Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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This invention rel~tes to a wooden tile and a
method of making such a wooden tile.
Woodeltiles have long been utilized as a covering
ma~erial, particularly for floors. For many years,
good quality logs were plentiful and during manufacture
the waStage of wood was considerable whilst the tiles
were unnecessarily thick. At present logs are more
scarce and are consequently expensive. Therefore to
compensate for these problems the thickness of floor
tiles in general has been reduced and the thickness
of presently manufactured floor tiles is about 6 to
7 mm. A thinner tile has not been available simply
because it has been uneconomic to manu~acture the tiles
by conventional methods.
lS However, in one known floor tile which is thinner
than 6 mm, a veneer of 1 to 2 mm thick has been bonded
onto an inexpensive wooden backing such as Plywood or
Chipboard of a thickness of at least 1.5 mm to produce
a laminated wooden tile. Whilst this method achieves
a slighlly reduced cost, the tile quality is substan-
tially decreased and the service life is relatively short.
In another attempt to reduce tile thickness a tile
has been manufactured with a top layer consisting of a
thin veneer of 1 mm or under which is glued onto a
substrate having a clear plastics lining on top of it.
Ho\~ever, this method has proved to be fairly expensive
and the tile so produced has no natural warmth as is
inllerent in a natural \~ooden tile.
One ~nown method of overcoming these problems has
been to manufacture a wooden tile by sawing a sheet of
wood from a piece of luinber. The sheet of wood is then
cut into a plurality of individual rectangular shaped
~loc~s to \~hich glue is applied along their edges. The
blocks to which permanently resilient glue is applied
along their edges. The bloc~s are then butted together
side-by-side in any selected pattern and bonded together.
The disadvantage with such a method is that it is
generally not practical to manufacture the sheet of wood
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to a thicknes~ of less than 6.2 mm. A consider~ble
amount of wood is wasted in the saw cutting operation
and a low yield results from the geometric differences
in round logs and the straight saw cut line required
for obtaining the sheet thickness.
Furthermore, the cutting of the wood with a saw
results in a closed grain surface on both the top and
bottom major surfaces of the cut sheet resulting in the
finished tile having a rigid construction, substan-
tially no flexibility and being brittle.
It is an object of this in~ention to provide a
wooden tile in which these disadvantages are substan-
tially overcome.
It is a further object of the present invention to
provide a method of manufacturing a wooden tile in which
a new kind of flexible and durable wooden tile is pro-
duced.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is pro-
vided a flexible wooden tile for use as floor covering including a
plurality of stress relieved members each formed with major and
minor planar surfaces from a sheet of wood that is knife cut from
a piece of timber which has been subjected to a stress relieving
process, said members being formed into a single layer tile with an
edge surface constituting a minor planar surface of one member sub-
stantially abutting an edge surface of another member with adhesive
disposed between the edge surfaces so that when the adhesive is set
the members are bonded together with the major planar surfaces lying
in a single plane to form a flexible wooden tile in which said
wooden members are flexible.
Preferably, the members are bonded together by a substantially
riyid bond type of adhesive applied to the sides thereof prior to
assembly into said tile. Alternatively, the members are bonded onto
a mesh.
In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the tile is made
from teak and may be of a thickness in the range of 1.5 to 10 mm.
Preferably, the thickness of the tile is 2.5 mm.
Preferably, the members are formed of a predetermined length
and breadth and the length is longer than the breadth. ~he members are
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bonded together with an adhesive such as Ureaf~rmAld~hyde. The shape
of the tile so formed ls preferably square, although a six sided tile
may also be formed.
In an alternative embodiment the individual members are bonded
to a cotton mesh preferably by applying glue such as Ureaf~rmAl~hyde
to the lower major surface of the tile and bonding the cotton rnesh onto
said lower major surface. In another embodiment, a glue impregnated
co~ton mesh may be applied to the lower major surface of a tile formed
by the members which are conveniently held in a jig.
Advantageously, the wooden tile constr~cted in accordance with
this invention has a flexibility which is hitherto un-known in wooden
tiles.
According to ano-ther aspect of the present invention there is
provided a method of making a flexible wooden tile comprising the steps
of subjecting a piece of timber to a stress relieving process, knife
cutting a stress relieved sheet like piece or wood of a predetermined thick-
ness from a piece of timber, cutting the sheet like piece of wood into
a plurality of members each having major and minor planar surfaces,
applying a rigid setting adhesive s~ch as ureaformaldehyde to side edge
surfaces constituting said minor planar surfaces of the members, forming
a plurality of said members into a single layer tile with side edge surface
of one member substantially abutting the side edge surface of another
member so that the adhesive is disposed between the side edge surfaces
and the major planar surfaces lie substantially in a single plane, and
allowing the adhesive to set to bond said members together, whereby a
flexible wooden tile is produced in which the wooden members are flexible.
Preferably, the method includes applying adhesive to
sides of the members prior to forming the members into a tile
and allowing the adhesive to set to bond said members together
with a hard and permanent bond.
The method may alternatively include bonding the
tile without adhesive between the members onto a mesh.
The members are preferably formed of a predetermined
length and breadth and the length is arranged to be
~5 longer than the breadth, the members being arranged
together to form a square tile.
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The knife cutting machine on which ~he sheet like
piece of wood is removed from the timber is preferably
a rotary lathe which may be operated with a full round
rotary cut. In an alternative cutting machine, such as
a slicer, the cutting knife lies parallel with the
longitudinal axis of a bolt of wood and may be moved
horizontally, vertically or in a slanted fashion in a
dircction tr,~sverse to the longitudinal axis of the
bolt. In another alternative slicing machine, the CUttillg
O knifc may he moved lengthwise through the ~olt of woo~
parallcl to the lon~itudinal axis of tl)e bolt. In this
case, the open and closed grain surfaces on the sheet
are not present, but during the course of cuttin~ the
sheet is subjected to pressure and the wood fiber becomes
pliable so that it is suitable for use in the wooden
tile according to the present invention.
Preferably, the type of adhesive used to fix ~he
individual members to each other or onto the mesh is
Ureaformaldehyde, although any other sui~able adhesiYe of
2~ substantially rigid bond type may be used.
The curing or setting of the bonding adhesive may
be achieved by placing indi~idually assembled tiles side-
by-side between platens of a hot press and subsequently
pressure of some 10 metric tons per square foot is applied
to the tiles at medium temperature for approximately three
minutes. High frequency cure or cold cure ~reaformaldehyde
may also be used.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be
described, by way of example, with reference to the
accompanying drawings, in which:-
Figure 1 is a plan view of a wooden tile in accordance
with the present invention;
Figure 2 is a partial side view of the wooden til~ in
the direction of the arrow A in Figure l;
Figure 3 is a plan view of the tile with a mesh bonded
to the undersurface thereof; and
Figure 4 is a par ial side view of the tile with a
self adhesive layer.
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Referring now more particularly to the wooden tile illustrated
in Figures 1 and 2, the tile is shown to be square and is assembled
from a plurality of independent solid wood fingers 1 which are bonded
together along abutting side edge surfaces constituting minor planar
surfaces, with a suitable adhesive such as Ureaf~rm~ hyde.
In the present tile, the fingers 1 are formed into blocks
of five parallel fingers laid side-by-side with major planar surfaces
lying substantially in a single plane. The bloclcs are laid so that the
longitudinal fingers of each block lie at right angles to the next
10 adjacent block.
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In this way sixteen such blocks are laid side-by-side
and bonded together to -form the tile as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 2 illustrates a partial side view of the tile
in the direction of arrow A of Figure 1 and further
illustrates the bonded joints 2 between the blocks of
fingers 1. Although not shown in Figure 2 for the sake
of clarity, the blocks of individual fingers are similarly
butted and bonded together.
The process by which the wooden tile disclosed above
is manufactured will now be described in detail with
particular reference to making the tile from teak.
Initially, a teak log is boiled or steamed and then
allowed to cool to ambient temperature whereupon its
temperature is quickly raised again for boiling or
steaming for a second time. As the teak log begins to
cool, after the second boiling, the log is placed in a
rotary lathe such as is manufactured by Capital Corp-
oration in the United States of America, and while the
log is still hot but cooled suf~iciently to allow
efficient cutting of the wood, ihe log is rotated and
a sheet of wood of a thickness of a little more than
2.5 mm is cut by a knife from the surface of the log.
The knife blade is some 4 feet in lengt'n and is positioned
at an angle which will provide the maximum release of
the stresses and strains within the log as the sheet is
removed.
In the present embodiment, the sheets peeled from
the log are cut by means of a saw into a plurality of
elongate rectangular fingers although alternatively a
knife can be used. The fingers are then stacked with
their respective edge surfaces in common planes so that
adhesive such as Ureaformaldehyde can be applied to the
edge surfaces.
The fingers are then laid in a jig (not shown) in
the pattern shown in Figure 1 with surfaces of the jig
supporting the outer peripheral surface 3 of the tile
in Figure 1. The jig is then removed and the tile
placed between platens of a hot press with other
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similarly formed tiles. The hot press is operated to
apply a pre~sure of some 10 metric tons per s~uare foot
to the tile for some three minutes and when released the
adhesive is cured and the fingers of the tile bonded
together.
When the adhesive has cured, the tile is trimmed
around its edges to define a square tile with each o~
the sides having a length of 305 mm. The main major
upper and lower surfaces of ~he tile are finished in a
conventional manner to provide commercially acceptable
surfaces. After this ~inishing process, the tile has
a thickness of some 2.5 mm and does not have a backing
substrate.
In an alternative embodiment of manufac~uring a
wooden tile according to the invention the individual
fingers can be formed in an identical manner so tha~
described above with reference to the embodimcnt of
Figures 1 and 2. However, in this alternative embodi-
ment the fingers 10 only five of which are shown in
Figure 3 are placed in a jig (not shown) in a desired
pattern with the lower major surfac~ arranged uppermost
and then adhesive relatively thin and in liquid form is
applied to the lower major surface 4 thereof. A cotton
mesh 5 of which only a portion is shown is then laid on the
surface 4, the adhesive is cured by infrared light and the
tile is removed from the jig. The major surface without
the glue and mesh is the face of the tile. In the finished
tile the mesh 5 extends substantially over the whole of the
lower major surface 4 of the tile. In this embodiment no
adhesive is applied to the sides of the fingers which are
supported one relative to the other by the cotton mesh.
Alternatively, the cotton mesh is impregnated with
glue and is applied to the bare wooden surface of the lower
major surface of the tile. The cotton mesh is 0~3 mm in
thickness.
~ lthough cotton backing has been described with reference
to the present embodiment, mesh of any other material can be
used.
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The inverted gluing allows the liquid glue to run, by
means of gravity, into the joints between the fingers and
rigidly bonds all joints so that no flexing at the joints
is possible.
The ~dvantages gained by the method of manufacturing
a tile in accordance with the ~resen~ inventio~ is that
by cu~tin~ ~hc wooden sheet from the lo~ with a knife
provides an open grain surface on one side and a closed
grain on th~ other side of the wooden sheet. However,
while in the finished tile it does not matter where ~he
open grain occurs, the tile has a flexibility whic~l is
hitherto unknown in wooden floor tiles. Furthermore,
the method provides for a thinner solid wooden tile
than ~hat previously manufactured~ ~he thinness also
resulting in a tile which is both light in weight and
economical to produce.
The invention has been described with reference to two
particular embodiments. However, a number of modifications
may be made to the method without departing from the scope
of the invention.
While the sheet of wood has been described as being
cut from a teak log on a rotary lathel it is to be under-
stood that such sheets may be removed from a bolt of wood
by means of so called horizontal, vertical, slanted or
lengthways slicers which are well known in the art, but in
which the sheets are essentially removed by cutting with a
knife. A typical such slicing machine is produced by the
Italian firm of Cremona Angelo. Furthermore, while the
knife has been described as being some 4 feet in length, it
may be of any convenient length which is smaller or longer,
and may, for example, be up to some 16 feet in length. In
the so-called lengthways slicer the blade may be only 10
inches long.
Other ~oods may be used in making flexible wooden tiles,
such as oak or other rare wood species. However~ it is essen-
tial the sheet of wood taken from the log or bolt is cut
with a knife.
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In one modified form of the tiles made according
to the process of the present invention and illustrated
in Figure 4, the finished tile in which the fingers are
bonded to each other by adhesive on abutting sides is
coated on its lower major surface 4 with a self adhesive
6 covered by a removable non-adhesive release material
7.
In another modified form of the invention the
bonded tile of the embodiment of Figures 1 and 2 has
a mesh of any of the types referred to above bonded
to its lower major surface.
The self adhesive layer may be applied to any of
the tile forms covered by this invention. The self
adhesive layer may be a double sided adhesive tape with
outer non-adhesive release material.
The shape of the tile is not restricted to a
square tile but may be of any shape such as an elongate
rectangular form or a six sided form for example.
Furthermore~ the pattern on the tile formed by ~he
positioning of the fingers can be varied as desired
and the fingers can be of different lengths ~o
accommodate alternative patterns.
While the embodiments of the wooden tile have
been disclosed with reference to teak, wood selected
from oak, rare wood species and other types of wooden
materials can be used.
