MANUFACTURED ARTICLE FOR MOSAIC COVERING OF

SURFACES, PARTICULARLY WALLS AND FLOORS

Technical field

The present invention relates to a manufactured article for mosaic covering of surfaces, particularly walls and floors.

Background Art

It has long been known to provide mosaic decorations by applying to a surface to be covered a plurality of tesseras of different shapes and colors, applied side-by-side so as to form a particular pattern and/or visual effect. With particular reference to the ceramics sector, manufactured articles adapted to cover walls and/or floors are known which are constituted by a plurality of ceramic tesseras of relatively small size, which are generally quadrangular, are arranged mutually side-by-side, and are associated so as to form a single substantially plate-like body. A first type of manufactured article is known in which a sheet of substantially paper-like material is associated with the exposed surface of the tesseras at one of its faces provided with an adhesive of the type which can be removed by wetting.

After placing the manufactured article on a wall or floor, and after the bonding material has set on the surface to which the tesseras are to be applied, the sheet is wet and removed from the tesseras and the final finishing operations are performed.

These known types of manufactured article are not free from drawbacks, since the applied sheet hides the exposed surface of the tesseras, leading to laying which is not always accurate and preventing preliminary checks of the integrity of the individual tesseras.

A further drawback is due to the fact that once the manufactured article has been applied to the surface to be covered, the sheet hinders the normal permeation of the bonding material used to lay the tesseras, significantly extending the drying times of said material. This leads to

laying operations which are more onerous in terms of time and accordingly in terms of labor costs.

The operations for removing the sheet, too, affect significantly the general laying times due to the fragility of the paper-like material, which once wet loses its mechanical resistance to the traction forces used to remove it.

A second type of manufactured article uses a sheet made of transparent, semitransparent or translucent plastics, which is applied to the exposed surface of the tesseras by interposing a removable adhesive, which is generally already applied to the sheet. In this specific case, due to the impermeability of the sheet that is used, a glue of the wettable type cannot be used as a bonding agent.

Subsequently, therefore, sheet removal occurs without requiring wetting operations. The production of the sheet by using transparent, semitransparent or translucent plastics, while solving the problem of the lack of visibility of the tesseras before and during laying, is, similarly to what has been described above, a hindrance to the normal permeation of the bonding and laying material once the manufactured article has been applied to the wall or floor. In this case also, the increase in drying times affects the onerousness of the laying operations significantly.

Further, the inherent structural characteristics of the plastic material, combined with the presence of a layer of removable adhesive which is already spread onto said material, make the sheet difficult to adapt to any kind of surface, leading to less than perfect adhesion of the sheet in the case, for example, of rough exposed tessera surfaces.

The higher costs of the manufactured article, related to the use of plastics as an alternative to cheaper paper-like material, and to the use of specific additional equipment to apply the sheet to the tesseras during the production of the manufactured article, add to all this.

Disclosure of the Invention

The aim of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of the background art, by providing a manufactured article for mosaic covering of surfaces, particularly walls and floors, which allows to achieve short general laying times of the manufactured article.

Within this aim, an object of the present invention is to maintain precise laying of the tesseras on the surface to be covered.

Another object of the invention is to increase laying efficiency, in particular to optimize the step for removing the sheet once the step for laying the manufactured article has ended.

Another object of the invention is to provide a more efficient and quicker step for removing the adhesive once it is no longer needed.

Another object of the invention is to be easily adaptable to all types of adhesive while maintaining the characteristics of efficiency of the step for laying the manufactured article.

Another object of the invention is to allow visual checking of the tesseras before and during laying operations.

Another object of the invention is to ensure perfect adhesion of the laying surface of the tesseras to the wall/floor to be covered. Another object of the present invention is to provide a manufactured article which is simple, relatively easy to provide in practice, safe in use, effective in operation, and has a relatively low cost.

This aim and these and other objects which will become better apparent hereinafter are achieved by the present manufactured article for the mosaic covering of surfaces, particularly walls and floors, which comprises a plurality of tesseras adapted to cover a surface to be covered and arranged mutually side-by-side, characterized in that it comprises at least one perforated sheet-like element with a face which can be associated with the exposed surface of said tesseras by interposing at least one layer of adhesive of the wettable type.

Brief description of the drawings

Further characteristics and advantages of the present invention will become better apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred but not exclusive embodiment of a manufactured article for the mosaic covering of surfaces, particularly walls and floors, and of the corresponding manufacturing method, illustrated by way of non-limiting example in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a manufactured article according to the invention; Figure 2 is a perspective view of the manufactured article according to the invention installed on a surface to be covered;

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the perforated sheet-like element of the manufactured article according to the invention.

Ways of carrying out the Invention With reference to the figures, the reference numeral 1 generally designates a manufactured article for the mosaic covering of surfaces, particular walls and floors, provided by means of the method according to the invention.

The manufactured article 1 comprises a plurality of tesseras 2 which are adapted to cover a surface S to be covered, which is constituted for example by a wall or floor.

In particular, the tesseras 2 can be provided by using different types of materials, such as ceramic, glass, porcelain stoneware, marble, plastics or others. The exposed surfaces 2a of the tesseras 2 can be rough, such as bush-hammered or the like, or smooth, and can have different decorations, colors or shades.

In the particular embodiment of the invention being considered, the tesseras 2 are substantially rectangular; however, alternative embodiments of the invention in which the tesseras 2 have different shapes are not excluded.

The manufactured article 1 comprises a perforated sheet-like element 3 made of substantially paper-like material, which is provided with a face 3a associated with the exposed surface 2a of the tesseras 2, which are arranged mutually side-by-side so as to form a predefined pattern or visual effect, by interposing at least one layer 4 of adhesive, for example a glue of the type which can be removed by wetting.

The perforated sheet-like element 3 comprises a plurality of openings A, which are for example distributed uniformly thereon with a constant spacing. The openings A advantageously are substantially hexagonal, such as to leave free a percentage comprised between 45% and 75% of the exposed surface 2a of the manufactured article 1.

In a preferred embodiment, the openings A are such as to leave free 60% of the exposed surface 2a of the manufactured article 1. However, different embodiments of the openings A, such as for example pentagonal, quadrangular, circular or others, are not excluded.

Further, the perforated sheet-like element 3 comprises a sheet made of substantially paper-like material, which is for example of the type of recyclable paper such as kraftliner trimmings, according to the process commonly known as sealing, the sheet being of a type which is permeable to at least one liquid for wetting the adhesive 4, generally water.

The sheet comprises percentages between 0.01% and 5.5% of a polyamide resin, for example poly(amino-amide)-epichlorohydrin, also known commercially as Kymene, in the paper-matrix mix which contains for example kraftliner trimmings.

As an alternative, the sheet can comprise percentages between 0.01% and 5.5% of polyamide-polyamine-epichlorohydrin-polyacrylate or other technically equivalent material.

In particular, the optimum percentage of poly(amino-amide)- epichlorohydrin (Kymene) in the paper-matrix mix is substantially 2.5%.

Conveniently, the particular chemical composition of the paper mix gives said sheet high mechanical strength when dry and wet and a high degree of permeability to liquids, particularly water.

An alternative embodiment of the sheet uses trimmings of a paper- like material which is less valuable than kraftliner, according to what is commonly known as a "reinforced medium" process. In this case also, the addition of poly(amino-amide)-epichlorohydrin (Kymene) in the percentages described above provides the sheet with good mechanical strength when dry and wet and with a high degree of permeability to liquids, in particular water.

The tesseras 2 are applied to the surface S to be covered by means of laying techniques which are used commonly and are known to the person skilled in the art.

In particular, the laying surfaces of the tesseras 2 of the manufactured article 1 thus provided are applied to the surface S, onto which a layer of bonding material, such as mortar or the like, has been applied beforehand.

Once dried, the bonding material ensures setting on the manufactured article

1, fixing the tesseras 2 to the surface S.

Subsequently, the perforated sheet-like element 3 is removed from the tesseras and it is possible to perform final finishing operations, such as filling the gaps F formed between adjacent tesseras 2 by means of grout or the like.

The method for manufacturing the manufactured article 1 comprises a first step of arranging mutually side-by-side a plurality of tesseras 2 inside appropriately provided compartments formed for example on an alignment grid, which is not shown in the figure since it is of a known type.

A second step of the method provides for the application of the layer of adhesive 4 such as a wettable adhesive directly to the face 3a of the perforated sheet-like element 3 or, as an alternative, to the exposed surface 2a of the tesseras 2, for example by using a pad or other technically

equivalent device which is also known to the person skilled in the art and is not shown in the figures.

A third step of the method provides for the association of the perforated sheet-like element 3, at the face 3a, with the exposed surfaces 2a by interposing the layer of adhesive 4 which can be removed by wetting.

The step for laying the manufactured article 1 on the wall and/or floor is performed by means of the traditional masonry laying techniques described earlier. When the bonding agent has set, one proceeds with the step for removing the adhesive 4 by wetting with water or another agent the exposed surface of the manufactured article 1.

Once the wetting liquid has permeated within the perforated sheet- like element 3 and the adhesive 4 has reached the degree of wetting which allows its removal, one proceeds with the step for removing the perforated sheet-like element. The laying of the manufactured article 1 ends with the conventional finishing operations, such as filling the gaps between one tessera 2 and the next by means of grouts or others.

In practice it has been found that the described invention achieves the proposed aim and objects, and in particular the fact is stressed that the presence of the distributed openings, the use of wettable adhesive, and the use of the particular paper-like material allow to achieve short general laying times of the manufactured article.

Further, the manufactured article according to the invention allows to optimize the step for removing the sheet once the step for laying the manufactured article has ended, and thus allows a more efficient and faster step for removing the adhesive once it is no longer needed.

Further, the invention as conceived allows to have easy adaptability to all types of adhesive while maintaining the characteristics of efficiency of the step for laying said article.

Moreover, the article as conceived allows to maintain precise laying of the tesseras on the surface to be covered and allows to check the tesseras

before laying.

It should be noted that the perfect adhesion of the manufactured article is ensured by direct contact of the laying surface of the tesseras with the bonding material. Further, the use of a sheet made of paper-like material allows to contain the costs of the manufactured article thus provided.

Another advantage consists in the possibility to use machines and equipment commonly used during the process for manufacturing the manufactured article. Another advantage consists in the possibility to apply said sheet to the tesseras at exposed surfaces having any surface configuration, both smooth and rough.

The invention thus conceived is susceptible of numerous modifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of the appended claims.

All the details may further be replaced with other technically equivalent elements.

In practice, the materials used, as well as the contingent shapes and dimensions, may be any according to requirements without thereby abandoning the scope of the protection of the appended claims.

The disclosures in Italian Patent Application No. MO2007A000036 from which this application claims priority are incorporated herein by reference.