Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Composite – Of addition polymer from unsaturated monomers
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-29
2002-03-05
Thibodeau, Paul (Department: 1773)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Composite
Of addition polymer from unsaturated monomers
C428S217000, C428S515000, C428S516000, C428S481000, C428S483000, C428S479600, C428S349000, C428S910000, C156S244110, C156S306600, C156S332000, C156S334000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06352784
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a decorative material coated with resin composite film and a process for producing the same. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with a decorative laminate having a natural wood or an artificial wood as a substrate, which is used as a decorative material in decorative plywoods and decorative laminated lumbers for architectural purposes and which is excellent in properties such as appearance, strength, protection capability, bending workability and environmental adaptability. Further, the present invention is concerned with a process for producing the above decorative laminate.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The decorative plywoods for architectural purposes are largely classified, depending on the type of decorative material bonded to the decorative plywoods, into the veneer decorative plywoods in which a thin veneer of natural wood or artificial wood is bonded to a plywood and the synthetic resin decorative plywoods in which wood grain imitation or other designing is carried out with the use of a synthetic resin material. The synthetic resin decorative plywoods include the resin impregnated paper overlay plywoods having a resin treated printed decorative paper bonded to a plywood, the resin film overlay plywoods having a polyvinyl chloride sheet bonded to a plywood and the resin decorative laminate overlay plywoods having a polyester or melamine decorative laminate bonded to a plywood. The fundamental difference between the veneer decorative plywoods and the synthetic resin decorative plywoods resides in that, while the use of natural lumber as a raw material and the utilization of the wood texture thereof are adhered to in the veneer decorative plywoods, the appearance of natural lumber is imitated by printing wood grain on paper or a resin sheet and further embossing it, or an entirely different design is imparted by, for example, printing in the synthetic resin decorative plywoods. As a matter of course, the veneer decorative plywoods utilizing the texture of natural lumber are regarded as high-grade articles and preferred.
The terminology “artificial wood veneer” used herein means a fabricated veneer obtained by slicing a laminated and glued flitch into veneers and forming a cross grain or straight grain pattern thereon. In the veneer decorative plywood, the material of the veneer, although the working of lamination and gluing have been effected thereto, is nothing but natural wood and the texture thereof is the same as that of lumbers. Further, the natural wood veneers also include a material known as a sliced veneer, obtained by thinly slicing a lumber with the use of an edge tool and flatly joining slices with an adhesive into a thin plate having given width and length.
Moreover, the laminated lumbers for architectural purposes are known, which are also classified into the decorative laminated lumbers for furnishing purposes and the decorative laminated lumbers for structural purposes in which a thin veneer of natural or artificial wood is bonded to a lumber with a view to exhibiting beautiful appearance.
The veneer of natural wood or artificial wood for use in the surface of the above conventional veneer decorative plywoods or decorative laminated lumbers has a thickness as small as about 0.2 to 2.0 mm. Thin veneers per se have poor strength and are likely to be broken, so that they are generally reinforced with, for example, Japanese paper or a nonwoven fabric of vinylon, rayon or polyester, which is bonded to the back of the veneers with the use of an emulsion adhesive. The thus obtained veneers are each bonded to the surface of plywood or laminated lumber with the use of, for example, a urea resin adhesive or a melamine/urea co-condensate resin adhesive. This bonding is generally performed as for flat materials by the use of a hot press and performed as for laminated lumbers for furnishings such as a pillar, a sill and a threshold, with a given configuration by the so-called profile wrapping method in which the veneer is continuously wound round the configuration of lumber.
In this profile wrapping method, the conventional thin veneer and sliced veneer often suffers from breakage or cracking at curved parts or corner parts of lumbers because of its strength insufficiency and intense directional property. Therefore, this conventional profile wrapping method not only encounters configurational constraints in the processing but also has a problem in product yield.
Furthermore, when an interior finish door or furniture is produced by bending the decorative plywood, a V-cut is first made in the plywood part and, thereafter, bending is performed so that an end face of the decorative plywood is not exposed outward. In this instance, the decorative laminate constituting the surface of the decorative plywood often suffers from breakage or cracking.
Still further, the surface of these decorative plywood and decorative laminated lumber is finished by means of a supersurfacer or sander because the appearance thereof is important. Moreover, the surface is finally coated with a lacquer for protecting the finished surface and for obtaining a glossy or semiglossy beautiful appearance. This lacquer coating may be performed either in the plant prior to delivery of the construction material or after the completion of assembly at the construction site. In either case, the lacquer coating is often conducted twice or thrice in order to prevent the occurrence of cracks with the passage of time or to maintain desirable appearance for a prolonged period of time. This not only increases workload but also causes a serious problem of solvent evaporation polluting the environment. In particular, when the lacquer coating is conducted after the completion of construction work, the solvent would remain in the building. The remaining solvent is considered to cause the tenants and users to suffer from asthma or various atopic symptoms, and this is drawing serious attention in recent years.
As apparent from the above, although the thin decorative veneer or the sliced veneer of natural wood or artificial wood uses a natural material to thereby exhibit the highest-grade appearance as a decorative laminate material, not only does the strength constraint render the handling thereof difficult but also the lacquer coating is needed at the final finish and the solvent thereof has the danger of causing environmental pollution and a bad influence on the tenants' health.
Various improvements have been attempted for resolving such drawbacks of the above natural decorative veneer and sliced veneer. Some are based on the concept of bonding a transparent film or sheet made of a synthetic resin to the surface of natural decorative veneer to thereby provide an overcoat as a surface protective layer. The overcoats are classified depending on the type of synthetic resin into the overcoats of thermosetting resin films and the overcoats of thermoplastic resin films. The overcoats of thermoplastic resin films are generally preferred from the viewpoint of easy handling in the processing, because the thermosetting resins take a long time in the hardening thereof and require much labor in intermediate stage handling and superintendence.
In these circumstances, various proposals have been made with respect to the decorative veneer and sliced veneer in which a resin film is employed.
For example, in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 53(1978)-109907, a method is proposed which comprises attaching a resin sheet obtained by impregnating a fibrous sheet such as a nonwoven fabric with a thermosetting resin such as a polyester, a polyurethane or an epoxy, a cellulose film and/or a synthetic resin film to the surface of decorative veneer and effecting a bonding under heating and pressure with the use of a hot press. Films of at least one member selected from among thermoplastic synthetic resins such as polyethylene, polypropylene, vinyl acetate resin (including partial hydrolyzates), EVA resin (including partial hydrolyzates), polyvinyl alcohol, po
Tarazano D. Lawrence
Thibodeau Paul
Tohcello Co. Ltd.
LandOfFree
Wood decorative material coated with resin composite film... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Wood decorative material coated with resin composite film..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Wood decorative material coated with resin composite film... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2836789