Patent Application
20230241870
The present disclosure relates generally to multi-layered mats and methods of making the mats. In particular, the present disclosure relates to mats having two layers bonded together with a lower layer being harder than an upper layer and method making the mats using coextrusion.
Existing ground mats tend to be slippery whether dry or wet. This makes it next to impossible to ensure that the ground (e.g., golf courses) the existing ground mats were designed to protect remains protected from vehicles (e.g., dump trucks). Instead, vehicles may not be able to grip the top surface of the mat causing the vehicle to lose traction preventing the vehicle to move in the direction intended and possibly move off the ground mat to the ground leaving tracks or causing other damage to the ground the mats are intended to protect. Slipping may worsen when the ground mats get wet. Conventional ground mats are also inflexible and hard due to the fact they are made out of a high-density polymer. Due to this material choice, these conventional mats do not have sufficient impact resistance and are prone to crack from impact thereby further compromising their impact resistance. The lack of flexibility of the conventional mats makes them hard to place on sloped ground as the conventional mats cannot bend or curve with the grade of the ground.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide and produce a mat with improved grip strength, increased flexibility, softer, improved impact resistance, and higher hydrophobicity. Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to this and other considerations.
Briefly described, embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter generally relate to mats, mat connectors, and methods of making the mats.
Disclosed embodiments may include a coextruded mat for ground protection. The coextruded mat may include a first material, a second material that is harder than the first material, and an additive blended with the second material to create a third material. The first material may bonded to the third material.
Disclosed embodiments may include a mat for ground protection. The mat may include a first material comprising a plastomer and a second material comprising polyethene that is harder than the first material. The first material may be bonded to the second material via coextrusion.
Disclosed embodiments may include s method of making a mat for ground protection. The method may include mixing a first material with an additive to create a first mixture, providing a first mixture to a coextruder in an amount of about 10-50% by weight of a total amount of material provided to the coextruder, providing a second material, that is harder than the first material, to the coextruder in an amount of about 50-90% by weight of the total amount of material provided to the coextruder, and coextruding the first mixture and the second material to bond the first mixture and the second material to create a combined structure.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate multiple embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter and serve to explain the principles of the presently disclosed subject matter. The drawings are not intended to limit the scope of the presently disclosed subject matter in any manner.
Although certain embodiments of the disclosure are explained in detail, it is to be understood that other embodiments are contemplated. Accordingly, it is not intended that the disclosure is limited in its scope to the details of construction and arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. Other embodiments of the disclosure are capable of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, in describing the embodiments, specific terminology will be resorted to for the sake of clarity. It is intended that each term contemplates its broadest meaning as understood by those skilled in the art and includes all technical equivalents which operate in a similar manner to accomplish a similar purpose.
Herein, the use of terms such as “having,” “has,” “including,” or “includes” are open-ended and are intended to have the same meaning as terms such as “comprising” or “comprises” and not preclude the presence of other structure, material, or acts. Similarly, though the use of terms such as “can” or “may” are intended to be open-ended and to reflect that structure, material, or acts are not necessary, the failure to use such terms is not intended to reflect that structure, material, or acts are essential. To the extent that structure, material, or acts are presently considered to be essential, they are identified as such.
Concentrations, dimensions, amounts, and other numerical data may be presented herein in a range format. It is to be understood that such range format is used merely for convenience and brevity and should be interpreted flexibly to include not only the numerical values explicitly recited as the limits of the range, but also to include all the individual numerical values or sub-ranges encompassed within that range as if each numerical range and sub-range is explicitly recited. For example, a range of approximately 1 to 99.99 should be interpreted to include not only the explicitly recited limits of approximately 1 and approximately 99.99, but also individual amounts such as 2, 3, 4, 5.01, 5.02, 99.98, etc., and sub ranges such as 5 to 80 and 30.21 to 83.24, etc. Similarly, it should be understood that when numerical ranges are provided, such ranges are to be construed as providing literal support for claim limitations that only recite the lower value of the range as well as claim limitations that only recite the upper value of the range. For example, a disclosed numerical range of 5 to 15 provides literal support for a claim reciting “greater than 5” (with no upper bounds) and a claim reciting “less than 15” (with no lower bounds).
The components described hereinafter as making up various elements of the disclosure are intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. Many suitable components that would perform the same or similar functions as the components described herein are intended to be embraced within the scope of the disclosure. Such other components not described herein can include, but are not limited to, for example, similar components that are developed after development of the presently disclosed subject matter.
The below described embodiments provide superior ground protection compared to other available ground protection. The mats described are less slippery, have higher coefficient of friction (e.g., grip strength), improved impact resistance, higher hydrophobicity, increased flexibility, softer, compared to other available ground mats. Additionally, the various connectors described below provide a solution to protecting the ground, surface, or flooring from vehicles or people by connecting two mats together to help ensure that gaps do not form between two mats where the ground, surface, or flooring could get damaged.
In some embodiments, the first material may include a plastomer and the second material may include polyethene. The plastomer may include polyethylene based plastomer, polypropylene based plastomer, ionomer, rubber, thermoplastic elastomers, thermoplastic vulcanizate, or combinations thereof. For example, the first material may include one or more ethylene olefin copolymer. The polyethene may be high density polyethlene, linear low density polyethene, or combinations thereof. The additive may include maleic anhydride.
In some embodiments, the first material may have a first hardness of about 17-19 Shore D and the second material may have a second hardness of about 55 to 70 Shore D. In some embodiments, the mat may have an overall or average hardness of 20-40 Shore D.
In some embodiments, the mat 100 may include about 9-48% by weight of the first material, about 50-90% by weight of the second material, and about 0.1-8% by weight of the additive (e.g., 3-5% by weight of the additive). In some embodiments, the mat may include 75-90% by weight of the second material.
In some embodiments, the mat 100 may include one or more first openings 108. For example, mat 100 shown in
Two mats may also be connected using connector 200b as shown in
Two mats may also be connected using connector 200c as shown in
Four mats 100 may be connected using connector 200d as shown in
Four mats 100 may also be connected using connector 200e as shown in
Four mats may also be connected using connector 200f as shown in
In step 502, method 500 may include mixing a first material with an additive to create a first mixture. As mentioned above, the first material may have a first hardness of about 17-19 Shore D. The first material may include one or more plastomers including polyethylene based plastomer, polypropylene based plastomer, ionomer, rubber, thermoplastic elastomers, thermoplastic vulcanizate, or combinations thereof. The additive may include maleic anhydride.
In step 504, method 500 may include providing a first mixture to a coextruder in an amount of about 10-50% by weight of a total amount of material provided to the coextruder.
In step 506, method 500 may include providing a second material, that is harder than the first material, to the coextruder in an amount of about 50-90% by weight of the total amount of material provided to the coextruder. The second material may include polyethylene.
In step 508, method 500 may include coextruding the first mixture and the second material to bond the first mixture and the second material to create a combined structure.
In optional step 510, method 500 may include forming a raised pattern on a first surface of the combined structure that includes the first mixture. Put another way, the raised pattern may be formed with the materials of the first mixture and not the second material. In other embodiments, the raised structure may be formed with the second material.
In optional step 512, method 500 may include cutting the combined structure to form a mat.
