The present invention relates to a connector, for releasably coupling at least two pieces of surface covering, in particular a floor covering such as carpet or the like, or a wall covering, wherein the connector has a substantially planar top side, a substantially planar bottom side, wherein the top side comprises; at least two connecting portions, for connecting to a piece of carpet, wherein the connecting portions are mutually separated by a separating portion. The invention is further related to a flooring or wall covering comprising mutually coupled pieces of surface covering using said connector, and a method for mutually connecting pieces of surface covering.

Non-limiting examples of application of the connector are: carpet in general, carpet tiles, in particular with a fibrous bottom, LVT tiles with fibrous bottom, felt for use as carpet pad, homogeneous vinyl covering with a fibrous backing, heterogeneous vinyl coverings, wall coverings with fibrous backing. All afore mentioned surface coverings can be connected as roll goods, or smaller pieces like the carpet tile shape, or irregular shapes.

Connecting pieces of surface covering, in particular carpet tiles is an activity that frequently occurs. For example during preparations of exposition halls, where a floor surface is often provided with surface covering to make the floor surface have a better appearance. Obviously it is not possible to cover a very large floor surface with a single piece of surface covering. Therefore, multiple pieces of surface covering are used. Use can for example be made of various strokes of carpet of a predetermined length, or use can be made of carpet tiles. However, the separate strokes, or tiles have to be mutually coupled in some way to prevent them from spreading apart. A first commonly known manner of fixing the carpet tiles or strokes in place is to adhere them to the floor surface. This can be done using double sided tape or the like. However, this causes a lot of manual labor, since the tiles or strokes have to be aligned, before sticking them to the ground, and above that when removing the floor covering a lot of debris is created since the tape can most often not be reused. The carpet connector according to the Belgium patent publication BE1016171A3 aims to provide at least part of this problem. The Belgium patent publication discloses a connector which releasably connects two segments of carpet. The connector is in essence a strip of hook-loop connector, to which the two segments of carpet can be connected. The segments of carpets, in particular the edges of the carpets are optionally provided with downwardly directed loops, arranged to co-act with the upwardly directed hooks of the connector. This allows to easily place and remove carpet segments, without producing the debris. However, a major downside of this solution is that it is very difficult to correctly and contiguously align the segments of carpet such that the carpets are essentially seamlessly. One of the properties of the hook-loop connector is that it connects upon touch of the hooky part with another loopy surface. Therefore, the application of the second segment has to be either positioned first time right, or several attempts have to be made in order to correctly align the second segment of carpet.

It is therefore a goal of the present invention to provide a carpet connector which allows for a better and easier alignment of the coupling of pieces of carpet, or at least provide an alternative to the prior art. A further goal of the present invention is that, the flooring can be installed as a floating installation without the application of glue which can damage the subfloor, or leave sticky residues.

US Patent application US6083596 describes such solution wherein adhesives are used. It is well known in the art that when the fibrous carpet backing contacts the connector hooks or adhesive layer, the coupling is immediate and any shifting of the carpet in the plane of the connector (horizontal plane) is prohibited. An adhesive layer is in particular troublesome in that respect, since for every carpet tile the installer must position each carpet tile "first-time-right" and without any pile trapping, which is at least cumbersome in practice, if not undoable.

The present invention thereto proposes a surface covering connector, for releasably coupling at least two pieces of surface covering, wherein the connector has a substantially planar top side, a substantially planar bottom side, wherein the top side comprises; at least two connecting portions, wherein the connecting portions are mutually separated by a separating portion, wherein at least one connecting portion comprises multiple hooks for releasably connecting to a piece of surface covering and wherein the separating portion is non-adhesive and non- sticky and in particular flat and smooth for avoiding adherence of the surface covering to the connector.

When installing surface covering such as carpets, this provides an installer movement freedom in the horizontal plane, to position the surface covering tiles appropriately in a grid. A both hook free and adhesive free center lane enables a sliding positioning motion of the surface covering tiles with respect to each other. The surface covering tile which slides on the smooth, non-sticky center track must have a small angle with the horizontal plane to prevent it to engage with its hooks patched area of the connector under the sliding tile.

An adhesive on the smooth track prevents any sliding motion to position an install the surface covering tiles.

In a preferred embodiment, the bottom side is non- adhesive and non-sticky and in particular flat and smooth for enabling creation of a floating surface covering on any subfloor. The bottom side is the side which contacts the concrete or wooden subfloor. Connectors free of adhesives do not damage the precious subfloor after removal of the floor with sticky residual adhesive. Aside this, these connectors can be used over and over again. The adhesive free connectors have low VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) emissions as these usually originate from the adhesives.

In this application the invention refers to pieces of surface covering, this should be understood as at least pieces of carpet, strokes of carpet, carpet tiles of any shape, rolls of carpet, wall coverings, pieces of filamentous underlay or other surface covering like pieces to be mutually coupled. The present invention allows to create a contiguous coupling of at least two pieces of surface covering. The present invention also allows a contiguous coupling between two rolls of surface covering. The connector in this embodiment has two connecting portions, each of which may be releasably coupled to a piece of surface covering. One of the two connecting portions comprises multiple hooks. It is in particular the connecting portion which does not comprise hooks that is coupled to a piece of surface covering in advance. This can be done using adhesive, in particular pressure sensitive adhesive may be used, or removable stitching to couple a first connecting portion, the connecting portion not comprising hooks, to a bottom side of a piece of carpet. Preferably, the connector is with its connecting portion which does not comprise hooks releasably coupled to two opposing edges of a piece of surface covering, in particular on their bottom sides. This allows the pieces of carpet with the pre-installed connector to be quickly coupled to a same piece of surface covering, which is rotated a quarter turn, in case of surface covering tiles. A second piece of surface covering can be positioned above the connecting portion which comprises multiple hooks, and releasably coupled thereto.

In a further embodiment at least two connecting portions comprise multiple hooks, each for releasably coupling to a piece of surface covering. This allows the connector to be easily coupled and uncoupled to a bottom side of the pieces of surface covering to be mutually connected, this allows to store the pieces of surface covering in a separate location. The separating portion to that end receives the edges of the carpet pieces to be mutually coupled. The part of the bottom side of the carpet which is positioned above the separating portion does not adhere to said separating portion, which makes it easier to position the respective pieces of surface covering. Preferably the separating portion is substantially linear, that is, the separating portion is formed by a essentially rectangular area on the top side of the carpet connector. However, it is also conceivable that the separating portion is configured to mutually couple pieces of surface covering which do not have straight edges, but for example curved edges.

The connector may in a different embodiment be at least partially elastic. The elastic property allows the independent pieces of carpet to be applied under mutual pressure directed towards each other. During application of the pieces of surface covering, the connector can for example be stretched, preferably in a direction perpendicular to the line formed by the edges of the pieces of surface covering once in position. This causes the elastic portion of the connector to retract once they are put in position, causing the edges of the pieces of surface covering to be pressed to each other. It is conceivable that the entire connector is elastic, however, it is also possible that only the part of the connector where the separating portion is located is elastic. By forming only the part of the connector out of elastic material which has the separating portion on the top side, the bonding force between the pieces of surface covering and the connector is not affected. In yet another embodiment the connector is ductile. This enables the connector to be stored very compact, or it may even be rolled up for storage. It furthermore enables two mutually connected pieces of surface covering to mutually rotate without braking the connector. The ductile property of the connector also makes it more durable and less likely to break over frequent use.

In again a different embodiment the separating portion is provided with a positioning indicator, said indicator indicating a location for receiving two edges of the at least two pieces of surface covering. The positioning indicator allows for a quicker assembly of pieces of carpet. The edge of a piece of surface covering should be aligned with the position indicator. This also enables a more consistent location of the connection between pieces of surface covering. The overall appearance of the entire assembled carpet will be better due to the positioning indicator on the connector.

In yet again a different embodiment a mutual distance between the at least two connecting portions is at least 2 cm, and preferably at least 4 cm. This distance has proven to be sufficient to position the pieces of surface covering such that a part of the bottom side near the edge to be connected is not retained by a hook-loop connector and hence enables a easier yet substantially seamless connection of pieces of surface covering.

The top side of the connector in a different embodiment comprises four connecting portions, wherein at least one, preferably two, and more preferably all connecting portions comprise multiple hooks. This is beneficial for since it enables to couple four pieces of surface covering, in particular four corners of pieces of surface covering to a single connector. The connector may in particular be square or rectangle shaped, wherein the hook-loop connecting portions are positioned in each of said corners. This allows the connector to connect four pieces of surface covering in a quick and efficient manner, whilst increasing the overall assembly speed and also reducing the gap between the pieces of surface covering.

In a further embodiment the separating portion is provided with two positioning indicators, each indicator indicating a location for receiving two edges of two pieces of surface covering. In yet a further embodiment the two positioning indicators are mutually substantially perpendicular. The indicators allow for an faster assembly and positioning of the separate pieces of surface covering, and also increase the appearance of the entire floor, since all the seams are substantially identical if the indicators are used.

It may in another embodiment be the case that the connector has a thickness which is significantly smaller than the thickness of the pieces of surface covering. This is important, since the connector is located under the surface covering. It is undesirable to see a surface print of the connector through the surface covering which is positioned on top of the connector. Therefore, the connector has to be as thin as possible, preferably a total thickness of less than 1 mm, more preferably less than 0,5 mm.

In yet another embodiment the bottom side comprises an anti-slip portion, for decreasing the slip of the connector with respect to a surface it is placed on. The anti-slip portion provided on the bottom side of the connector prevents the pieces of surface covering which are coupled to said connector from moving with respect to the floor surface. Hence all connectors together ensure that a surface covering flooring once placed does not shift.

The present invention further relates to a covering, in particular a floor covering, comprising a plurality of intercoupled pieces of surface covering, wherein the pieces of surface covering are coupled by the carpet connector according an embodiment of the present invention. This flooring will have a better appearance due to the connectors used for making the flooring. The connector allows the pieces of surface covering to be coupled in a more seamless manner. The benefits of the connector also apply to the flooring comprising the connector according to the present invention and are hereby incorporated by reference.

The present invention is also related to a method for connecting independent pieces of surface covering, in particular carpet, comprising the steps of; a) providing a plurality of connectors according to the present invention; b) providing a plurality of independent pieces of surface covering to be mutually coupled; c) coupling a first piece of surface covering to the connector, such that the piece of surface covering covers a first connecting portion of the at least two connecting portions, wherein the first piece of surface covering leaves the second connecting portions of the at least two connecting portions uncovered; d) coupling a second piece of surface covering on the connector such that the second piece covers the second connecting portion, and that the second piece abuts the first piece of surface covering, wherein the first and second piece of surface covering cover the entire connector. By using this method the advantages as already described above may be realized with reference to the carpet connector according to the present invention, which advantages are also incorporated herein by reference with regard to the method according to the present invention.

In a further embodiment of the coupling of the second piece of surface covering in step d) is governed by sliding, sliding the second piece of surface covering from a first position, wherein the first and second piece at least partially overlap, to a second position, wherein first and second piece are partially contiguous. In yet a further embodiment of the method during the sliding movement an elastic part the connector is at least partially stretched, creating a bonding force which presses the second piece against the first piece of carpet, creating an essentially seamless connection. This manner of sliding the second piece of surface covering into its final position results in an essentially seamless connection of the two pieces of surface covering. In particular the elastic property helps to prevent seams from forming since it keeps a binding force on the pieces of surface covering. Where during installation of the pieces according to the prior art the seam is only minimized by perfectly positioning, the present invention allows to place the second piece in a quicker way, since the elastic property helps the pieces to close a small gap between them when not perfectly positioned.

The present invention will hereinafter be furthermore elucidated based on the non- limitative figures, wherein;

- figure 1 shows the surface covering connector according to a first embodiment,

- figure 2 shows the surface covering connector according to a second embodiment, - figures 3A, 3B, 3C, 3C(2), 3D, 3E show the steps of connecting pieces of surface covering to the connector according to the present invention.

Figure 1 shows the present invention according to a first non-limitative embodiment. The surface covering connector 1 is shown from a top view. The two connecting portions 2 are in this embodiment separated by the separating portion 3. On said separating portion 3 a positioning indicator 4 is provided.

Figure 2 shows the present invention according to a second non-limitative embodiment. The surface covering connector 1 is again shown from a top view. However, contrary to the first figure, the separating portion 3 is provided on the top side of the surface covering connector 1 such that four connecting portions 2 are formed. The separating portion 3 is substantially cross-shaped from a top view, wherein two positioning indicators 4 are provided, said positioning indicators are mutually substantially perpendicular.

In both figures 1 and 2 at least 1 of the connecting portions 2 comprises multiple hooks. However, it is also conceivable and beneficial if all connecting portions 2 comprise multiple hooks but the present invention is not limited thereto. If only one of the connecting portions 2 comprises multiple hooks, at least one connecting portion 2, and in particular the connecting portion at the opposing side is connected to a bottom surface of a piece of carpet using stitches or glue. In the latter case, preferable two diagonally opposing corners or opposing edges of a piece of carpet are provided with the connector 1 according to the present invention.

Figures 3A, 3B, 3C, 3C(2), 3D, 3E show the successive steps of connecting a first piece of carpet 5 and a second piece of carpet 5’ to the carpet connector 1 as shown in figure 1 . The step shown in figure 3A is to provide a connector 1 according to the present invention, in this case the same as shown in figure 1 , but from a side view. The connector 1 according to the embodiment in this figure comprises multiple hooks on both connecting portions 2. The planar connector 1 is positioned essentially entirely flat on the floor surface. The next step, as shown in figure 3B is to provide a first piece of carpet 5 on a first connecting portion 2. The bottom side of the first piece of carpet 5 co-acts with the hooks on the connecting portion 2. The first piece of carpet 5 can be connected to the connector 1 by a movement which is essentially perpendicular to the plane in which the connector 1 extends. Once connected to the hooks connecting portion 2, the first piece of carpet 5 covers the entire first connecting portion 2, and also a part of the separating portion 3, in particular the part of the separating portion 3 extending from the first connecting portion 2 which is covered by the first piece of carpet 5 to the positioning indicator (not shown in this figure). The next step is shown in figure 3C, which is to position a second piece of carpet 5’. The second piece of carpet 5’ is positioned on the connector 1 at a distance from the first piece of carpet 5 that is already coupled to the connector 1 , with its edge on the separating portion 3 thereof. In case of a connector 1 , of which the separating portion is elastic, the separating portion may be stretched during this step. The second piece of carpet 5’ is held at a slight angle with respect to the first piece of carpet 5, which is already connected to the connector 1. The second piece of carpet is moved by sliding, in the direction S, such that the edge of said piece of carpet 5, which is positioned on the connector, moves in the direction of the first piece of carpet 5. In figure 3C(2) it is well visible that a carpet piece 5' with an angle relative to the connector plane makes a line contact with the smooth separating portion 3. The smooth separating portion accommodates the sliding of surface covering 5'. With this specific step, pile trapping is prevented. Figure 3D shows that at the point that the pieces of carpet 5 and 5’ touch, the second piece of carpet 5’ is placed in a horizontal position such that a bottom side of the second piece of carpet 5’ connects to the multiple hooks on the second connecting portion 2.

Finally, if the flooring covering has a definite edge like rugs it is possible to surround the rug with a serge which is coupled to the enclosed rug with the hookloop solution. The advantage of the serge is that it gives additional mechanical stability to the rug edge and it looks aesthetic pleasing.