| WO1997049879A1 | 1997-12-31 |
| DE4403172A1 | 1995-08-03 |
Claims
1. Equipment for plates used for floors, walls and other surfaces consisting of premanufactured jointelements (1, 2) which are put beside the plates defined of that the joint elements, are put together and locked with locking device (3, 4) into each other around the plates (mechanical or chemical) and as a result of that, the plates are squeezed and locked together with joint elements around them either due to the friction between the plate and the joint element or because of the shape of the sides of the joint elements and the plates, and the joint elements can be of different shapes like T, L, Y, or cross elements (1) or straight elements
(2).
2. Equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein the sides (5) of the joint elements (1, 2) have lips which go against the side of the plate to strengthen the lock against the plate with friction.
3. Equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein the mechanical locking between the joint elements is achieved by one or some of the ends being formed as female (4) and others as male (3) and when those ends are put together, they are locked together, or the male end is pressed up in a splice under the female end of the joint element and through that it is locked.
4. Equipments defined in claim 1, wherein the joint elements ends are formed as females and there are separate looking devices which fits into the female ends and lock them together.
5. Equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein some of the joint element ends are with a hock, which fit into another end of another joint element and locks them together or a separate hook which fits to both ends of the joint elements.
6. Equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein the joint element is designed so that they can be glued or mechanically fixed against the foundation or/and the joint element is glued to the plate.
7. Equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein the joint element side (5) against the plate is formed as a radius (6), edge (7) or other form, inwards or outwards and the side of the plate is constructed to fit this.
8. Equipment as defined in claim 1 and 2, wherein the joint element has a coating on the upper side of a different colour and/or in a material which can stand external influence of different kinds.
9. A method to make or place floor, walls or other surfaces, wherein the combination of plates with pre-manufactured joint elements making a pattern of the pre-manufactured joint elements which keeps the plates locked together. |
Invention's name: Pre-manufactured Joint Elements.
Invention's background:
To install tiles, thin bricks and plates (ceramic, stone, wood, metal, plastic, etc.) is a task which demands training and skill. Hiring an expert to do this work can be very expensive.
Tiles, thin bricks and plates will in this document from now on be called plates.
If you want to do this work yourself, it does require some prior knowledge or training as mentioned, but will also involve the purchase of different tools for mixing and spreading the fixing and joint materials and for cleaning, etc. There is also the time required for drying, which means that once you start to do the work, you have to continue to the end before it dries.
If a plate is broken it is not easy to change because you have to break the plate into peaces and also remove the old fixing and joint materials. You then would have to start the process from the beginning again.
This type of work is dirty by having to use different powdered materials and water that need mixing and cleaning. Then if you find you want to change something after drying, then it will become even dirtier. To change the plates if you are tired of the colour or style is a big job, which is already described and furthermore you could not add under floor heating afterwards, without taking away all the plates.
The purpose of the invention and most important characteristics:
The purpose of this invention is that you should be able to assemble and install the plates yourself without any prior knowledge or experience of the product, or without waiting time for drying; in addition you will also find that the product is clean and easy to use.
You don't have to buy different tools in order to install the product, nor will you require fixing or joint materials, which are normally dirty and require mixing in order to fix the plates in place.
With this innovation you can take the components home from the shop and start to assemble your plates directly. You don't need to contact an expert which is costly. When you have installed the plates, you can use the surface directly afterwards.
You can also easily change a plate if it is broken or if you are tired of the colour or design, making a change is clean. You could also install a heating coil or heating carpet afterwards without a lot of additional work.
The most important characteristic of this invention is that all the units are pre- manufactured and lockable to each other. The joint elements are normally manufactured in plastic. You just press or glue the joint elements together and they are locked together and then fix the plates in place or the other way around to a ready surface to use.
The joint elements are constructed technically to accept size tolerances in the plates and the material is chosen thereafter. The materials in all units accept both mechanical and chemical influence. The joint elements can be constructed
in many different ways (straight, cross, T 5 L, Y etc.) or in complete sections. When you put the joint elements together between the plates, you lock the plates into position. The locking between the different joint elements can be constructed as female - male or as a hock lock etc. There is no part of the joint element under the plate, which means that the plate totally rest on the under surface.
If the plate is not in the same size as the joint element, then there is a possibility to cut of a part of the joint element.
All joint elements can be formed to suit plates in different forms. The joint element's upper side is very often exposed to some form of influence such as general wear, UV-light, liquids etc. and can therefore be designed with a special surface if required and all parts can be designed in a matching colour to the plates.
If you don't want to have the total surface floating on top of the floor, you can form the joint elements so that they can be glued or mechanically attached to the under area. You can also glue the joint elements to the plate.
Description of drawings:
Fig. A shows joint elements
Fig. B shows elasticity in the joint elements
Fig. C shows two forms of locking the plate against the joint element.
Description of examples:
One part of the invention is shown in Fig. A. which shows cross (1) and straight (2) form of the joint element. The different joint elements can be put together and be looked (3 and 4) against each other around the plate.
Fig. B shows a form of flexible joint element (10) with a flexible part (15).
Fig. C shows two different forms of locking the plate against the joint element. It can be locked with a radius (6) or with an edge (7).