Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes – Pore forming in situ – Composite article making
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-26
2002-11-12
Kuhns, Allan R. (Department: 1732)
Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes
Pore forming in situ
Composite article making
C264S054000, C264S257000, C264S259000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06478995
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a cushioned floor covering article wherein the mat includes a tufted carpet placed on the top side of a foam rubber sheet and at least one foam rubber protrusion integrated within at least a portion of the bottom side of the foam rubber sheet. Such an article provides effective removal of moisture, dirt, and debris from the footwear of pedestrians through the utilization of a carpet pile component. Furthermore, the utilization of a foam rubber backing also allows for either periodic heavy duty industrial-scale laundering in such standard washing machines or periodic washing and drying in standard in-home machines, both without appreciably damaging the inventive floor covering article, such as a floor mat. Additionally, the presence of integrated foam rubber protrusions within the mat structure provides an effective cushioning effect for pedestrian comfort as well as a means to prevent slippage of the article from its contacted surface. A method of producing such an inventive cushioned floor covering article is also provided.
DISCUSSION OF THE PRIOR ART
All U.S. patent cited herein are hereby fully incorporated by reference.
Floor mats have long been utilized to facilitate the cleaning of the bottoms of people's shoes, particularly in areas of high pedestrian traffic such as doorways. Moisture, dirt, and debris from out of doors easily adhere to such footwear, particularly in inclement weather and particularly in areas of grass or mud or the like. Such unwanted and potentially floor staining or dirtying articles need to be removed from a person's footwear prior to entry indoors. As will be appreciated, such outdoor mats by their nature must undergo frequent repeated washings and dryings so as to remove the dirt and debris deposited thereon during use. These mats are generally rented from service entities which retrieve the soiled mats from the user and provide clean replacement mats on a frequent basis. The soiled mats are thereafter cleaned and dried in an industrial laundering process (such as within rotary washing and drying machines, for example) and then sent to another user in replacement of newly soiled mats. Furthermore, it is generally necessary from a health standpoint to produce floor coverings on which persons may stand for appreciable amounts of time which will provide comfort to such persons to substantially lower the potential for fatigue of such persons by reducing the stress on feet and leg joints through cushioning.
Typical carpeted dust control mats comprise solid and/or foam rubber backing sheets which must be cleated in some manner to prevent slippage of the mat from its designated area. Such cleats are formed during a vulcanization step and have required a time-consuming procedure of placing the green (unvulcanized) rubber sheet on a molded silicone pad and then removing the same after vulcanization. Also, the thicknesses of such dust control rubber backing sheets are generally quite low and thus permit the placement of a pedestrian's foot relatively close to the covered floor or ground when he steps on such a mat. As a result, and particularly if the covered area is hard, the mat does not appreciably cushion the pedestrian's foot. With a general shift toward providing protection to pedestrians, particularly outside entryways of stores, where a cushioned, non-slip dust control mat will provide a safe, comfortable floor covering on which a customer may clean his footwear, and workplaces, where a person may be required to be mobile for an appreciable amount of time during the workday and thus a non-slip, cushioned floor covering provides a certain degree of safety to a user, there is a recognized need to provide non-slip floor and/or ground coverings which can potentially reduce the stress of a pedestrian's leg and foot joints through the benefit of cushioning characteristics. There have been a few advancements within the prior art for providing cushioning within dust control mats, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,914 to Horowitz. Generally, such cushioning benefits are provided in either only all-rubber mats, as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,016,317 to Brunner, or solely provide such cushioning benefits within or on the top side of the mat, as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,048 to Mitchell. Also, cleated backings have been produced in the past to provide non-slip characteristics, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,065 to Parkins. Such mats do not also provide cushioning characteristics with the same non-slip components, however. As such, there still exists a need to reduce cost for producing overall dust control mat products through a process wherein the cushioning characteristics are simultaneously provided by the same non-slip mechanism. To date, the prior art has neither taught nor fairly suggested such a combination of elements in a cushioned carpeted floor covering article.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
It is thus an object of this invention to provide a non-slip, cushioned, anti-fatigue carpeted floor covering article which permits cleaning of a pedestrian's footwear. Furthermore, it is an object of the invention to provide a carpeted floor covering article for which the portion which provides the cushioning characteristics simultaneously provides non-slip benefits. An additional object of this invention is to provide a non-slip, cushioned, antifatigue carpeted floor covering article in which the cushioning aspects are provided by at least one integrated rubber protrusion produced during the necessary vulcanization process. Still a further object of the invention is to provide a non-slip, cushioned carpeted floor covering article which possesses sufficient flexibility to withstand periodical laundering in industrial washing and drying machines. Yet another object of this invention is to provide a floor covering article which can substantially reduce a person's fatigue after standing on such an article for appreciable periods of time as compared with other standard floor covering articles.
Accordingly, this invention encompasses a cushioned floor covering article comprising
a carrier fabric;
a pile material tufted into the carrier fabric which forms a pile surface on one side of the carrier fabric; and
a vulcanized expanded backing sheet of rubber attached to the other side of the carrier fabric, wherein at least one protrusion integrated within said backing sheet is present on the side of the backing opposite the side to which the carrier fabric is attached. Also, this invention encompasses a method of forming a cushioned floor covering article comprising the steps of
(a) placing a sheet of rubber over a die having at least a first and second side, wherein said rubber optionally comprises a blowing agent to form a closed-cell foam rubber structure upon vulcanization, wherein said die has portions thereof removed to allow for the entry of molten rubber, and wherein said die is comprised of a material which can withstand vulcanization temperatures and pressures;
(b) tufting a pile material into a carrier fabric to form a tufted pile surface extending from one side of the carrier fabric;
(c) laying the carrier fabric with tufted pile onto the rubber sheet of step “a”;
(d) optionally, placing solid rubber reinforcing strips around at least one of the border edges of the rubber sheet; and
(e) subjecting the composite comprising the rubber sheet, the die, the carrier fabric, the carpet pile, and the optional reinforcing strips to vulcanization temperatures and pressures to (1) attach the rubber sheet to the side of the carrier fabric from which the pile surface does not extend, and (2) to form rubber protrusions through the removed portions of the die.
The inventive dust control mat generally comprises any type of standard carpet pile fibers tufted through any standard type of carrier fabric. Such carpet fibers may be natural or synthetic, including, without limitation, cotton, ramie, wool, polyester, nylon, polypropylene, and the like, as well as blends of such fibers (all as merely examples). The fib
Burke III William O.
Kerr Robert C.
Rockwell, Jr. James N.
Kuhns Allan R.
Milliken & Company
Moyer Terry T.
Parks William S.
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