Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Pile or nap type surface or component – Edge feature or configured or discontinuous surface
Patent
1997-11-19
1999-10-26
Morris, Terrel
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Pile or nap type surface or component
Edge feature or configured or discontinuous surface
428 85, 428 95, 428167, 15215, B32B 302, A47L 2326
Patent
active
059724625
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to improved matting and in particular, but not exclusively, to entrance matting suitable for use in applications where water is likely to be deposited on the matting.
Entrance or threshold matting is often provided at the entrances of stores, offices and public buildings, to minimize the amount of dirt and water that is carried into the buildings on the feet of people entering the buildings. WO-A-9307789 describes entrance matting including a flexible rubber base layer and a flexible rubber upper layer comprising spaced upstanding strips. Strips of carpet are fixed in the lots between the rubber strips. the matting is located at a building entrance with the strips perpendicular to the direction of traffic over the matting. The rubber strips have ribbed upper surfaces and serve as scrapers to remove larger particles of dirt. The carpet strips are useful for removing finer particles of dirt and will also retain moisture. However, in particularly, wet conditions the carpet strips may become saturated, rendering the matting less effective. Other forms of entrance matting are described in GB-A-2256584, GB-A-2010087, GB-A-2153668, FR-A-852638, U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,148, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,408,365.
There have been proposals for matting intended to deal with relatively wet conditions, such as U.S. Pat. No. 2,436,315. This document describes a door mat having a flexible mat body with an upper surface defined by spaced scraper ribs, water draining grooves along the sides of the ribs, and troughs for receiving brushes between the ribs. The water draining grooves are provided with drain apertures at various points along their length, leading into bottom drain grooves in the underside of the mat for draining water away from the bottom of the door mat. The brushes are removable and are held in place by rods engaging through apertures in the flexible mat body and transversely through apertures in the brushes. While this form of mat may be acceptable for use as a small area door mat on which people wipe their feet, it is now considered desirable to provide relatively large areas of entrance matting at the entrances to public buildings; many people do not attempt to clean their feet on entering a building, and a small area mat is relatively ineffective in these circumstances. Current practice is to provide a relatively large area mat, for example as described in WO-A-9307789, which all operate "passively" if necessary as people walk over the mat. This necessitates that the mat has an attractive or unobtrusive appearance and is pleasant to walk upon. Thus, a mat such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,436,315 would prove unsuitable as the extensive and highly visible water draining grooves would detract from the appearance of a large area mat and would likely prove uncomfortable to walk upon, with the lateral water draining grooves increasing the likelihood of tripping. Such grooves would also result in vibration or resonance when run over with a shopping trolley or child's push chair or stroller, which certain persons may find unpleasant and, in the latter case, may result in a sleeping child being wakened. Dirt and other debris would also likely gather in the grooves and would tend to block the drain apertures. In addition, a large area mat made in accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 2,436,315 would likely be prohibitively expensive, and the uneven surface of the mat would provide difficult to clean effectively using conventional vacuum cleaners.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,399 describes a mat comprising an integrally molded portion comprising three types of ribs and a plurality of separately formed carpet strips. The carpet strips are placed between adjacent upper ribs and are held therein by friction, adhesive or mechanical means, such as clips. Bottom support ribs extend perpendicularly to the upper ribs and support he upper ribs and carpet strips clear of the support substrate. Tertiary ribs extend parallel to the bottom support ribs and have bottom surfaces co-extensive with the bottom surface of the upper ribs,
REFERENCES:
patent: 2436315 (1948-02-01), Liberatore
patent: 2701890 (1955-02-01), Moor, Jr.
patent: 4109439 (1978-08-01), Feasel
patent: 4408365 (1983-10-01), Palmer
patent: 4796399 (1989-01-01), Kessler et al.
patent: 5529825 (1996-06-01), Sutherland
patent: 5660906 (1997-08-01), Hill
Sutherland George MacDonald
Sutherland Thomas Langley
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