METHOD OF PROCESSING AN INTERLOCKING FLOOR BOARD

METHODE DE TRAITEMENT DE PLANCHER EMBOITE

English Abstract

A method is used for manufacturing a floor
at an interface between neighboring two parts on a large
blank (101). The blank (101) is cut firstly on the front face
with a saw (104), then is cut secondly on the opposite side
with the saw (104), and the first and second saw kerf are
cut through at the interface between neighboring two parts.
Thus neighboring two parts are separated. As cutting on the
front face and the opposite side of the blank successively,
and a head of the saw (104) being sharp-angled or gradient
configuration, the width of the blank (101) cut off is less
than the thickness of the saw (104) at the position where the
kerfs are cut through. Therefore, the loss of kerf is reduced.

French Abstract

L'invention concerne un procédé utilisé pour fabriquer un plancher à une interface entre deux parties adjacentes sur une grande ébauche (101). L'ébauche (101) est tout d'abord coupée sur la face frontale à l'aide d'une scie (104), et est ensuite coupée sur le côté opposé avec la scie (104), et les premier et deuxième traits de scie sont ensuite découpés à l'interface entre les deux parties adjacentes. Les deux parties adjacentes sont ainsi séparées. A cause de la coupe successive sur la face frontale et le côté opposé de l'ébauche, et d'une tête à scie (104) inclinée en angle aigu ou de configuration en gradient, la largeur de l'ébauche (101) découpée est inférieure à l'épaisseur de la scie (104) dans la position où les traits sont découpés. En conséquence, les pertes du trait sont réduites.

Claims

CLAIMS
1. A method of processing a floor board, comprising the steps of:
(i) cutting a floor board blank, wherein:
the blank is cut firstly on a front face of the blank using a saw and then cut
secondly on a
back face of the blank with the identical saw,
kerfs of the first and second cuts are communicated with each other at an
interface of the
kerfs so that two adjacent floor board parts are separated, and
the saw has a head with a sharp-angled or inclined configuration so that a
width of each
of the kerfs at the interface is less than the thickness of the saw; and
(ii) processing grooves or tongues on the resultant floor board parts, which
includes
milling grooves or tongues at relative edges of said floor board parts with a
miller cutter,
wherein the cutting positions of the first and second cuts correspond to the
grooves or
tongues to be processed.
2. The method of processing a floor board according to claim 1, wherein:
when the opposing edges of the two adjacent floor board parts are both
processed as
grooves or tongues, the saw head has the sharp-angled configuration and the
sharp-angled
configuration is centrosymmetrical,
the kerfs of the first and second cuts have the same central line, and
an inner sharp angle formed by the kerf of the first cut and an inner sharp
angle formed
by the kerf of the second cut are communicated at the interface.
3. T.he method of processing a floor board according to claim 1, wherein:
when one of the opposing edges of the two adjacent floor board parts is
processed as the
groove and the other is processed as the tongue, the saw head has the inclined
configuration,
the central line of the kerf of the first cut and the central line of the kerf
of the second cut
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are parallel to each other and the distance therebetween is equal to or
slightly less than the
thickness of the saw, and
an inner inclined angle formed by the kerf of the first cut and an inner
inclined angle
formed by the kerf of the second cut are communicated at the interface.
4. The method of processing a floor board according to claim 3, wherein the
inclined
configuration of the head of the saw is a stepwise inclined configuration or
an integral inclined
configuration.
5. The method of processing a floor board according to any one of claims 1-
4, wherein
the kerf depths of the first and second cuts are equal to or slightly greater
than a half of the
thickness of the floor board blank.
6. The method of processing a floor board according to claim 2, wherein the
sharper
the sharp-angled configuration is, the smaller the width of each kerf at the
interface becomes.
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Description

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METHOD OF PROCESSING AN INTERLOCKING FLOOR BOARD
Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method of processing a floor board, and
more particularly
to a method of processing an interlocking floor board.
Background Art
The Floor board enjoys great popularity as an indoor ground decorative
material. The current
flooring is usually formed by jointing together relatively small strip-shaped
floor boards, in
which the interlocking floor board is commonly used. The interlocking floor
board has
become one of the main products in the flooring in recent years due to its
characteristics of
easy assembly, no gluing and repeatable disassembly and assembly. The
interlocking
structure of the interlocking floor board comprises grooves and tongues made
on mutually
opposite sides of the floor boards. When paving the floor boards, a tongue of
one floor board
is interlocked into a groove of another adjacent board, i.e., interlocking
mating is formed. '
Repeated as such, a plurality of floor boards can be jointed into one piece so
as to form a
flooring with a nearly integral effect. When the flooring needs to be
disassembled, the tongue
of a floor board is disengaged from the groove of another adjacent floor
board.
When making floor boards, a large floor board blank needs to be cut into a
plurality of small
floor board blanks 101 according to a desired floor board size. As shown in
Figs. 1 and 2, the
large floor board blank is directly cut by a saw 102 according to the prior
art. The saw cuts
through the blank each time of cutting. This processing method leads to
apparent kerf loss.
The thickness of a kerf 103 generated upon each cut is larger than that of the
saw, so a floor
board material having the thickness of at least one saw will be lost. After
the floor board
blank is cut, corresponding grooves or tongues are milled by a milling cutter
at peripheral
edges of the floor board blank; since planar cutting surfaces are formed
during cutting
procedure, there is no special advantageous effect to the subsequent
manufacturing of the
grooves or tongues.
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Summary of the Invention
In regard to said defects of the prior art, the present invention intends to
solve the problem of
great kerf loss caused by direct cut-through of a conventional method of
processing a floor
and to provide a method of processing a floor board with reduced kerf loss.
The solution to said technical problem of the present invention is to provide
a method of
processing a floor board, comprising the following steps of: (1) cutting a
floor board blank: at
an interface between two adjacent floor board parts of a large floor board
blank, the blank is
cut firstly on a front face of the blank with a saw and then cut secondly on a
back face of the
blank with a saw, and kerfs of the first and second cuts are linked with each
other at the
interface between the two adjacent floor board parts so that the two adjacent
floor board parts
are separated. The head of the saw has a sharp-angled or inclined
configuration such that the
thickness of the blank cut off at a position where the kerfs are linked is
less than the thickness
of the saw; (2) processing grooves or tongues: milling the grooves or tongues
at edges of said
floor board parts cut off with a miller cutter.
In the present invention, when the opposing edges of the two adjacent floor
board parts are
both processed as grooves or tongues, the head of the saw has preferably a
centrosymmetrically sharp-angled configuration; the kerfs of the first and
second cuts have
the same central line; and an inner sharp angle formed by the kerf of the
first cut and an inner
sharp angle formed by the kerf of the second cut are linked at the interface
between the two
adjacent floor board parts.
In the present invention, when one of the opposing edges of the two adjacent
floor board
parts is processed as a groove while the other is processed as a tongue, the
head of the saw
has preferably an inclined configuration; the central line of the kerf of the
first cut and the
central line of the kerf of the second cut are parallel to each other and the
distance
therebetween is equal to or slightly less than the thickness of the saw; and
an inner inclined
angle formed by the kerf of the first cut and an inner inclined angle formed
by the kerf of the
second cut are linked at the interface between the two adjacent floor board
parts.
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In the present invention, the inclined configuration of the head of the saw
may be a stepwise
inclined configuration or an integral inclined configuration.
In the present invention, the kerf depths of the first and second cuts are
preferably equal to or
slightly greater than a half of the thickness of the floor board blank.
It can be seen from said technical solution that due to the two cuts on the
front and back faces
plus the saw head with a sharp-angled or inclined configuration, the thickness
of the blank cut
off at a position where kerfs are linked will be less than the thickness of
the saw, thereby
reducing the kerf loss; furthermore, a saw can be selected according to a
groove or tongue to
be manufactured at the edges of the floor board blank, so that on the one
hand, the kerf loss is
reduced; and that on the other hand, grooves or tongues are made while cutting
the floor
board blank so as to reduce the work of processing grooves or tongues.
Brief Description of the Drawings
Fig. 1 is a schematic view of cutting a large floor board blank according to
the prior art;
Fig. 2 is a schematic view after separate floor board parts are cut off from
the floor board
blank;
Fig. 3a to 3f are schematic views of cutting by a saw with a stepwise inclined
configuration
according to one embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 4 is a schematic view of kerf loss when cutting by a saw with a stepwise
inclined
configuration;
Fig. 5 is a schematic view of kerf loss when cutting by a saw with an integral
inclined
configuration;
Fig. 6 is a schematic view of kerf loss using a conventional processing method
when the
edges of two adjacent floor board parts are both processed as tenons.
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Fig. 7 is a schematic view of kerf loss using a sharp-angled saw when the
edges of two
adjacent floor board parts are both processed as tenons.
Fig. 8 is a schematic view of kerf loss using another sharp-angled saw when
the edges of two
adjacent floor board parts are both processed as tenons.
Preferred Embodiments of the Description
One preferable embodiment according to the present invention is shown in
Figs.3a to 3f,
illustrating a process of cutting with a saw having a stepwise inclined
configuration.
Fig. 3a shows a large floor board blank prior to cutting.
In Fig. 3b, a saw 104 with a stepwise inclined configuration is used to cut. A
first cut is made
on a front face of the blank and the structure as shown in Fig. 3c is formed
after removing the
saw. The drawings of embodiments of the present invention are all simplified
cross-sectional
views. In the embodiment, the saw is a disk-structured electric saw and the
edge thereof is
provided with a stepwise inclined configuration as shown in the drawing. For
the purpose of
easy depiction, the edge of the saw is depicted as a head of the saw according
to the
cross-sectional effect in the present invention.
In Fig. 3d, a second cut is made on a back face of the blank and the structure
as shown in Fig.
3e is formed after removing the saw.
Fig. 3f shows subsequently processed tenon and groove structures, wherein the
tenon is on
the left and the groove is on the right.
It can be seen from Figs. 3a-3f that the kerf depths of the first and second
cuts are equal to
each other and both slightly greater than a half of the thickness of the floor
board blank; the
kerfs of the first and second cuts are linked at the interface between two
adjacent floor board
parts 101 so that the two adjacent floor board parts are separated. Since the
head of the saw is
an inclined configuration, the thickness of the blank cut off at a position
where the kerfs are
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linked is less than the thickness of the saw 104, and therefore kerf loss is
notably reduced.
Figs. 4 to 8 show kerf losses generated by various cutting methods, wherein
the structures of
the processed floor board edges, i.e., complete tenon and groove structures,
are shown for
easy illustration; in the actual manufactured procedure as shown in Figs. 3a-
3f, the cutting is
conducted first and then the tenon and groove structures are manufactured.
In Fig. 4, the saw 104 is a stepwise inclined configuration with the thickness
of 32 (3.2mm in
fact, Fig.4 shows the 10-times enlarged effect, and so are the data shown in
Figs. 5, 6, 7 and
8). It can be seen from Fig. 4 that the left side of the first cut and the
right side of the second
cut are on the same line, which shows that the central line of the kerf of the
first cut and the
central line of the kerf of the second cut are parallel to each other and the
distance
therebetween are equal to the thickness of the saw; the lower edge of the
first cut and the
upper edge of the second cut are on the same line, which shows that the kerf
depths of the
first and second cuts are equal to each other and approximately equal to a
half of the
thickness of the blank. It can be seen from Fig. 4 that the distance between
the edges of the
tenon and groove structures to be achieved is 20, which is 12 shorter than the
thickness of the
saw. Compared with the conventional manufactured method, the kerf loss of a
thickness of 12
can be saved in each cut. Furthermore, the cutting positions of the first and
second cuts
correspond to the tenon and groove structures to be processed such that the
work of
processing grooves and tongues can be saved.
In Fig. 5, a saw 105 is an integral inclined structure with a thickness of 32.
It can be seen
from Fig. 5 that the central line of the kerf of the first cut and the central
line of the kerf of
the second cut are parallel to each other and the distance therebetween are
slightly less than
the thickness of the saw; the kerf depths of the first and second cuts are
equal to each other
and slightly greater than a half of the thickness of the blank. The distance
between the edges
of the tenon and groove structures to be formed is 20.65, which is 11.35
shorter than the
thickness of the saw. That is to say, the kerf loss of a thickness of 11.35
can be saved in each
cut.

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Fig. 6 shows kerf loss using a conventional processing method when the edges
of the two
adjacent floor board parts are both processed as tenons. The thickness of the
saw 102 is 32,
and the whole large blank is cut through. It can be seen from Fig. 6 that the
thickness of the
blank cut off between upper edges of two tenons after processing is 68.2.
Fig. 7 shows kerf loss using a method according to the present invention when
the edges of
two adjacent floor board parts are both processed as tenons. A sharp-angled
saw 106 as
shown is used to cut the blank on the front and back faces thereof. The
thickness of the saw is
still 32. The thickness of the blank cut off between upper edges of two tenons
after processing
is 52, which is 16.2 less than the kerf loss of Fig. 6.
Compared with Fig. 7, a saw 107 in Fig. 8 is much shaper and the thickness of
the saw is still
32. The thickness of the blank cut off between upper edges of two tenons after
processing is
39.02, which is 29.18 less than the kerf loss of Fig. 6.
It can be known from said embodiments that due to the two cuts on the front
and back faces
of the blank plus the saw head having a sharp-angled or inclined
configuration, the thickness
of the blank cut off at a position where kerfs are linked will be less than
the thickness of the
saw, thereby reducing the kerf loss; furthermore, a saw can be selected
according to a groove
or tongue to be processed at the edge of the blank, so that on the one hand,
the kerf loss is
reduced; and that on the other hand, grooves or tongues are made while cutting
the blank so
as to reduce the work of processing grooves or tongues.
6

Representative Drawing