete or cement mortar due to gravel even if the surface is cleaned. With the protection of the outer layers, the inner layer 1111 of the pad portion 111 is squeezed and deformed but not damaged and still has buffering properties. Further, the low-density inner layer 1111 may be deformed to meet the unevenness, so that the surface portion 113 may remain level.

[0055] In some embodiments, when the artificial floor is laid on a smooth surface, the pad portion 111 with a total density of 80-300 kg/m.sup.3 may be preferred, which has 25% compression stress of 1.0-4.0 kgf/cm.sup.2 In this case, the artificial floor has good support to carry heavier items.

[0056] It should be noted that the present disclosure is not limited to the description above. In some embodiments, the pad portion 111 is consist of at least two kinds of foams. For example, foam with high density may be used for the first outer layer and/or the second outer layer, and the other foam with low density may be used for the inner layer. The first outer layer, the second outer layer, and the inner layer may be combined to each other by an adhesive. In other words, the present disclosure is not limited to the forming method of the three-layer structure mentioned above, any three-layer structure formed by any method may be used herein.

[0057] FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 are a schematic diagrams of stacking of an artificial floor of the present disclosure. In this embodiment, the plate body 11 is transported in a stacked state. The stacking could be the top and bottom stacking or left and right stacking. The grains of the surface portion 113 of the plate body 11 is prone to be scratched or damaged due to the wearing of the plate body 11 by the up-down vibration or left-right shaking during the transportation of the stacked plate bodies 11. Therefore, in this embodiment, when the plate body 11 is stacked on another plate body 11, the pad portion 111 of the plate body 11 contacts the surface portion 113 of the other plate body 11. The pad portion 111 can cushion the vibration or shaking of the surface portion 113 contacting the plate body 11 to protect the surface of the plate body 11.

[0058] FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 are schematic diagrams of assembling of an artificial floor of the present disclosure. In this embodiment, the peripheral of the plate body 11 further comprises a plurality of connecting members 115 comprising a first connecting member 1151 and a second connecting member 1153. The first connecting member 1151 is disposed on one side of the plate body 11. The second connecting member 1153 is disposed on the other side of the plate body 11. In this embodiment, the first connecting member 1151 of the plate body 11A is connected to the second connecting member 1153 of the other plate body 11B when the plate body 11A is spliced with another plate body 11B. The first connecting member 1151 is a bump member. The second connecting member 1153 is a groove member. To engage the first connecting member 1151 with the second connecting member 1153 in order to securely engage the plate body 11A with the other plate body 11B.

[0059] Therefore, the first connecting member 1151 is disposed on one side of the surface portion 113 and is far from the pad portion 111. The second connecting member 1153 is disposed on one side of the surface portion 113 and is close to the pad portion 111. The pad portion 111 is further extended to the bottom of the second connecting member 1153. In this way, the pad portion 111 can be a supporting member disposed below the second connecting member 1153, thereby protecting the second connecting member 1153. The second connecting member 1153 and the pad portion 111 enhance the supporting force of the second connecting member 1153 connected to one side of the plate body 11, making the second connecting member 1153 to be hardly broken by external forces during transportation. When disposing a plurality of plate bodies 11 on the subfloor 2, the uneven of the subfloor 2 would affect the second connecting piece 1153 of the subfloor 2 and break the second connecting piece 1153 during splicing and disposing the plate bodies 11 if the subfloor 2 is uneven. Thus, the second connecting member 1153 in this embodiment also takes the pad portion 111 as a protection member to support and cushion, reducing the influence of the uneven to the second connecting member 1153.

[0060] Moreover, in most of the conventional artificial flooring methods, a large area of pad layer is disposed at first followed by splicing floor plates into floor surface on above of the pad layer. The entire pad layer would deform with the uneven bottom layer floor when a large area of pad layer is disposed on the uneven bottom layer floor. This would enlarge the gap between floor plates of the floor surface and would hardly fit floor plates onto the pad layer causing floor plates coming off easily under such circumstances of uneven floors. Thus, in this embodiment, each plate body 11 is an independent individual directly disposed on the subfloor 2 when splicing plate bodies 11 of the artificial floor 1. The bottom surface of the plate body 11 is provided with a pad portion 111, which causes the pad portion 111 of the plate body 11 to independently deform with the unevenness of the subfloor 2. Furthermore, the flexibility of the pad portion 111 of the plate body 11 can be enhanced to minimize the unevenness of the plate body 11 since each plate body 11 is an independent individual and the gaps between plate bodies 11 provide spaces for each pad portion 111 to be adjusted and deformed individually. In this way, the plate body 11 can better match the unevenness of the subfloor 2, and the installation of the conventional floors can be improved without disposing the pad layer before the floor plates.

[0061] In summary, the present disclosure provides an artificial floor comprising a plate body comprising a pad portion on the bottom of the plate body. The pad portion is disposed on the subfloor. The plate body could be a variety of artificial floors such as imitation linen, wood or stone. The vibration or shaking during transportation could cause collision or wearing between floors plates, which damages the surface of the floor since the poor wearing resistance of the above various imitation floors. In addition, the subfloor may also be an uneven surface, which will affect the flatness of the plate bodies. Therefore, the pad portion of the plate body can be used as cushion for the transportation process to protect the plate bodies from collision and wearing, and can also prevent the connecting member from breaking. The pad portion can also be deformed locally to closely adhere to the surface of the subfloor.

[0062] It is to be understood that the term “comprises”, “comprising”, or any other variants thereof, is intended to encompass a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or device of a series of elements not only include those elements but also comprises other elements that are not explicitly listed, or elements that are inherent to such a process, method, article, or device. An element defined by the phrase “comprising a . . . ” does not exclude the presence of the same element in the process, method, article, or device that comprises the element.

[0063] Although the present invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it does not intend to limit the present invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art having regard to this present invention that other modifications of the exemplary embodiments beyond those embodiments specifically described here may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. Accordingly, such modifications are considered within the scope of the invention as limited solely by the appended claims.