Patent Application
20240401349
The invention relates to a tile levelling device used on a surface to level at least two adjacent tiles. The said device is of the type comprising a support designed to be positioned between at least two adjacent tiles and which, in addition to fulfilling a spacing function, is also equipped with a base envisaged to be placed under the two tiles and an elongated body or rod, which extends vertically from the base in a perpendicular manner thereto. The body has an elongated or stem form and is equipped with gripping means which form a coaxial connection, by means of a thread, with a pressure body. The said body is endowed with a lower edge endowed with a flat support surface intended to operate through contact with parts of the upper surfaces of at least two adjacent tiles. The task of the said flat support surface, which is arranged perpendicular to the central axis of the pressure body, is to perform the levelling, i.e. aligning the upper flat surfaces of the two or more adjacent tiles lying in the same plane when the said support surface is pushed against the upper surfaces of the adjacent tiles, exploiting the counteraction applied by the base to the lower surfaces of the said tiles. This operation is performed using the screw connection, whereby the pressure body is screwed onto the thread with which the elongated body or rod is equipped, with the result that the support surface of the pressure body ends up in contact and pushing against the flat upper surfaces of adjacent tiles.
According to prior art, this operation is performed manually at each point in the flooring at which levelling is performed. Clearly, significant amounts of time are required to carry out both the screwing on and unscrewing steps. Once a grip has been achieved and the tiles are locked in position ready to level the upper surfaces thereof, the various pressure parts employed thus far must be removed and decoupled, i.e. unscrewed from the relative elongated bodies or rods in order to be reused in new laying operations.
One drawback of the aforesaid prior art lies in the considerable manoeuvring time required to perform each levelling operation described above, consisting in manually screwing and unscrewing the pressure member onto the external threaded part of the elongated body or rod.
The drawback is so great that an idea for a solution to the problem has already been proposed, as disclosed in EP3455432 (filed by the same applicant as this document), which essentially consists in preparing a special embodiment of the seat designed to allow mechanical connection with the elongated body or rod of the pressure member by means of at least two mutually movable parts which are mutually connected in an elastic manner so that they can be both moved away, as needed, to undo the connection with the externally threaded part of the elongated body or rod and allow recovery of the pressure member—without needing to unscrew the said parts—and also to be coupled onto the said threaded part by simply bringing the said parts together—without needing to perform any screwing—in order to make the mechanical connection and therefore then allow the pressing required for levelling to be carried out manually.
This facilitates the coupling and uncoupling of the pressure member with the relative elongated body or rod with quick and easy manoeuvres.
The main object of the present invention is to further speed up the entire levelling operation which, according to prior art, is strongly conditioned by the lengthy screwing and unscrewing times.
This object and others besides are achieved by the present invention, which relates to a tile levelling device according to the claims, as described and illustrated in the appended drawings in which:
With reference to the appended figures, 1 denotes the individual tiles used to make a floor. The tiles 1 are laid on a surface with a layer of glue 2 interposed therebetween.
Laying is complete once the levelling action has been performed by means of levelling devices distributed over the entire floor being laid.
In particular, each levelling device is used to act between at least two adjacent tiles 1 and comprises a support which is designed to be inserted between at least two adjacent tiles 1 and is endowed with a base 5, which is positioned under the two adjacent tiles and embedded in the layer of glue 2.
Part of the support is an elongated body or rod 4 which extends orthogonally from the base 5 and is equipped with means for the gripping thereof from the outside, which essentially consist of an external thread 40.
The external thread 40 is featured and sized so that a pressure body 3 couples therewith in a removable manner by means of a tapped hole 33 with which the said pressure body is endowed.
The pressure body 3 has a lower edge 30 which is in turn provided with a flat support surface 31 intended to operate in contact with at least part of the upper surfaces of the adjacent tiles 1, either with or without a scratch guard plate interposed therebetween. The support surface 31 is arranged perpendicular to the central axis of the pressure body 3, which is overall axially symmetric.
The pressure body 3 may be coaxially coupled to an external rotating member 7 designed to be driven by an external screwing tool 10 whose task is to generate, on command, the rotation thereof in both directions.
The pressure body 3 may be coaxially coupled to the external rotating member 7 by means of a coupling achieved by magnetic attraction.
The external rotating member 7 is, in turn, equipped with a tang 9 for coupling with the external screwing tool 10.
The pressure body 3 is cylindrical overall and is equipped with protruding ribs 35 on part of the external surface thereof. It is also equipped with an annular insert 32, made of a ferrous or ferromagnetic material, arranged integrally therewith and coaxially on part of the side walls thereof.
The external rotating member 7 have an axially symmetrical bell shape, shaped to accommodate—perfectly centred therewithin—at least part of the upper portion of the pressure body (3), and comprises, integrally coupled with at least part of the internal surface thereof, at least one insert consisting of a magnet 8 configured in an annular shape.
The task of the magnet 8 is to provide magnetic attraction to attract the annular insert made of a ferromagnetic material 32 with which the single pressure body 3 is equipped
The mutual arrangement of the materials used to provide the magnetic attraction between the pressure body 3 and the external rotating member 7 may be swapped and therefore a magnet may be coupled with the pressure body 3 instead of the ferromagnetic material and the external rotating member 7 may be coupled with a ring made of ferromagnetic material or the like instead of the magnet 8.
As regards the construction of the external rotating member 7, various possible methods may be suggested, namely:
Similar production methods can be used for the construction of the pressure body 3.
The entire levelling operation, which—for the sake of simplicity—refers to a case of two tiles 1, is easily schematised by a sequence of steps, which are identified with the numbers 1 to 9 and shown, schematically, in
Alongside the tile 1 placed on the layer of glue 2, the elongated body 4 is positioned in a vertical arrangement, so that the base 5 thereof is inserted into the layer of glue 2 underneath the edge of the said tile. A new tile 1 is then laid alongside the previous one. The lower part of the elongated body 4 keeps the edge of the new tile away from the edge of the tile laid previously. The tile layer then acts by preparing the assembly consisting of the pressure body 3 magnetically constrained to an external rotating member 7 and then coupling the tang 9 with a screwing tool 10. Activation of the screwing tool 10 screws the pressure body 3 onto the external thread 40 of the elongated body or rod 4 until the lower supporting surface 31 is forced to operate through contact with the upper surfaces of the two tiles 1. The action just described is the result of the pressure applied by the pressure body 3 to the upper surfaces of the tiles 1 through the counteraction applied by the base 5 to the lower surfaces of the said tiles 1.
Unscrewing can be performed just as quickly using the same screwing tool 10. Once levelling has been achieved and sufficient time has lapsed for stabilisation of the assembly, for example, the elongated body 4 may be broken—by hammering the pressure body (3 (step 7))—and detached therefore from the base 5, which remains in position under the adjacent tiles 1.
Unscrewing can be performed quickly using the same screwing tool 10 (see steps 8 and 9).
The magnetic attraction exerted between the magnet 8 fixed to the external rotating member 7 and the annular insert 32 made of ferromagnetic material makes the pressure body 3 integral with the said external rotating member 7, thereby ensuring easy manoeuvrability of the assembly which is further increased by the possibility of use thereof in conjunction with a screwing tool.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 102021000024488 | Sep 2021 | IT | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB2022/058570 | 9/12/2022 | WO |
