Patent Application
20160102470
1. Field of the Art
The present invention relates generally to fluid reservoir liners and methods of making the same. More specifically, the present invention relates to pool liners and methods of making the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Most fluid reservoir liners comprise multiple sheets joined together to produce a water impermeable barrier. Materials for these sheets typically include polyurethane, polyvinylchloride, polypropylene, or polyethylene, and the sheets can either be glued or welded together. However, gluing can be very labor intensive and often uses volatile solvents that are employed during the gluing operation. Thus, welding is the preferred method of joining multiple sheets, and there are three main methods of welding in use: radio frequency (“RF”) welding, ultrasonic welding, and heat welding. Heat welding includes hot wedge welding, hot air welding, and impulse welding.
The RF method is probably the most widely used approach for heat sealing. The RF welder is basically an antenna (the die) that is poorly matched to the amplifier, thereby producing a great deal of heat rather than radio waves between the antenna and the underlying plate. In practice, the two fabric pieces are laid on the plate. Typical RF welding dies used in pool liner manufacturing are about 3 to 4 feet in length and approximately 0.75 inch wide. The die is then brought down, thereby pressing the two pieces together. The operator then initiates the welding process by pressing a pair of push buttons. The actual RF process takes from about 5 to 15 seconds, depending upon the thickness of the pattern pieces and the amount of RF energy available from the machine.
There are, however, disadvantages to the RF method. RF welding is a slow process because the size of the die is limited by the available energy of the unit. Additionally, due to the die and plate arrangement, the RF method is typically limited to seams or joints that can be laid flat for welding. Three dimensional dies and plates are occasionally used, but these devices are quite expensive, and they require a vacuum or other device to hold the fabric in position as the die is applied.
Ultrasonic welding is a process that is like RF welding, with the exception of the energy source. Rather than using radio waves, ultrasonic welding uses sound waves that basically vibrate the plastic molecules until sufficient heat is generated to melt the coatings.
In the wedge method of heat welding, two fabric pieces are drawn across a hot iron (or wedge) and then are pressed together. A heated wedge is precisely positioned at the weld point providing the required heat. The fabric or film is then pulled across the heated wedge. The tightly temperature of the wedge can range from 700 F to 920 F (400 C to 490 C). Hot wedge welders typically experience a hot section immediately after the beginning of the weld as the wedge accumulates excess heat when idle. Another disadvantage is that, since the heat energy must pass through a solid object to reach the seam, the maximum speed of the hot wedge welding process is limited by the thermal conductivity of the wedge.
Hot air heat sealing is another welding process used to join thermoplastic industrial fabrics and films using very precise heat, speed and pressure settings. The correct combination of these three parameters allows one to achieve a complete weld. In the case of hot air welding, heat is provided by compressed air blowing across electrical heat elements and is injected at the welding point. The temperature can range from 1000 F to 1,350 F (400 C to 750 C). In general, hot air welding is much faster than other methods; it can accommodate three dimensional patterns, and it requires no dies or tooling. In a hot air welder, the flow of hot air that floods the seam is not subject to contamination, as with the wedge welder, and there is no initial drop off of heat at the beginning of the seam.
In impulse welding, layers of thermoplastic sheets are heated and fused to form a welded seam by clamping them together in close contact with a shielded electric heating element. Often, a thin nichrome wire is positioned behind a coating or film. During the heating cycle an electric current is passed along the wire, resulting in rapid heating. At the conclusion of the heating cycle, the current is switched off and the wire cools rapidly due to its low thermal mass. The sheets being joined remain under pressure for the duration of the cooling cycle. In this way, the parts being welded experience a well-controlled heating and cooling regime, while still being held under pressure. However, because of the long cycle times necessary for impulse welding and other technical limitations, it is not known or used in the field of fluid reservoir liner manufacturing.
Unfortunately, the known sealing methods, as they are used in the prior art for fluid reservoir liners, generally produce a highly visible seam that is aesthetically unsuitable for many applications, including, for example, pool liners. Several examples of these known methods are discussed below.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,379,114 and 4,568,588 disclose a method of joining narrow waterproof sheets to obtain a waterproof sheet of wide width having a gently curved joint which is free from any acutely stepped portion. It comprises cure tape between the overlapping edge portions of the sheets to be joined, positioning a piece of cushiony material below or above the overlapping edge portions, and heating the overlapping edge portions and the cure tape under pressure. The cure tape has a width which is substantially equal to that of the overlapping edge portions before pressure is applied thereto. When pressure is applied, the cure tape projects in opposite directions beyond the extremities of the overlapping edge portions. One form of the joint thus formed is flat on one surface and gently curved on the other surface, while another form is gently curved on both surfaces thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,737,213 discloses a method for heat sealing a portion of an upper heat sealable thermoplastic membrane to a portion of a lower heat sealable thermoplastic membrane which comprises placing a detachable stabilizer strip on the outer surface of the upper membrane over the over-lap seam portions to be sealed. The stabilizer strip must fully adhere or have mechanical contact to retain the dimensional stability of the upper membrane while maintaining the relative positions of the membranes. A hot air medium is directed between the upper and lower membranes thereby affecting a heat seal there between. Once the overlapped and sealed portions of the membranes are permitted to cool, the stabilizer strip may be removed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,855,004 discloses an automatic seam welder for thermoplastic material includes a single piece frame riding on two drive wheels and a caster, the drive wheels being driven by a drive motor through a helical spring clutch. A heat gun is gimbal mounted to the frame and includes a blower, heating element, and shaped foot to direct hot air between overlapped thermoplastic sheets. A thermocouple in the foot directly senses the air temperature and, through a control circuit in a control instrument enclosure, is used to control power to the heater element. A guide wheel, foot rest and air dam are also provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,910,059 discloses roof membranes for providing improved lap joints with adjacent roof membranes, wherein opposed edges of the adjacent membranes for the lap joint are tapered.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,533 discloses a portable hot sheet welder used for making reservoir liners and covers. The welder is sued to fuse together overlapped edges of lengthy sheets of synthetic rubber material or the like. The welder has a front carriage and a rear carriage both of which have a weight box for removably receiving cast ingot weights. The front carriage has a pair of laterally spaced main drive compression wheels for pressing the overlapped sheets together after they have had their surfaces heated to a sufficiently high temperature by a hot air shoe pounded on the front carriage. A pair of laterally spaced secondary compression wheels is supported from the front end of the rear carriage. An eccentric mechanism attached to the rear carriage provides structure for pivoting the main drive compression wheels upwardly from their pressure producing position.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,416,932 discloses an above-ground outdoor circular swimming pool having the typical outer circumscribing support walls with a through-space as symbolic porthole-like window there is placed within space circumscribed by the outer circumscribing support walls, a water-retaining translucent or transparent liner mounted at and suspended circumscribingly from upper securing structure at the top of the circumscribing support walls. Thereby the secured and suspended transparent liner wall when containing water is pressed toward the porthole-like window, such that there is provided a line-of-sight view from each of the inside and the outside through the transparent liner. The liner itself if sufficiently rigid or sturdy in part or in whole, and/or alternatively a separate supporting transparent sheet-like transparent rigid and sturdy solid and/or mesh structure overlaps the through-space.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,511 discloses an apparatus and a method for welding overlapping edge sections of heat sealable materials are disclosed. The apparatus generally includes a frame, a heating body attached to the frame for being positioned between the overlapping sheets to heat the sheets, an alignment control mechanism for urging the overlapping sheet into a desired alignment relative to the overlapped sheet and a pressure roller for pressing the heated sections together to weld them together.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,586 discloses a method of securing elongated lengths of lighting track in the aggregate coping face of a liner type swimming pool. The method includes applying double sided adhesive tape to a shelf face of a form board utilized to define the cross-sectional contour of coping to be poured. The track is removably mounted adhesively against the tape and retained thereat until after curing of the aggregate has been completed. Following curing of the aggregate, the form board is removed to expose the face of the track in the face of the coping.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,164 discloses the installation of a vinyl liner within an in-ground swimming pool is carried out using a direct drive, over-hung vacuum machine to exhaust air from between the liner and the steel walls and cement bowl within which the liner is installed. The vacuum machine has the overhung impellor located within a volute chamber isolated from the driving electric motor, so that the induced air flow is segregated from the driving motor. The vacuum machine impellor is of non-corrosive material, to avoid corrosion of the impellor when water is entrained, and to avoid the consequent imbalance and undue wear of the bearing that would otherwise ensue. The paddle-style impellor blades ensure that the vacuum suction is insufficient to cause intake of the pool liner into the air-evacuation hose.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,802,631 discloses a method for installing a liner in a swimming pool including a wall having a liner edge retainer extending along the upper periphery. With the pool containing water, an edge of a liner is attached to the retainer at a first position on the wall and a pulling device is attached to the liner edge at a position opposite the retainer attachment. The pulling device is manipulated to drag the liner along the pool bottom and up the wall to a position opposite the first position where the edge is then attached to the retainer. A substantial portion of the pool water is scooped up in the liner and the remaining water can be pumped from between the wall and liner. The method can be used to install a second liner over an existing first liner by using different liner edge retainers. More than one embodiment of the pulling device is disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,933 discloses a method of securing elongated lengths of lighting track in the aggregate coping face of a liner type swimming pool. The method includes applying double sided adhesive tape to a shelf face of a form board utilized to define the cross-sectional contour of coping to be poured. The track is removably mounted adhesively against the tape and retained thereat until after curing of the aggregate has been completed. Following curing of the aggregate, the form board is removed to expose the face of the track in the face of the coping.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,471,803 discloses a hot air welding apparatus that provides a computer control system and two high torque stepper motors, one for each drive wheel. The computer control system allows the speed and position of the drive wheels to be regulated with a very high accuracy. The computer control system allows the drive wheel settings to be adjusted while the seam is being welded and further includes an automatic ramp capability, a repeat mode, and a test strip mode. Further, the computer control system is capable of controlling the temperature of the air used in the welding process. The present invention further provides methods of joining pieces of fabric, films and extruded materials without using traditional sewing techniques and further provides products seamed by such methods.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,866,360 discloses a hot air welding nozzle for a hot air welding device for welding overlapping webs of sealing material. The hot air welding nozzle includes a connection for a hot air supply, a top and a bottom heat plate forming an air space, and at least one rear outlet between the top and bottom heat plate on a facing side that is oriented in a direction opposite to the moving direction of the hot air welding device, with at least one front outlet relative to the moving direction of the hot air welding device, and with air guides that extend beyond the facing sides of the heat plates, at least on the inner side.
U.S. patent application publication no. 20100263748 discloses first and second recycled geosynthetic sheets having overlapping portions. A heat welded splice is formed along the overlapping portions creates a fluid seal between the first and second recycled geosynthetic sheets so that the first and second geosynthetic sheets collectively function as a fluid liner.
U.S. patent application publication no. 20110219601 discloses a seaming machine and method are provided for seaming segments of sheet material to one another to form larger sheets. The machine typically includes a frame with a pair of spaced seaming devices mounted thereon for respectively seaming opposed edges of the segments of sheet material to one another. The process allows for the seaming of multiple sheet segments while the sheet segments remain atop a work surface. Relative back and forth movement between various components and the work surface typically facilitate the process.
Thus, the known prior art does not disclose a pool liner in which all of the seams are substantially invisible. Thus, a need exists for such a pool liner and a method of making the same.
In one exemplary embodiment, the present invention provides a pool liner having substantially invisible seams, said pool liner comprising: at least two flexible thermoplastic panels, said panels comprising at least one set of overlapping heat welded edges which form a substantially invisible seam relative to a seam produced by radio frequency welding.
In another exemplary embodiment, the present invention provides a method of making a pool liner having substantially invisible floor seams, said method comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of floor sheets wherein each sheet of said plurality of floor sheets has an edge; arranging said floor sheets in a pre-determined direction such that at least one edge of one sheet of said first plurality of floor sheets overlaps an adjacent edge of one sheet of said first plurality of floor sheets thereby creating a floor sheet to floor sheet intersection; and heat welding said overlapping floor sheets at said floor sheet to floor sheet intersection.
In another exemplary embodiment, the present invention provides a method of making a pool liner having substantially invisible seams, a floor section and a wall section, said method comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of floor sheets wherein each sheet of said plurality of floor sheets has an edge; arranging said floor sheets in a pre-determined direction such that at least one edge of one sheet of said first plurality of floor sheets overlaps an adjacent edge of one sheet of said first plurality of floor sheets thereby creating a floor sheet to floor sheet intersection; heat welding said overlapping floor sheets at said floor sheet to floor sheet intersection; providing a wall sheet, said wall sheet having an edge; overlapping said wall sheet edge with said floor sheet edges thereby creating a floor sheet to wall sheet intersection; and heat welding said wall sheet with said floor sheets at said floor to wall intersection.
In another exemplary embodiment, the present invention provides a method of making a pool liner having substantially invisible seams, a floor section and a wall section, said method comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of floor sheets wherein each sheet of said plurality of floor sheets has an edge; arranging said floor sheets such that at least one edge of one sheet of said first plurality of floor sheets overlaps an adjacent edge of one sheet of said first plurality of floor sheets thereby creating a floor sheet to floor sheet intersection; heat welding said overlapping floor sheets at said floor sheet to floor sheet intersection; providing a plurality of wall sheet wherein said plurality wall sheet has an edge; arranging said wall sheets such that at least one edge of said wall sheet abuts an adjacent edge of one sheet of said plurality of wall sheets thereby creating a wall sheet to wall sheet intersection; providing a reinforcement strip against said wall sheet to wall sheet intersection; impulse welding wall sheets and reinforcement strip at said wall sheet to wall sheet intersection; overlapping said wall sheet with said floor sheet thereby creating a floor sheet to wall sheet intersection; and impulse heat welding said wall sheet with floor sheets at said floor to wall intersection.
The present invention will be understood more fully from the detailed description given hereinafter and from the accompanying drawings of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, which, however, should not be taken to limit the invention, but are for explanation and understanding only.
In the drawings:
The present invention will be discussed hereinafter in detail in terms of the preferred embodiment according to the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be obvious, however, to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instance, well-known structures are not shown in detail in order to avoid unnecessary obscuring of the present invention.
This detailed description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the described embodiments or the application and uses of the described embodiments. As used herein, the word “exemplary” or “illustrative” means “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any implementation described herein as “exemplary” or “illustrative” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other implementations.
All of the implementations described below are exemplary implementations provided to enable persons skilled in the art to make or use the embodiments of the disclosure and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure, which is defined by the claims. In the present description, the terms “upper”, “lower”, “left”, “rear”, “right”, “front”, “vertical”, “horizontal”, and derivatives thereof shall relate to the invention as oriented in
Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any expressed or implied theory presented in the preceding technical field, background, brief summary or the following detailed description. It is also to be understood that the specific devices and processes illustrated in the attached drawings, and described in the following specification, are simply exemplary embodiments of the inventive concepts defined in the appended claims. Hence, specific dimensions and other physical characteristics relating to the embodiments disclosed herein are not to be considered as limiting, unless the claims expressly state otherwise.
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The highly visible seams of prior art pool liners are heavily disfavored by pool owners, but the methods of the present invention result in a liner having substantially invisible seams. Pool liner 2000, manufactured according to the method of the present invention and illustrated in
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The typical hot air welding apparatus injects a stream of hot air from a hot air nozzle between two sheets of plastic. The temperature of the hot air can be set in the range of approximately 500 to 1350 degrees F. The plastic pieces are then pinched between and pulled through the apparatus between a two drive wheels or between a drive wheel and a flat member. The distance from the hot air nozzle and the pinch point between the drive wheels or between the drive wheel and flat surface is in the range of approximately 0.25 to 0.75 inch. The wheel speed determines how long the plastic is exposed to the hot air stream before it passes between the wheel and flat surfaces. With a constant air temperature, the amount of heat energy delivered to the fabric is inversely proportional to the wheel speed; a faster speed decreases the exposure and vice versa.
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The distance from the hot air nozzle and the pinch point between the two wheels is in the range of approximately 0.25 to 0.75 inch. The wheel speed determines how long the plastic is exposed to the hot air stream before it passes between the wheels. With a constant air temperature, the amount of heat energy delivered to the fabric is inversely proportional to the wheel speed; a faster speed decreases the exposure and vice versa.
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The above-described embodiments are merely exemplary illustrations set forth for a clear understanding of the principles of the invention. Many variations, combinations, modifications, or equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. It should be understood, therefore, that the above description is of an exemplary embodiment of the invention and included for illustrative purposes only. The description of the exemplary embodiment is not meant to be limiting of the invention. A person of ordinary skill in the field of the invention or the relevant technical art will understand that variations of the invention are included within the scope of the claims.
