Floor coverings

Details Floor coverings Floor coverings

1996-03-20

1998-03-17

Yaminitzky, Marie

Stock material or miscellaneous articles

Composite

Of addition polymer from unsaturated monomers

428515, 428516, 428521, 428522, 428523, 428159, 428204, 4289088, 525919, 1562755, 1563082, 156311, B32B 2700, B32B 3120

Patent

active

057284768

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to resilient floor coverings and to methods of making such floor coverings.


BACKGROUND ART

Resilient flooring coverings, which include for example vinyl tiles and vinyl sheet, are well known. They are described for example in an article entitled "Flooring Materials" in Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering, Wiley-Interscience, Volume 7 (1987), pages 233-247. Such floor coverings, as described in that article, are composite materials which comprise a transparent or translucent wear (upper) layer, a decorative layer such as a printed patterned layer and one or more backing (lower) layers. The wear layer of a resilient vinyl floor covering according to that article consists of a plasticised PVC composition. The printed patterned layer may for example be a printed acrylic or PVC film. The backing layer adjacent such a printed patterned layer commonly contains one or more white or other coloured pigments to enhance the appearance of the printed patterned layer as seen through the wear layer, and this type of backing layer may be called a face ply. Such composite floor coverings are commonly laminates, the composition of each layer in the laminate being chosen so as to provide a desired balance of physical properties both in that layer and in the floor covering as a whole. Resilient floor coverings are also known which comprise a decorative, for example pigmented, opaque vinyl wear layer laminated to one or more backing layers.
Vinyl floor coverings have enjoyed considerable commercial success but suffer from a number of disadvantages. Plasticised PVC is slightly yellow in colour, and it tends to become more yellow on exposure to the amounts of UV light normally occurring in interior environments. The clarity and visual appearance of a plasticised PVC wear layer and the visual appearance of a decorative layer such as a printed patterned layer through a transparent or translucent wear layer are therefore not as good as could be desired. The resistance of vinyl floor coverings to wear, abrasion, scratching and scuffing is not as great as could be desired. Vinyl floor coverings are marred by exposure to heat, for example lit cigarettes. The use of vinyl floor coverings has been objected to on environmental grounds, both in that they contain the chlorinated polymer PVC and in that they contain volatile organic compounds as plasticisers.
JP-A-56-073,178, JP-A-57-015,922 and GB-A-2,120,266 describe methods of manufacturing floor coverings in which a PVC composition comprising a polyfunctional monomer is formed into a wear layer which is then exposed to ionising (electron beam) radiation to induce crosslinking. Such floor coverings are said to exhibit improved cigarette burn resistance.
Ionomer resins which are thermoplastic copolymers based on an olefin and an alpha, beta-unsaturated carboxylic acid are well-known. They are described for example in an article entitled "Ionic Polymers" in Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering, Wiley-Interscience, Volume 8 (1987), pages 393-423. They are available commercially, for example from Du Pont under the Trade mark "Surlyn". Many grades of such resins are available commercially.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,083,824 states that the use of such ionomer resins in flooring compositions is severely restricted since they generally have disadvantageously low use temperatures and display extensive creep accompanied by a rapid decrease in modulus at normal room temperatures. Processing problems using ionomer resins are said to be severe due to their great tenacity for metal surfaces. U.S. Pat. No. 4,083,824 discloses a non-vinyl surface-covering composition comprising (a) a mineral filler dispersed throughout a binder comprising (b1) a copoly block acrylate and (b2) an ionomer resin. The weight ratio of the components (a), (b1) and (b2) disclosed in that reference is in the range 8-32:32-8:60 to 3-12:12-3:85.
GB-A-2,019,315 describes a method for making a dimensionally stable decorative floor covering in which a heated mass of thermoplast

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Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering, 8: 393-395 and 419 (1987).
Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering, 7: 233-247 (1987).

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