Static structures (e.g. – buildings) – Sheetlike element assembled parallel to existing wall,... – Mounting means attached to facer; e.g. – upholstery panel
Reexamination Certificate
1998-01-16
2001-10-09
Canfield, Robert (Department: 3635)
Static structures (e.g., buildings)
Sheetlike element assembled parallel to existing wall,...
Mounting means attached to facer; e.g., upholstery panel
C052S506050, C052S391000, C052S578000, C052S698000, C052S311200, C052SDIG001
Reexamination Certificate
active
06298624
ABSTRACT:
INTRODUCTION TO THE INVENTION
This invention concerns a relatively thin flexible but relatively rigid anchor sheet for use under carpets or other decorative coverings. In practice, when installed, the anchor sheet acts to tie the decorative covering together as a functional unit and to add mass and stability to such unit, particularly a unit having a flexible decorative covering such as a carpet. An anchor sheet may be substantially covered over one side with hooks for anchoring a decorative covering to it by engagement of complementary loops on the lower side of the covering. The anchor sheet itself may be attached to the underlying substrate, such as a floor or wall, or it may be loose laid on a floor where the sheet with or without the covering together have sufficient mass or are so placed as to prevent movement. It is possible to supply the anchor sheet as a small or large module with pre-attached decorative covering as will be explained later. It is also possible to supply the anchor sheet as a smaller modular unit which can be made to form a contiguous mass by using an overlapping nondecorative material such as hook tape or by using modular anchor sheets or modular covering units to form a larger unit as will be explained later.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is common to attach a decorative flexible covering, such as carpets, to rigid supporting substrates such as floors, made of wood or concrete. It is often desirable, or even required, to fasten carpet to the flooring which it covers and a variety of attachment methods have been developed over the years.
Carpet can be glued directly to flooring. This is often the approach taken in an institutional setting in which the underlying flooring is concrete and liquid glue is applied across the entire concrete area to be covered. This approach has the advantage that, so long as the adhesive bond provided between the carpet and flooring remains intact, the carpet cannot buckle. Of course, adjustment or replacement of such carpet can be difficult in the sense that previously applied glue might be required to be stripped from the flooring and new glue applied. In addition, such glues often contain volatile organic components that are banned in some places or are required to be ventilated, in other places.
Another approach taken to installing wall-to-wall carpet involves the use of “tackless strips”, which are wooden strips having angled tacks driven upwardly therethrough. The strips are secured around the perimeter of the area to be covered, often by nailing them into wooden flooring, and the carpet is stretched over the tacks. This approach has the advantage that the carpet can be restretched to remove a buckle that develops, and the carpet and underpad, not being permanently adhered to the flooring can be removed without being destroyed. However, stretching is a labour intensive art which makes installing wall-to-wall carpet by this method relatively expensive. This approach also avoids the use of volatile organics, but some difficulties can arise in installing tackless strips to concrete.
More recent approaches involving the use of Velcro-type fasteners have been described in the patent literature: Germany 7,029,524 (Aug. 8, 1970, Velcro France); U.S. Pat. No. 3,574,019 (Apr. 6, 1971, Girard); UK 1,546,901 (May 31, 1979, Allied Chemical Corporation); U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,658 (Apr. 18, 1989, Pacione); U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,692 (Mar. 9, 1993, Pacione); U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,462 (Jan. 17, 1995, Pacione); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,755 (Jan. 2, 1996, Pacione).
U.S. '658 from the same inventor describes a wall-to-wall installation in which hooked strips are secured by pressure sensitive adhesive around a room perimeter and at the carpet seams. A carpet having loops across its backside is cut to fit the room and the loops engage the hooked tape. U.S. '692 describes a method for seaming a carpet such as the one described in U.S. '658. Both of these patent specifications also disclose advantages obtained through the use of a cover for the hooked tape, a primary advantage being that such a cover prevents premature engagement of the hooks and loops to permit proper placement and adjustment of the carpet without the need for disengaging prematurely engaged hooks and loops during installation. This prior approach provides the advantages of installing strips at the perimeter and seams of a carpeted area, particularly that the carpeting can be lifted without being destroyed and the avoidance of the use of compounds containing volatile adhesives.
The “holy grail” of carpet and other decorative covering, would be a system which when laid had such mass and stability as to require little or no attachment to the underlying substrate and which can be installed over existing substrates without the necessity of the removal of existing covering. However for transportation in trucks and to physically fit into a site, such as a room, such a system has to either provide for sufficient flexibility so that it can be rolled or, if rigid, a way of assembling modules so as to form a contiguous mass in situ with sufficient mass and stability to remain in place with minimal detachable attachment or perhaps no attachment, particularly when dealing with different existing floors or flooring surfaces to be covered.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
As previously mentioned, there are advantages to allow the carpet or other decorative covering to be attached to an underlying undersurface at only a few discrete attachment points or even in some cases not attached at all so as to be easily removable. Attachment to the underlying substrate at discrete attachment points provides for minimal damage to the underlying substrate, ease of removal from the substrate and ease of installation. However, a product, method and system is needed to convert these individual attachment points to structurally integrated attachment across the undersurface of a carpet or other decorative covering to enable overlaying carpet or other decorative covering to be engineered to maintain atmospheric stability, flatness and horizontal plane stability when stressed with forces produced by human traffic, rolling vehicles, moving furniture or moisture or temperature changes.
In addition, the system provides that the pieces of carpet or other decorative covering such as hardwood, ceramics or stone can be integrated together by use of the underlying detachable anchor sheet. Then individual modules can be made consisting of a decorative covering and an anchor sheet attached together in advance of installation at a remote site. Such modules can be easily removed and re-attached as required for repair or replacement or for design reasons. In addition such individual modules can be locked together by overlapping the anchor sheet or decorative covering of adjacent modules so as to give the complete structure sufficient mass and stability to minimize or remove the need for attachment to the substrate.
In addition an anchor sheet can be separately installed on a floor using individual anchor sheet modules to create a complete anchor sheet subfloor covered in hooks ready to receive overlaying decorative pieces provided with loops.
The present invention in one aspect features an anchor sheet, preferably of plastic or other polymer, for detachable attachment of a decorative covering such as carpet, ceramic, tile, hardwood, marble or a wall covering to an underlying rigid supporting substrate, such as the surface of flooring or a wall.
By providing an anchor sheet preferably in the form of one or a multiple of relatively thin flexible relatively rigid sheets, integrity can be given to covering materials, such as flexible carpets which can be pre-assembled or assembled on site onto the surface of the sheet by the use of a complementary hook on the upper surface of the flexible sheet matching a complementary loop on the undersurface of the carpet or carpet pieces. The sheet can then be installed onto an underlying substrate such as concrete or wood only a discrete number of points. The anchor sheet enables the
Canfield Robert
Gray Brian W.
TAC-FAST Georgia, L.L.C.
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