Engineered Floor Board with Thermofusable Glue Droplets
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for fabricating engineered floor boards using transverse wood strips often result in detachment and warping issues during transportation and storage, leading to irregular spacing and increased costs due to telegraphy of gaps on the surface, particularly when using inferior wood products.
Innovation Solution
A flexible sheet of wood strips is fabricated using thermofusable glue droplets spaced-apart along the side edges to interconnect the strips, with a machine that applies glue droplets and conveys the strips to ensure constant spacing and retention, preventing warping and detachment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If adhesive tapes or adhesive fiber layers are used to secure wood strips, then the strips can be held together, but the strips often become detached during manipulation and transportation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses thermofusable glue droplets that transition from a solid state during application to a molten state during heating/pressing, then solidify to create a strong bond. This phase transition ensures reliable retention by creating a mechanical interlock and chemical adhesion that prevents detachment during manipulation and transportation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the glue droplets by applying heat and pressure, transforming them from a soft, manageable state during application to a hardened, retention-providing state after processing. This parameter change resolves the contradiction by providing both ease of application and reliable long-term retention.
2Adaptability or versatility
If wood strips are spaced-apart to allow flexibility, then the flooring can conform to irregularities, but the spacing becomes irregular causing telegraphy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies glue droplets at predetermined locations and spacings before the wood strips are assembled and heated. This preliminary action ensures that when the strips are later pressed together, the glue distributes uniformly, maintaining constant spacing that prevents telegraphy while still allowing flexibility through the grooves.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces mechanical spacing methods (such as physical spacers or friction-fit slots) with a thermally-activated glue system. The glue droplets, when heated and pressed, create consistent spacing through controlled flow and solidification, providing both flexibility and uniformity without the telegraphy problems of mechanical systems.
3Loss of substance
If inferior wood products are used for wood strips, then costs are reduced, but the strips are susceptible to warping during storage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces glue droplets as an intermediary substance between the wood strips. This glue layer compensates for the dimensional instability of inferior wood products by providing a bonding medium that holds the strips together even when they warp slightly, maintaining the overall structural integrity and reducing the need for expensive, highly stable wood.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite structure combining inferior wood strips with thermofusable glue. This composite material system leverages the low cost of the wood strips while using the glue to provide dimensional stability and prevent warping, achieving cost reduction without sacrificing overall product stability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides a flexible and dimensionally stable engineered wood sheet with constant width grooves, reducing costs and preventing telegraphy by maintaining consistent spacing and flexibility along the grain orientation axis.
Implementation Method 1
thermofusable glue droplets spaced-apart at predetermined locations along opposed side edges of the wood strips to interconnect the wood strips to one another
Implementation Method 2
The glue droplets are dried and/or cooled sufficiently along the conveyor for the glue droplets to provide a mechanical retention force to retain the wood strips in interconnected spaced-apart relationship
Implementation Method 3
Pressure means is associated with the conveyor to apply pressure across the wood strips from opposed top and bottom surfaces thereof to keep the wood strips flat
Implementation Method 4
The transporter has equidistantly spaced-apart wood strip engagement means for transporting and orienting the wood strips in spaced sequence adjacent a glue droplet applicator
Implementation Method 5
The glue droplets are dried and/or cooled sufficiently along the conveyor for the glue droplets to provide a mechanical retention force
Implementation Method 6
The glue droplets are dried and/or cooled sufficiently along the conveyor for the glue droplets to provide a mechanical retention force
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a flexible sheet of wood strips for use in the fabrication of engineered floor boards or wood sheets and including the machine and method of manufacture of the flexible sheet of wood strips. The wood strips provide a wood floor which has much more stability than a solid wood plank which is much more affected by the temperature in a room and the moisture under the floor board. Also solid wood planks are much more expensive than engineered wood planks where only a very thin layer of quality wood material is utilized. The transverse wood strips are constructed of inferior wood material. Two or more treads of flexible material may be secured transversely to the wood strips to provide additional retention of the wood strips in the flexible sheet.