CROSSCUT END

The invention relates to methods for manufacturing parquet elements from a crosscut end of natural wood and it can be used as a decorative floor covering on sites with increased requirements for water resistance, wear resistance and shock loading on the floor, e.g., such as in museums, billiard rooms, exhibition centers, restaurants, public places, supermarkets, entertaining establishments, residential and

administrative premises, as well as for other decorative finishing purposes.

A patent RU 2074935 dated March 10, 2007 is known from the state of the art, the patent proposes a method for manufacturing parquet elements by forming a package of small wooden work pieces in a solid casing, impregnating the package under pressure with an adhesive composition followed by its cutting in a transverse direction into separate cuts, which were used later for the formation of parquet. A drawback of such and similar methods lies in use of poor-quality secondary wooden raw materials for manufacturing parquet, which resulted, first of all, in a low quality of the products obtained, which did not find practical application.

A patent RU 2166429 dated May 10, 2001 is known from the state of the art as one of analogues, the patent discloses a method for manufacturing a decorative wooden panel, the method comprising pre-threatment thereof, forming a package of wooden work pieces by their assembly, gluing and compression, afterwards such packages are cut in a transverse direction into separate plates, which are subsequently glued to a base thereby forming a decorative pattern. A drawback of this method lies in the need for further treatment of the produced cuts and their mandatory

arrangement in the decorative panel. The parquet elements so glued on a plywood base form parquet shields, which are too bulky, heavy and inconvenient in a subsequent handling, that creates additional difficulties when finishing a floor.

Among the analogues a patent US 3700533, Oct. 24, 1972 is known, which discloses a technology for manufacturing decorative panels from wood waste

(branches, bars, etc.), which were poured in a formwork with a resin and after its hardening, cut the so obtained block in a transverse direction into separate sections, which were used to finish a floor and other surfaces.

As an analogue, a patent US 1028703 dated June 4, 1912 is also known, the patent relates to a method for manufacturing sections of a decorative flooring, which consist of a pair of constituent wooden bars of a crosscut end, which are made with beveled parallel ends and formed in several rows, wherein the beveled ends of the bars of the adjacent rows were located in the opposite direction and glued onto a solid base, thereby forming a decorative section. Handicrafts of a low quality were manufactured in such a complex way.

Similar methods of handicraft production of decorative panels from pieces of wood on the basis of their formation in a decorative panel and the subsequent finishing of small surfaces were also presented in patents US 6428871, US3977933 and some other worldwide analogues of an end parquet known to the Applicant, which are combined by one their common and significant drawback - such a decorative coating contains moisture, which will necessarily lead to cracking, wrinkling, drying up and other negative phenomena during use thereof, since it is known that when using a crosscut end of wood in parquet products, such negative phenomena appear several times more intense.

In addition, these known analogues of the claimed technologies bear not much relation to the spirit of the invention and do not comprise any specific substantial features thereof, rather only some distant features of the claimed technologies. All of them are simple handicrafts that do not have a wide practical application.

From the state of the art, the closest analogue of the invention is the Ukrainian utility model patent No. 23382 dated May 25, 2007 (invention Kovalenko V. V.), which discloses a method for pre-treating wood in a solution of heated paraffin, dehydrating and protecting thereof in special installations, deep pore saturation of rough wood work pieces in a linseed oil. Thus, wood that has been pre-dehydrated and partially saturated and protected in the paraffin was additionally impregnated by immersion in a liquid based on a drying natural oil, wherein such process was carried out at high temperature up to the maximum possible one in such conditions of removal of moisture from the wood and the pore saturation thereof, while the produced modified material was used for the production of parquet blocks, from which the parquet elements were subsequently obtained.

The prototype of the invention is an invention patent of Ukraine No. 71101 dated January 15, 2007, (invention Kovalenko V.V.), which discloses a block method for manufacturing parquet elements, which involves preliminary preparation of wood, dehydrating thereof with simultaneous modification, plasticization and removal of air in a solution of liquid paraffin at a temperature of 125 degrees Celsius followed by full pore filling and pore saturation in a natural linseed oil. The so produced rough work pieces were processed on woodworking machines to the desired end profile and glued by side surfaces into a monolithic block of parquet elements, while cutting in the transverse direction, separate parquet elements of the crosscut end of wood were produced for further finishing of a floor with them.

Despite the fact that the technologies of a block production of end parquet previously claimed and patented by the author had significant advantages over all known end parquets made of natural wood, they also revealed a number of drawbacks during their practical application. In particular, the essential drawbacks of such technologies were that the material produced by such method, which is pore filled with linseed oil, required plenty of time for drying the surface, which allowed to treat such wood on the machines only in a few days after treatment. The pore filling of wood work pieces was not performed through their entire thickness, but only to a certain depth, mostly uneven, which limited use of parts of the block, usually by their small sizes. Often, micro-cracks appeared on the surface of the wood (especially on the end surfaces), sometimes there was a casting of the material that further led to significant losses of wood. There were inconveniences in handling a stack of wood in a container that was floating on the surface upon gradual removal of the moisture from the wood, as a result of which it was not possible to constantly control the technological process, thereby violating, first of all, its temperature conditions.

Therewith, a drawback lied in that the paraffin was used simultaneously both as a temperature agent and a substance for partial pore filling and protection of wood. This led to the fact that the hot paraffin penetrated deeply into wood fibers, and this phenomenon always occurred spontaneously and in a non-controllable way at the end of the process of dehydration of rough work pieces, when the process of re-absorption of the paraffin into the pores of the wood began.

In addition, upon further pore saturation in the oil environment, the paraffin residues were mixed both on the surface and inside the wood, which greatly reduced the adhesion of glue during the formation of the the parquet block, created difficulties in further polishing and finishing the produced parquet elements.

The drawback also lied in that the dried lumber normally had a rather rough surface with a plurality of filaments that held a significant amount of natural linseed oil on their surface, thereby preventing and significantly prolonging the process of its polymerization. Moreover, even slight sweeps of wooden work pieces, change in their linear dimensions and shape, as a result of the previous drying of the wood, did not allow to put them in a stack tightly, which prevented a uniform distribution of pressure of the hydraulic cylinders on the entire surface, and this, in turn, disturbed a technological process of full dehydration of the wood, modification thereof and uniform sealing of its cavities, since the pressure gradients in different parts of the stack had different values.

These drawbacks further adversely affected the quality of the products produced. Thus, for quite a long time, the surface of the processed work pieces remained sticky due to the significant prolongation of the polymerization time of the oil solution, which created inconveniences in the treatment of such material on the machines, since the oil on the surface of the wood stuck on knives and cutting tool, contaminated working surfaces of the machines, etc.

After polishing the parquet flooring on its surface, patches of the paraffin sometimes appeared on the surface thereof, which came outside the thickness of the parquet elements upon changes of the ambient temperature. It also created difficulties and inconveniences in a process of finishing the floor with drying oils.

The disadvantage also lied in that the produced crosscuts sometimes required additional pore saturation in water-resistant compounds, which not only significantly increased the production cost of parquet flooring, but also required considerable time, special conditions and additional materials.

A method for further laying parquet boards on a floor by means of metal staples, use of a plywood base for the formation of a parquet board, etc. also failed in terms of considerable additional expenses and inconveniences in operation.

The same drawbacks also have been revealed during manufacturing laboratory samples, according to other technologies, which have been previously patented by the author.

None of the known technologies for parquet manufacturing uses a wood texture and its multilateral symmetry to create a unique natural decorative composition, which is possible only upon condition of a block production of a decorative parquet, since all known technologies for manufacturing a decorative parquet use exceptionally expensive, texturally uniform, small in size top grade work pieces of a natural wood, while the decorative composition of the parquet flooring is formed only due to the color of the wood, rather than due to the texture thereof.

Particularly, it relates to traditional known end parquet, wherein there is no concern of any design at all, and the crosscut ends of one wood species of a small size, which are chaotically placed without any pattern, are just one of the types of a primitive floor covering with a plurality of essential drawbacks in the process of use, such as cracking, casting, swelling, etc.

The objects of this invention lied in improvement and systematization of innovations, which have been previously patented by the author, and on the basis of the practical application of technologies, worldwide experience, elimination of all identified drawbacks, creation of a unified new system of formation and creation of a decorative surface, finishing of a floor by an end decorative parquet, which is made by a block method from natural wood.

The stated problem has been solved in the following way.

First of all, technologies and a mechanism of pre-preparation of wood have been drastically changed and improved.

Thus, for the pre-treatment in an installation for dehydration of wood rough work pieces of wood of different species, sizes and initial moisture as measured by contactless moisture meter, have been used, wherein in each particular technological cycle of the process, a stack of rough work pieces in a metal container was formed by one separate wood species, identical initial moisture and linear dimensions thereof.

Therewith, the dimensions of the container were the following: length being 1650 mm, width being 1200 mm, height being 1500 mm.

After the pre-treatment in a surfacing, thicknessing and crosscutting machines, in one size for the length and thickness, the wood pure work pieces were tightly placed on the entire volume of the container, afterwards a stack of wooden work pieces was compressed by means of three hydraulic cylinders, each for 50 tons, which are located in the top portion of the container, thereby creating, first of all, a small amount of required dosage pressure depending on technological parameters of the process, species of wood, linear sizes of the work pieces, etc.

Without lowering the pressure, the container was placed in a metal tank having appropriate dimensions with paraffin heated to a temperature of 125 degrees Celsius, wherein during the required time (from several hours to two days), the pressure was gradually increased to the required technological parameters, a process of dehydration of wood with its modification, sealing and removal of air due to the deep warming of the tree, creation of gradients of pressure and temperature therein, was carried out.

Depending on the species of the wood, initial moisture, size of the work pieces and the stated task, various technological parameters were used and regulated by automatic equipment.

The maximum temperature of the solution of liquid paraffin was 180 degrees Celsius, and the maximum pressure of the hydraulic cylinders was 50 tons.

The minimum initial temperature of the process was 125 degrees Celsius, and the pressure during placement of the stack - 10 tons.

The pressure in the hydraulic cylinders was constantly regulated and

maintained according to the technological parameters and controlled by means of pressure gauges according to the specific technological purposes in order to produce the required density of the fibers of the wood, create a high impact load, the required intensity of a natural color, artificial coloring by means of a high temperature and natural dyes, etc.

By controlling the pressure and temperature of the solution by means of an automatic switchboard, the process of removing moisture from the entire thickness of the wood was evenly maintained, wherein it was carried out without the process of boiling water and formation of steam in the thickness of the wood due to the created high pressure and its gradient, wherein the boiling temperature of water in the wood increased and sometimes reached 160-180 degrees Celsius. The moisture was coming out of the wood through its end surface and, upon getting into the liquid paraffin, where the pressure was much lower than inside the wood, and the temperature of the solution was higher, there was an intense boiling of water and its removal in the form of a steam. At the same time, there was an intensive removal of air from the voids of the wood, which were formed under the pressure similarly to expanded foam throughout the entire process of drying wood, while also sealing its structure.

The novel feature lies in the fact that due to the application of the dosing pressure of hydraulic cylinders and automatic equipment to control the dehydration process of the wood, the solution of hot paraffin, in this case, played an exclusive role being a temperature agent only. Due to the constant pressure and dense stacking of wood with rough work pieces having the same size, paraffin did not penetrate inside the fibers of the wood, but remained on the surface, thus, unwanted phenomena of its penetration into the wood were absent.

This process was better and much faster than when the initial moisture content of the wood was less than 30%, i.e., a level of free moisture content in the wood.

Therefore, the rough work pieces of the wood in the form of logs and sawn wood were preliminary dried outdoors under a shed up to a moisture content of 25-30%. In some cases, the drying of the wood up to a given initial moisture occurred in drying chambers.

After complete removal of the moisture and air, the wood stack in the container was taken out of the solution of liquid paraffin and held for 10-20 minutes over a bath, thereby allowing the paraffin residue to drain off from the surface of the work pieces in the stack.

Without lowering the pressure in the hydraulic cylinders, the container of the stack of work pieces was placed in a container having the same size filled with natural linseed oil for one-third, heated to 60 degrees Celsius, constantly keeping the oil covering the surface of the wood for 50-60 mm. Having immediately and completely lifting the pressure, the container with the work pieces was left in the oil for several hours until they were fully pore saturated and pore filled up due to pressure and temperature gradients, wherein an upper lid of the container was holding the entire stack of the wood in a fixed position, thereby preventing the work pieces from floating to the surface of the heated solution. Thus, the pore saturation of the wood occurred uniformly, throughout its entire thickness, and the work pieces retained their linear dimensions and shapes.

Sometimes, the oil solution was supplemented with natural dyes, plasticizers, catalysts and other additives, which accelerated the process of pore saturation and modification of wood, thereby possessing new unique properties thereto.

In some cases, a heated vaseline oil was used as the temperature agent, which not only proved to be more convenient in the work, but also significantly accelerated the preliminary treatment of the wood, thereby doubling its volume per unit of time due to the simplification of the process itself, contributed to the fact that vaseline oil and paraffin almost did not mix with an oil balm, and their remainders were pumped into special auxiliary reservoir by means of oil pumps for their further re-use.

However, such method of pre-treatment of the wood required the improvement of the automatic equipment, additional equipment and tanks.

In this case, the preliminary treatment of the wood occurred in the same way with the only difference in the fact that the container with the wood was not restarted, and the replacement of the working solution occurred in the same reservoir, since after the dehydration process by means of the oil pump has been completed, the vaseline oil was pumped out therefrom to a separate reservoir and, by gradually reducing the pressure in the hydraulic cylinders completely, the reservoir with the container was filled with an oily solution of a natural balsam from another reservoir, for the full pore saturation and pore filling of the wood due to the temperature and pressure gradient.

In both cases, the essence of the method and the temperature regime of the process of pre-treatment of the wood remained unchanged, and the pressure in the hydraulic cylinders was regulated and maintained according to the technological parameters and controlled by means of pressure gauges.

As a result, the process of pre-treatment of the wood was controllable, the expenses for the oil balm and paraffin was determined by means of a vertical ruler on an inner surface of the container, with their loss during use were minimal and the ingredients of the process did not mix with each other.

Subsequently, the container with the treated wood was taken out into the air, unloaded, stacked with gaskets for air access for subsequent polymerization of the oil solution, and after 1 -2 days the work pieces were used on woodworking machines for the production of finishing parts of the block of parquet elements (Fig. 1, pos. 1).

When further machining on the machines in the material previously prepared in this way there were no negative processes inherent to traditional woodworking methods observed. In particular, such undesirable phenomena as casting, cracking of the wood, its non-uniform pore saturation, sweep and change in linear forms, non uniformity of natural coloration, cracks of the end surface, etc., were completely absent.

In addition, the process of the pore saturation of the wood with natural oils has further significantly extended the service life of a cutting tool, surfacing shafts, knives, mills, and band and disk saws.

The wood that has been pore filled and saturated with the oily solution has showed a vivid texture. In some cases, plasticizers, natural dyes and color luminaires were additionally used.

By adjusting the pressure and temperature of the oily medium, the desired saturation, the intensity of the wood color have been obtained, and sometimes its color has been changed due to certain natural additives.

The process of pore saturation of the wood occurred uniformly throughout its thickness, and the polymerized oil balm bond the fibers of the wood as a reinforcing base into a single solid and sealed composition material. At the same time, the resistance to shock loading of the so produced modified pore saturated material has increased, in comparison with the usual, untreated crosscut end of the same wood species, by 20-30 times mainly due to production of the composite material (patents of Ukraine No. 71 101 and No. 23382).

They were treated in a similar way and prepared for processing on machine tools A pine log having large linear dimensions of 1200 mm in length and having the dimensions of the crosscut end of a 100 ^c 200 mm was treated in the same way and prepared prior to the treatment on the machines, thereby producing a sealed, modified, pore saturated material without any deformations or defects.

It is important that in the process of preliminary preparation of the wood, which included dehydration, complete pore saturation and removal of air, a process of its complete protection against the defeat of fungi, insects, rot, etc. simultaneously occurred. In addition, the wood has acquired novel unique properties and

characteristics close to plastics, while maintaining its energy value and the natural beauty of the texture.

One of the main properties acquired during the process of treatment of the wood by the claimed method was its exceptional water resistance and resistance to negative impacts of chemicals, mechanical damages, scratches on the end side and its uneven wear, etc. during the whole period of handling of the products.

The description is explained with Figures 1-5, which depict the following positions:

1. Pure pieces of a block of parquet elements.

2. Gluing the separate pure pieces by side surfaces when forming the block of the parquet elements.

3. The block of the parquet elements.

4. A wooden shield for the fixation of the parquet blocks when cutting thereof.

5. The produced parquet elements from the crosscut end of the wood.

Shaping of the pure work pieces (pieces of the parquet block) has occurred on woodworking machines for longitudinal formation of a profile.

The pure work pieces made from one or many wood species, according to the design of future parquet products, were collected and glued together by side surfaces (Fig. 1, pos. 2) by means of the PUR-501 polyurethane glue in a special, four- way hydraulic press previously patented by the author with up to 60 degrees Celsius heating and pressure of 0.6 Mpa for 20-30 min, thereby forming a parquet block (Figs. 3, 4, 5, pos. 3).

The produced glued and calibrated blocks of parquet elements of various required linear sizes after 24 hours were ready for further replication on separate plates on a tape-bending horizontal machine the Wood Mizer LT20„ which was additionally equipped with saws for pure cross cutting of the wood, a wood cutter, aspiration and dust removal device, extra brush grinding shaft and special saw cooling.

The process of replicating the parquet blocks occurred as follows. One or more parquet blocks having the same height were glued by one of its end surfaces on a wooden shield having the required sizes that played, at the same time, the role of a base for fixing the group of blocks on a frame of the tape-bending machine for their further cutting in the transverse direction. (Figs. 3.4, pos. 4). The distance between the adjacent blocks was 50 mm.

The thickness of the cuts ranged from 2 to 10 mm depending on their subsequent purpose and application. So, the thickness of the parquet tile for the flooring normally was 8 mm.

The produced cuts (Figs. 4.5, pos. 5) were stacked in packs and further used to decorate decorative surfaces.

The formation of the decorative floor by the decorative end parquet occurred due to gluing together the entire floor area in a determined order of the produced crosscut ends (parquet elements) by means of waterproof polyurethane glues in a single, seamless and monolithic composition. Plates were directly glued to the prepared solid, smooth, clean, defatted surface of the floor by the polyurethane glue, or together with a waterproof base in the form of decorative shields, which

represented parquet modules of various sizes, thereby forming a monolithic, seamless, polished coating of the decorative surface of the floor.

What is novel is that the claimed technology involves the creation of a decorative floor surface not due to the complication of the design of parquet blocks or the increase in the number of its constituent parts, but on the contrary - due to the use, first of all, of large fragments of the transverse cut of the wood, which enable to fully use the method the multilateral symmetry of the fibers of the natural texture of the wood, when laying on the floor of the entire composition of the design, because, as it is known, it does not involve any technology for the production of the decorative parquet, since its traditional manufacturers use exceptionally expensive, texturally uniform, small sized top grade work pieces of the natural wood, and the decorative composition of the parquet flooring itself is formed due to the color of the wood, and not its texture.

No varnishes, plywood, water-based materials or other traditional materials were used.

The entire process of preliminary preparation of wood, production of parquet blocks and the production of parquet elements, placing them on a base followed by finishing was environmentally friendly, since only natural materials were used.

30-40 square meters of the parquet coating having an average thickness of 8 mm (depending on the height of the block and its linear dimensions) have been produced from one block of parquet elements during the replication. The thickness of the saw cut was 2-3 mm.