The present invention relates generally to a textile pad for laminate floor underlayment. More specifically, the invention relates to a flooring system which uses a textile pad under laminate wood flooring material to improve acoustic and thermal insulation properties as well as crack resistance.
Textile pads are widely used in flooring applications. A pad is desirable when wood flooring is applied over a subflooring. These pads used in flooring applications serve multiple purposes. They may absorb impact, such as from persons walking on the flooring. They may provide sound deadening, and may provide insulating properties against heat transfer. Pads also may accommodate roughness, unevenness, or other flaws in the subflooring, and may provide a barrier against moisture and dirt. Finally, pads may lessen impact stresses on the flooring to lengthen the life of the flooring and make the flooring appear to be more durable and of a higher quality.
In the related art, textile pads are not used under ceramic flooring. This is because a pad would have to be relatively thin so as to not cause any unevenness in transition areas (i.e., areas of flooring type transition, such as in doorways, etc.). Furthermore, ceramic tiles traditionally must be placed on a solid floor substructure to prevent cracking of the tile or the adhesive or tile grout.
What is needed, therefore, are improvements in methods and apparatus for forming textile pads for a laminate floor underlayment as well as a textile pad which can be used under a ceramic tile floor.
A flooring material having a textile pad substructure with a density of greater than 13 pounds per cubic foot is provided according to a first aspect of the invention. The insulative textile flooring pad has reinforcement fibers and binding fibers. The binding fibers are thermoplastic fibers which are melted to couple the binding fibers and reinforcement fibers together. The binding fibers are selected from the group of polyethylene, polyester, polypropylene, and mixtures thereof.
Further, a flooring structure is disclosed. The flooring structure has a subfloor, a surface layer, and an insulative pad disposed between the subfloor and the surface layer. The insulative pad has binder and reinforcement fibers distributed uniformly and randomly within a first plane. The binder fibers are meltable at a predetermined temperature to couple the binding fibers to the reinforcement fibers.
Further disclosed is a floor underlayment for disposal under a floor surface. The floor underlayment has less than 20% thermoplastic binder fibers and more than 80% reinforcement fibers. The floor underlayment has a first surface disposed adjacent to the floor surface and has a density of greater than 13.3 pounds per cubic foot.
Further disclosed is an apparatus for forming a plurality of textile pads from a textile batt according to another aspect of the invention. The apparatus comprises a pair of feed rollers for receiving a textile batt, a splitting knife downstream of the feed rollers that is capable of splitting the textile batt to produce partial thickness textile batts, adhesive appliers positioned downstream of the splitting knife that are capable of applying an adhesive to an outer surface of each of the partial thickness textile batts, multi-layer vapor barrier supply positioned downstream of the adhesive appliers that is capable of supplying vapor barrier material that contacts the outer surfaces of the partial thickness textile batts, and pressure rollers positioned downstream of the vapor barrier supply that are capable of partially compressing the partial thickness textile batts to bond to the vapor barrier adhesive.
Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description and the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The following description of the preferred embodiments is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses.
Each partial thickness pad 200′ and 200 may be of equal thickness (i.e., the textile insulative floor pad is split in half), or may be of unequal thickness'. The present invention is capable of forming a partial thickness batt of about 1/16 of an inch or greater. The starting insulative floor pad 90 may be split longitudinally to provide two, three or more partial thickness batts.
The thermoplastic binder fibers and reinforcement fibers are laid randomly yet consistently in x-y-z axes. The reinforcement fibers are generally bound together by heating the binder fibers above their glass transition temperature. Typically, less than about 20% by weight binder fiber is used, and preferably about 15% binder fiber is used to form the insulative floor pad 90.
Thermoplastic binder fibers are provided having a weight of less than 0.2 pounds per square foot and, more particularly, preferably about 0.1875 pounds per square foot. The remaining reinforcement fiber is greater than 0.8 pounds per square foot, and preferably 1.0625 pounds per square foot. The binder fibers are preferably a mixture of thermoplastic polymers which consist of polyethylene/polyester or polypropylene/polyester or combinations thereof.
The insulative floor pad 90 is formed by heating the textile batt 100 in the oven 110 to a temperature greater than about 350° F. and, more preferably, to a temperature of about 362° F. Such heating causes the binder fibers to melt and couple to the non-binder fibers, thus causing fibers to adhere to each other and solidify during cooling. Upon cooling, the binder fibers solidify and function to couple the non-binder reinforcement fibers together as well as function as reinforcement themselves.
The insulative textile batt 100 is compressed to form the insulative floor pad 90 so it has a density of greater than about 10 pounds per cubic foot. For underlayment floor systems, the insulative floor pad 90 preferably has a density of greater than about 10 pounds per cubic foot and, more preferably, about 13.3 pounds per cubic foot with a thickness of about ⅛ inch. For insulative floor pad 90 used under ceramic tile, the density is greater than about 15 pounds per cubic foot and, more preferably, about 18.9 pounds per cubic foot.
The sound insulating properties of the material as tested under ASTME90-97, ASTME413-87 provide that the insulative floor pad 90 preferably has a compression resistance at 25% of the original thickness of greater than about 20 psi and preferably about 23.2 psi, at 30% of greater than about 35.0 psi and preferably about 37.0 psi, and at 50% of greater than about 180 psi and preferably about 219 psi. The compression set at a compression of 25% of the original thickness is less than 20% and preferably about 18.8%, and the tensile strength is between about 60 and 80 pounds and, most preferably, about 78.4 pounds.
The feed rollers 104 receive the insulative floor pad 90 and pass it to the splitting knife 107, where the insulative floor pad 90 is split into the two partial thickness batts or pads 200′ and 200. The thickness of each partial thickness pad is determined by both the thickness of the insulative floor pad 90 and the position of the splitting knife 107 in relation to the feed rollers 104. When the splitting knife 107 is substantially centered between the feed rollers 104, the insulative floor pad 90 will be split into two substantially equal partial thickness pads.
In the present invention, it has been found that the insulative floor pad 90 may be controllably and accurately split if the feed rollers 104 are positioned within a predetermined distance from the splitting knife 107. The distance is important because of the compressible and pliable nature of the insulative floor pad 90. In the preferred embodiment, the predetermined distance is from about zero to about two millimeters.
In a preferred embodiment using the Mercier Turner splitting machine 114, the splitting machine 114 is modified by adjusting the feed rollers 104 to a position as close as possible to the splitting knife 107, and removing feed guides so that the splitting knife 107 may be moved closer to the feed rollers than would be possible with the feed guides still in place. In addition, the splitting machine 114 is modified by changing the feed rollers 104 from a serrated surface type with multiple sections to a smooth surface type of a single piece construction.
The tension rollers 118 maintain a predetermined amount of tension on the two partial thickness pads 200′ and 200.
The adhesive appliers 123 are downstream of the tension rollers 118 and apply adhesive to outer surfaces of the two partial thickness batts. In a preferred embodiment, the adhesive appliers 123 spray a layer of adhesive onto the two partial thickness batts. Alternatively, the adhesive appliers 123 may apply the adhesive directly such as, for example, with wipers or brushes.
The adhesive is preferably a high viscosity, low melting point adhesive that is applied hot and forms a bond as it cools (i.e., a “hot melt” adhesive). Such adhesives are available from H.B. Fuller, from Swift Adhesive, and from Western Adhesive (the Western Adhesive product is sold under the product name of RHM542.) Alternatively, any other adhesive capable of bonding the textile batt to the multi-layer vapor barrier may be used.
The pair of vapor barrier supply rollers 126 are also located downstream of the tension rollers 118 and serve to supply a vapor barrier layer 206′ and 206 to each of the two partial thickness pads 200′ and 200.
The multi-layer vapor barrier preferably is a plastic sheet material, typically about ½ to about 1 mil in thickness. The multi-layer vapor barrier, as the name implies, prevents the travel of vapor (usually water vapor) through the textile pads 210′ or 210.
The pair of pressure rollers 129 are downstream of the adhesive appliers 123 and the vapor supply rollers 126. The pair of pressure rollers 129 bring together the two partial thickness pads 200′ and 200 and the two vapor barrier layers 206′ and 206 to form the two textile underlayment pads 210′ and 210. The pair of pressure rollers 129 heat and partially compress the batts during the bonding of the adhesive to form the two textile underlayment pads 210′ and 210.
In the preferred embodiment, the pressure rollers 129 apply about 400 psi (pounds per square inch) of pressure to the two partial thickness textile pads 200′ and 200 and to the multi-layer vapor barrier layers 206′ and 206. In addition, the pressure rollers 129 are maintained at a temperature of about 200 degrees Fahrenheit. The heating partially softens or breaks down the multi-layer vapor barrier to make it pliable and to aid in penetration of the multi-layer vapor barrier by the adhesive.
Downstream of the pressure rollers 129 is a pair of take-up rollers 132. The pair of take-up rollers 132 may be used to roll up the finished textile underlayment pads 210′ and 210. The finished textile underlayment pads 210′ and 210 may be used as a floor underlayment, a laminate floor underlayment, as part of a paint drop cloth, etc.
The floor surface layer 216 can be wood, a wood based laminate, or polymer. The binder fibers are thermoplastic and are preferably selected from the group containing polyethylene, polyester, polypropylene, and mixtures thereof.
As shown in
Alternatively, the multi-layer vapor barrier 206 can be a laminate having a layup such as Nylon/LLDPE /Nylon/LLDPE and Tie/LLDPE and Tie/LLDPE and Tie/LLDPE and color concentrate. The most common stretch wrap material is linear low-density polyethylene or LLDPE, which is produced by copolymerization of ethylene with alpha-olefins, the most common of which are butene, hexene and octene. The use of higher alpha-olefins (hexene or octene) gives rise to enhanced stretch film characteristics, particularly in respect of elongation at break and puncture resistance. Other types of polyethylene and PVC can also be used. Many films have about 500% stretch at break but are only stretched to about 100-300% in use. Once stretched, the elastic recovery is used to keep the load tight around the piecing member.
As shown in
The description of the invention is merely exemplary in nature and, thus, variations that do not depart from the gist of the invention are intended to be within the scope of the invention. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/236,733 filed Aug. 15, 2016 which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/943,412 filed on Nov. 17, 2015 now U.S. Pat. No. 9,416,547 issued Aug. 16, 2016 which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/926,160 filed on Jun. 25, 2013 now U.S. Pat. No. 9,217,253 issued Dec. 22, 2015. The entire disclosure of the above application is incorporated herein by reference.
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Entry |
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Quiet-Cor Underlayment (facsimile date of around Feb. 1999). |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20180080233 A1 | Mar 2018 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 15236733 | Aug 2016 | US |
Child | 15826878 | US | |
Parent | 14943412 | Nov 2015 | US |
Child | 15236733 | US | |
Parent | 13926160 | Jun 2013 | US |
Child | 14943412 | US |