Hook-Type Profile Floor Panel Vertical Locking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional floor panels with undercut tongue and groove profiles require precise alignment and inclined installation, making them difficult to lay and prone to deformation due to external forces, which complicates the assembly process.
Innovation Solution
A multilayer laminate floor panel design featuring a plastic carrier with complementary hook profiles on opposite side edges, allowing for a vertical joining movement that prevents bulging and simplifies the installation process, with a receiving hook and locking hook having oblique contact and guide surfaces for easy alignment and locking.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If undercut tongue and groove profiles are used to ensure secure locking, then locking reliability is improved, but installation complexity increases due to required precise alignment and inclined positioning
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional tongue and groove mechanism by using hook profiles that lock from the top side rather than requiring bottom-side engagement. The receiving hook on the first panel and locking hook on the second panel create a top-down locking action, eliminating the need for inclined installation and precise bottom alignment while maintaining secure locking.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from horizontal tongue-groove engagement to vertical hook-profile engagement. The hooks extend vertically from the panel surfaces, allowing panels to be joined through vertical movement rather than requiring inclined positioning, thus simplifying installation while maintaining locking reliability.
2Shape
If traditional tongue and groove profiles are used, then gap-free surface is achieved, but panel deformation occurs due to external forces
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the geometric parameters of the retaining profiles from traditional tongue and groove to hook profiles with specific dimensional characteristics. The hooks have optimized lengths and positions that provide both gap-free surface and resistance to external forces, maintaining panel flatness and stability simultaneously.
3Ease of operation
If complementary hook profiles are used to simplify installation, then ease of operation is improved, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the hook profiles into distinct receiving hooks and locking hooks with complementary but differentiated geometries. This segmentation allows each profile type to be optimized independently for its specific function while maintaining overall compatibility, reducing the stringency of universal precision requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs asymmetric hook designs where the receiving hook and locking hook have different geometries tailored to their specific functions. The receiving hook features a receiving surface that accommodates the locking hook's engagement surface, creating a asymmetric but complementary pair that simplifies installation while maintaining manufacturing feasibility.
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
Enables easier and more secure assembly of floor panels with a gap-free surface, utilizing the elasticity of the plastic carrier to maintain panel flatness and stability during installation, reducing the complexity of the joining process.
Implementation Method 1
utilizing the elasticity of the plastic carrier to maintain panel flatness and stability during installation
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2a~2b
Figure 3a~3b
AI summary
The invention relates to a floor panel (1) which is designed as a multi-ply laminate and comprises at least one plastic support (30), a décor layer (31) applied to a top face of the plastic support, a transparent covering layer (32) applied to the décor layer, and a backing layer (33) applied to the lower face of the plastic support, the panel having pairs of opposite lateral edges (3, 4; 5, 6) comprising complementary holding profiles. The holding profiles of at least one of the two lateral edge pairs are designed as form-locking complementary hook-type profiles and comprise a receiving hook (9) which faces the top face (2) of the floor panel, and a locking hook (10), arranged on the opposite lateral edge, which faces the lower face (7) of the floor panel. The locking hook (10) comprises a snap-in element (12, 13, 14) on a distal lateral face (11), said snap-in element being associated with a complementary snap-in element (22, 23, 21) on a proximal lateral face (20) of the hook profile having the receiving hook.