Extruded Decorative Panel Core with Vertical Grooves

The core is divided into multiple segments by introducing grooves that extend from one surface to the other, creating a multi-chamber structure. This segmentation reduces material usage and weight while the interlocking nature of the segmented core maintains structural strength and shape retention.

The core is designed with a porous or hollow structure containing grooves that extend through the panel thickness. This porous configuration significantly reduces material consumption and weight while the strategic placement and interlocking design of the grooves preserve the necessary mechanical strength and dimensional stability.

The grooves are strategically positioned in the central region of the core, away from the coupling profiles at the edges. This local differentiation ensures that material is removed only where it is least needed for structural integrity, preserving the full strength of the coupling profiles while achieving weight reduction in the core region.

The grooves extend in the vertical dimension through the panel thickness rather than removing material laterally from the coupling profiles. This dimensional approach allows weight reduction through the core volume without compromising the horizontal coupling profile structures at the panel edges.

The grooves are formed during the initial extrusion process of the panel core rather than being added as a separate post-processing step. The extrusion die is designed with the groove geometry already incorporated, allowing multiple grooves to be created simultaneously in a single manufacturing operation, thus avoiding additional manufacturing complexity.

The groove formation process is merged with the core extrusion process into a single integrated manufacturing step. By combining these operations, the patent achieves multi-groove complexity without proportionally increasing manufacturing complexity, as both features are created together through the extrusion die design.