COATING OR FURNISHING ELEMENT, METHOD AND INSTALLATION FOR CARRYING OUT SAID ELEMENT

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention refers to an element for coating and furnishing, in particular, fit for carrying out tiles or plates for flooring and coating and for carrying out tops, elements of furniture or pieces of furniture, partition walls and the like. The invention refers furthermore to a method and to an installation for carrying out said coating or furnishing element.

BACKGROUND ART

There are known tiles and methods for carrying out a front face equipped with a coating sheet or plate, for example made of wood. Said known tiles have a support, for example, made of concrete of resinous matrix, generally square or rectangular shaped with the visible face coated, a backside face for assembly and a number, usually four, of lateral faces.

A drawback of said known tiles consists in that the lateral faces are not coated.

Other drawback of said known tiles consists in that also small differences of quantity or of volume of the material constituting the support cause irregularities of the assembly face causing difficulty and lose of time in the setting-up operation.

Further drawback of said known tiles consists in that in the coating status drops directly on an inhomogeneous material because it can cause localized wear and damages to the coating in case of solicitations and frictions.

A disadvantage of the known methods and installations for carrying out said floor tiles consists in that they are very complex and expensive to be actuated or carried out.

Another disadvantage of the known methods consists in that they require highest precision in the dosage of the materials or complex evacuation systems of the material excesses.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to propose an element for coating or furnishings in which also all the lateral faces may be coated.

Further object is to propose an element easy to assembly also in case of irregularity and concavity of the assembly face.

Other object is to propose an element whose coating is almost free from wear localized and resistant to the solicitations and the frictions.

Further object is to propose a relatively simple method and a system and that do not require the perfect dosage of the material that constitutes the support of the element.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features of the invention are highlighted in the following with reference to the attached design in which:

- figure 1 shows a schematic view of transport and immersion means, for perforated metallic plates, of the system object of the present invention;

- figure 2 shows a schematic view of means for impregnating or clamping, for plates or sheets of coating, of the installation;

- figure 3 shows a schematic view of moving and overlapping means of each plate perforated with a respective coating plate;

- figure 4 shows a schematic view of shearing and folding means integrated for each perforated plate with the respective coating plate or sheet;

- figure 4 shows a schematic view of pressing means for pressing the mutual union and consolidation of each perforated plate with the respective coating plate or sheet with a correspondent support;

- figure 5 shows a in plant view of a coating element object of the present invention;

- figure 6 shows a view of the element sectioned along the plane Vl - Vl of figure 5;

- figure 7 shows a view of the element sectioned along the plane the VII - VII of figure 5;

- figure 8 shows an axonometric and sectioned view of the element of figure 5;

- figure 9 shows an enlarged view of a detail of figure 8.

BEST MODE OF CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

With reference to the figures from 1 to 9, 1 indicates the coating or furnishings element, object of the present invention, fit to coat walls, floors

and building elements and to realize tops for consoles, for tables and furniture and furnishings elements in general.

The element 1 is shaped like a tile or plane, squared or rectangular, and has an assembly face M fit to adhere to assembly glues for the wall or floor installation or to be fixed to furniture or furnishings elements.

The face opposite to the assembly face is the visible face V; such assembly and visible faces are interconnected through four lateral faces L shaped as lengthened rectangle.

The lateral faces L and the visible face V are equipped with one coating 3 fixed to a support layer 4 of element 1.

As visible in the figures 5-9, the support layer 4 and the coating 3 extend also to the lateral faces of the element 1.

The element 1 comprises a support 2 fixed to the support layer 4 and adhering to the faces of this latter opposite to the coating 3.

Alternatively, the invention provides that the element can be made by only the support 4 and coating 3 layer without the support 2 or with a concave support that carries out a thin thickness on the faces of the support layer 4 opposite to the coating 3.

The recess of the assembly face of this alternative embodiment of the element does not compromise the assembly, as an example a wall, as the plane of assembly of the element is perfectly defined by the free boards of the lateral faces.

The support layer 4 consists in a plate of material lacking or almost lacking of memory, cut and folded in order to assume the form of the lateral and visible faces.

In particular the plate of the support layer 4 of metal or metallic alloy, in particular that or constituted from a plate of aluminate or ferrous metal, or of respective alloys and compounds, of thickness comprised between about 0,1 mm and about 2,0 mm.

Alternatively, the invention provides that the support layer 4 is made of synthetic material, as an example reinforced, preformed resin.

The support layer 4 is at least perforated in correspondence of the visible face in such a way to guarantee also the direct adhesion between 3 coating and support 2.

The coating 3 consists in a plate or sheet of wood, its by-products, its substitute and the like; preferably the coating 3 is made of a plate or sheet of wood with thickness comprised between about 0,5 mm and about 4,0 mm.

Alternatively the coating 3 may consist in a plate, sheet or layer of paper, fabric, natural or synthetic leather or hides or of other flexible materials.

The coating 3 is fixed to the support layer 4 by means of a resinous material and possibly it may be impregnated of, or strewed with, the resinous material, as an example of the epoxy bi-member type, in a position fit for making the wood impermeable and improving the resistance to the wear.

The support 2 is made of solid elements, preferably inerts, in form of powders and/or grains and/or pieces and/or fragments and/or fibers, also obtained by scrap or debris, in a matrix of resinous material, for instance

polyurethane material, or preferably epoxy, and is fixed to the support layer 4 by means of the same resinous material.

The assembly face is made of the support having shape almost flat, irregular convex or flat with rabbets and/or assembly relieves.

The method, object of the present invention, for carrying out a coating element or furnishings having an assembly face M, a plurality of side faces L and a visible face V provided with a coating 3 comprises the following sequence of steps:

- to dip a plate for a support layer 4 made of a material almost lacking of memory in a first fluid for the adhesion;

- to at least impregnate or to damp a fixing face 5 of a plate or sheet of coating 3 with a second fluid for the adhesion;

- to place the plate for the support layer 4 matching with the fixing face 5 of the coating plate or sheet 3;

- to shear or to cut the plate for the support layer 4 matching with the coating plate or sheet 3 for removing corners from the edges, that is in order to eliminate square portions of edges, and to fold the edges of such plates laterally to the eliminated vertexes in order to define the thickness thereof, in order to realize the visible face V and the plurality of lateral faces L of element 1 and, consequently, in order to form a concavity 7 comprised between such faces;

- to place in a housing of a pressing means the plate for the support layer 4 matching with the coating plate or sheet 3 sheared and folded, with concavity 7 towards the high;

- to pour in the concavity 7 solid elements like powders and/or grains and/or pieces and/or fragments and/or fibers mixed with a fluid material fit to constitute a matrix for said solid elements and to adhere to the faces of the plate for the support layer 4 that defines the concavity;

- to press and possibly to heat by pressing means the plate for the support layer 4 matching with the coating plate or sheet 3 and said mixture until their adhesion and consolidation.

The first fluid may contribute to the adhesion of the matrix to the plate for the support layer 4 and in cooperation with the fluid, makes the adhesion of the fixing face 5 of the coating plate or sheet 3 to the external face of the plate for the support layer 4.

Alternatively the method provides to put under pressure and/or heating the plate for the support layer 4 matching with the plate or coating sheet 3 sheared and folded for the mutual adhesion, without applying the support 2 thereto made of powders and/or grains and/or pieces and/or fragments and/or fibers in a matrix of resinous material.

The method further comprises each one of the following steps:

- to use a plate for the perforated support layer 4;

- to use a coating plate or sheet 3 of paper, material, natural or synthetic leather or hides or of other flexible materials or of wood or its substitutes and by-products, preferably of recomposed wood;

- to use a coating plate or sheet 3 having dimensions equal to or slightly greater than the dimensions of the plate for the support layer 4;

- to use a first fluid and a second fluid consisting in two members of a resinous material or to use a first fluid and a second fluid consisting in the same resinous fluid material or two compatible resinous materials;

- to use a first fluid compatible with the resinous material.

The installation, object of the present invention, for carrying out a coating or furnishings element comprises:

- transport and immersion means 20, in a first fluid, of a plate for a support layer 4;

- impregnating or damping means 30 at least a fixing face 5 of a coating plate or sheet 3 placed parallel in respect to the transport and immersion means;

- moving and overlapping means 40 of the fixing face 5 of the coating plate or sheet 3 up to the plate for a support layer 4, placed downstream of transport and immersion means and of the impregnating and damping means;

- shearing means 50 of the edges of the coating plate or sheet 3 adhering to the plate for the support layer with the plate for the support layer 4 placed downstream of the moving or overlapping means;

- folding means 60 of the edges of the coating plate or sheet 3 adhering to the plate for the support layer 4, placed downstream of shearing means or integrated to them;

- pressing means 70 having a housing 71 for the coating plate or sheet 3 adhering to the plate for the support layer 4 and folded ;

- supplying means, known and not shown, of a mixture of powders and/or grains and/or pieces and/or fragments and/or fibers in a resinous matrix inside a concavity 7 formed of the coating plate or sheet 3 adhering to the plate for the support layer 4 folded and placed in the housing;

- a mobile element 72 of the pressing means fit to compress said mixing and coating plate or sheet 3 adhering to the plate for the support layer 4.

Transport and immersion means 20 comprise a catenary 21 with suspension elements for the perforated plates provided with a curved line with descending and ascending path for the immersion of said perforated plates in a basin 22 for the first fluid.

The impregnating or damping means 30 for the fixing faces 5 of the coating plates or sheet 3, comprise a conveyor tape, or chain like or rolls like 32, for the advancing of said plates or sheets and a set of cylinders 31 standing above the, and transversal to, the conveyor 32.

Said cylinders are made of impermeable material imbibed of the second fluid, for impregnating at least the fixing faces 5 of said plates or sheets 3.

The moving and overlapping means 40 comprise drawing means, known and not shown, of the plates or plate and sheet from the conveyor and immersion means and from the means for impregnating and damping and comprise overlapping means of said plates or sheet, of a known and not illustrated type.

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The shearing means 50 and the folding means 60 are integral and comprise punching or cutting means or folding means with male 51 or female 52 members.

An advantage of the present invention is to provide an element for coating or furnishings in which also all the lateral faces may be coated.

Further advantage is to provide an element easy to assembly also in case of irregularities and concavities of the assembly face.

Other advantage is to provide an element whose coating is almost free from wear localized and resistant to the solicitations and the friction.

Further advantage is to provide a relatively simple method and an installation and that they do not require the perfect dosage of the material that constitutes the support of the element.