Field of the invention

The invention relates to a composite sheet material, especially the invention relates to a sheet material that has been created from a flexible material such as a leatherette.

Background of the invention

A sheet-like material such as a leather including, but not limited to, a cowhide, cow leather, crocodile leather, and a leatherette or artificial leather made from polyurethane (PU), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which can be used to create various types of products such as bags, shoes, belts, chairs, furniture, and decorative rugs. In general, the by-products from the production of said products are available in large quantity so that they could be recycled or reused, or for the small quantities that are left over may not be useable and, thus, may be discarded.

A published Japanese patent application No. JP2000289142 A titled "Small Piece leather bonded sheet material and production thereof', which is related to the composite sheet material from by-products of leather that are being placed in jig-saw like patterns next to one another are bonded to the back of the sheet material with foamed resin and heat. However, the strength of said composite sheet material depends on the strength of the adhesive used which may not be as stable or endurable as it should be, especially once the adhesive has deteriorated or expired which causes the leather by-products to fall off the sheet material.

A published Japanese patent application No. JP2009165590 A titled "Leather-like texture and its manufacturing method" which indicates a composite sheet material from nylon back sheets (2) and leather sheets (1 A) of the sizes of 0.2-0.5 mm that are cross weaved on fabric (1C) wherein, the leather and fabric are fixed together with polyurethane resin and the leather is then coated with aliphatic polyurethane in ethanol solution. Further, the upper part of the sheet is coated with silicone and wax. Nevertheless, the production process of said composite leather is considered complex and incur high production costs. A published Japanese patent application No. JPH0326537 A is a composite material made from thin leather sheets and fabrics to improve backing strength. Both materials are bonded or adhered together with a hot adhesive layer and are processed by heat and bounded together so the leather sheets and fabrics are bounded. Nevertheless, as the composite material is wholly made from leather, the product is costly when comparing with the use of by-products for production purpose.

The composite materials as described are characterized by flatten sheets and have complex and costly production process. Further, the strength of said composite materials are depended on the adhesive layer or purely on backing material which may not be as endurable as they should.

Summary of the invention

As described in the previous section, there is a need for a new composite sheet material wherein by-products of certain materials can be utilized to create highest utility and attractiveness by designing the outer surface to have elevated or bulged or three-dimensional texture, and which can withstand or endure usage for a long period.

One of the objectives of this invention is to create the composite sheet material from a set of minor sheets with various patterns to enable bulging, three-dimensional texture whereby the outer surface of said material retains its beauty, strength, and at lower production costs.

In one embodiment of said invention, the composite sheet material comprising a set of small or minor sheets wherein the sheets further comprising at least one first portion for bonding to one another and a second bonding portion of at least one portion which is used as a structure for linking to said first portion. The first bonding portion of one minor sheet shall bond to the second bonding portion of an adjacent second minor sheet in a weave-like manner for linking or bonding one minor sheet to another adjacent minor sheet. In one embodiment of said composite sheet material may further comprise a backing or supporting layer which is adhered or bonded to one surface of the minor sheets with an adhesive layer and wherein said backing layer may be made from a material chosen from a polyester fabric, cotton, non-woven, leather, animal hide, animal skin, and leatherette; at the same time, the minor sheets may be made from a leatherette, leather, animal hide, and animal skin.

In one embodiment of said invention, the second bonding portion may comprise a basal portion and an end portion extending from said basal portion wherein the crosswise size of second bonding portion may be increased outwardly from the end portion to the basal portion.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the minor sheets may be characterized by square shape, triangular shape, other angular shapes, or other geometrical an asymmetrical shapes.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the adhesive used may be chosen from an aliphatic adhesive, heated adhesive, polyurethane adhesive, or foam resin.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the second bonding portion or the minor sheet is provided with at least two cut marks in one area of the minor sheet, especially at the basal portion of said second bonding portion.

Any objectives and special characteristics of the present invention shall become more apparent when in consideration together with the accompanying figures and detailed description of the invention.

Brief description of the drawings

FIG.l illustrates one example of the composite sheet material (100) according to this invention. FIG.2 illustrates the side view of the composite sheet material (100) of FIG. 1.

FIG.3 illustrates the features of one example of the minor sheet (10).

FIG.4 illustrates an example of a linking procedure for linking or bonding sheets (10a) to (10b).

FIGS.5-7 illustrate the examples of second, third, and fourth embodiments of the minor sheets (50, 60, 70), accordingly. FIG.8 illustrates the side view of the second embodiment of the composite sheet material (200).

Detailed description of the invention

Accompanying the description of this invention, examples of the invention shall be provided with references to the example drawings for improved clarity, and the same parts or objects represented in the drawings shall exhibit the same reference numbers without considering them as limitations. The extend of the invention shall be considered in accordance with the attached claims.

FIG.l indicates an example of a composite sheet material (100) according to this invention and FIG.2 demonstrates the side view of said composite sheet material ( 100) in FIG.1 which demonstrates the composite sheet material (100) being bonded or linked together by a set of minor sheets (10). According to FIG.2, minor sheets (10-a) and (10-b) are bonded together by weaving and overlapping each other at some part, causing three-dimensional peak-like texture.

Such method can increase the thickness and strength of bonding of the sheets to the composite sheet material (100) without sewing together like the conventional method.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the composite sheet material (100) comprising a set of minor sheets (10) wherein each of the minor sheets (10) further comprising at least one first bonding portion (14) and at least one second bonding portion (16) that contains a structure for bonding or weaving with the first bonding portion (14). FIG.3 shows a detail of the minor sheet ( 10) wherein the minor sheet ( 10) may be created from a leather or leatherette. According to this example, the minor sheet (10) is square-shaped. Nevertheless, said minor sheet (10) may be formed into other shapes and forms such as rectangular or any other angular shapes as shown in FIG.5 and FIG.6.

In FIG.3, the minor sheet (10) is preferably formed by using a die cut or any similar technique to create its square shape, and in which the sheet (10) is cut to create two openings (14) wherein the size of opening is equal to dl. Opening (14) is penetrated from one surface to another surface of said minor sheet (10) and is used as a portion for bonding the first bonding portion (14) wherein the two cutting traces (12) are then cut at the edge of the square and the other two traces (12) at the opposite edge of the square in order to create the second bonding portion (16) that resembles an arrowhead.

The second bonding portion (16) further comprising a basal portion (19) and an end portion ( 18) which is extending down from said basal portion ( 19) wherein the crosswise section of the second bonding portion (16) shall increase in size in accordance with the direction from the end portion (18) to the basal portion (19). The size of the basal portion (19) minus the length of the cut traces (12) shall equal to d2 wherein the size of d2 shall be relatively less than the width of dl of the opening (14), so that the second bonding portion (16) can be inserted into the opening (14) by folding the cutting traces (12) upward and enabling the first bonding portion ( 14) of minor sheet ( 10-a) to be bonded with the second bonding portion ( 16) of the other adjacent minor sheet (10-b) in a weave-like manner as indicated in FIG.4.

When the set of minor sheets (10) are put or bonded together, the composite sheet material of FIG.1 is obtained. In this case, the phase "bond., in a weave-like manner' provides the meaning of placing one minor sheet closely with another minor sheet that one would like to have them bonded together and for enabling weaving of the two minor sheets and withstanding pulling force being made onto the sheets without causing any breakage or displacement. Further, the act of bonding may similarly mean inserting, bundling, tightening together the sheets. At the same time, FIGS.5-6 demonstrate the examples of minor sheets in their symmetrical forms wherein both FIGS.5-6 are characterized by four-pointed and six-pointed forms, accordingly. Each of the points is represented by semi-circles wherein each of the points comprises the first bonding portion (14) and the second bonding portion (16), placing in alternation. The characteristics of the first bonding portion (14) and the second bonding portion (16) have already been mentioned above.

As known to those of related skills of the arts, the minor sheets may be designed into various shapes and forms. For instance, one example of minor sheets in their asymmetrical form could be similar, but not limited to, the minor sheets of FIG.7. Further, the minor sheets could be designed to be in various alternating colors so that once the sheets are bonded together shall create beautiful or artistic designs on the composite sheet material per user's preference.

FIG.8 provides the side view of the second embodiment of the composite sheet material (200) which is supported by a backing layer (30) that attaches to one surface of a set of bonded minor sheets (10, 50, 60, 70) with an adhesive layer (20) including, but not limited to, an aliphatic adhesive, leather adhesive, heated adhesive, polyurethane adhesive, and foam resin adhesive, which are commonly used in the leather manufacturing industry.

In such embodiment of this invention, the uppermost layer is a composite sheet material as described earlier. Though the composite sheet material ( 100) may be resistant against exerted forces in certain level, but since the minor sheets (10, 50, 60, 70) individually may be made from leatherette or artificial leather which may have external surface similar to animal hides, but may have unattractive backside such as easily detached fluffs or may have very little thickness. Thus, the act of anchoring to the backing layer (30), which may be chosen from materials of the following groups: polyester, cotton, non-woven cotton, real leather, and leatherette, may help to reduce fluff detachment from the backside and increase thickness of the composite sheet material, as well as, to improve other properties of the invention such as water resistance, resistance to external force, etc. At the same time, the external surface remains to be highly usable for forming into various products such as bags, furniture, houseware, etc. As described in the above description, the composite sheet material according to this invention may be made from a set of by-products of leather or leatherette to produce the most effective results and to reduce production costs. The resulting composite sheet material is attractive with three-dimensional surface and suitable toughness for various usages.

Although this invention has been disclosed in the context of certain embodiments and examples, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention extends beyond the specifically disclosed embodiments to other alternative embodiments and or uses of the invention and obvious modifications and equivalents thereof. In addition, while several variations of the invention have been shown and described in detail, other modifications, which are within the scope of this invention, will be readily apparent to those of skill in the art based upon this disclosure. It is also contemplated that various combinations or sub-combinations of the specific features and aspects of the embodiments may be made and still fall within the scope of the invention. It should be understood that various features and aspects of the disclosed embodiments can be combined with, or substituted for, one another in order to form varying modes of the disclosed invention. Thus, it is intended that the scope of the present invention herein disclosed should not be limited by the particular disclosed embodiments described above, but should be determined only by a fair reading of the claims that follow.