Wooden strip for floors and panelling made up of a combination of wooden elements with their fibres at right-angles and elements with their fibres parallel with respect to the visible face

Abstract

 This invention concerns a strip of wood for floors and panelling composed mainly of thin elements cut across the grain and glued to­gether, to which one or more wooden elements are glued with their fibres parallel to the plane of the visible face, these elements be­ing placed longitudinally with respect to the strip, and/or one or more wooden elements with their fibres parallel to the plane of the visible face positioned transversally with respect to the strip.

Description

[0001] The object of this patent application for an industrial utility model is a wooden strip for floors and panelling made up of a combin­ation of wooden elements cut at right-angles to the grain and wooden elements with their fibres parallel to the visible face.

[0002] The production of this artefact represents a considerable step forward in the techniques belonging to the sector and makes it possible in an advantageous yet simple fashion to utilize the considerable es­thetic and functional properties of wood cut across the grain, or in other words, with its fibres running at right-angles to the visible face.

[0003] The importance of the invention will appear particularly evi­dent following a general summary of the previously adopted techniques.

[0004] In fact, still today, despite the interest aroused among consum­ers with regard to its undeniable esthetic qualities and its strength, the use of wood with its fibres at right-angles to the visible face has never been adequately diffuse in the construction of floors and other similar types of panelling due to the apparently insurmountable technical difficulties it poses.

[0005] These difficulties arise, first of all, from the tendency of fibres lying in this manner to very easily absorb moisture; other difficulties depend on the fact that the dimensions of the artefact undergo considerable modifications,much greater than those charac­teristic of fibres set in the traditional manner, parallel to the plane of the visible face.

[0006] The outcome of the earliest attempts to construct floors in wood cut across the grain were items in the form of rather thick straight­ forward, rather thick blocks of natural wood, of which the dimensions, seen from above, were only a few centimetres.

[0007] One face of these elements in wood cut across the grain is glued to the underlying cement while the other constitutes the vis­ible face; the blocks remain independent, i.e. are not connected to one another.

[0008] The aim of these traditional methods is not to combat wood shrink­age , but, by using pieces of considerable thickness, to prevent as far as possible the small blocks from coming unstuck as a result of the precarious nature of the adhesion between wood cut across the grain and cement (or the like).

[0009] Professor Gugliemo Giordano then produced and patented a strip (the exclusive rights to which were subsequently bought by the comp­any that holds this patent application) capable of eliminating many of these disadvantages, going beyond the point at which the techni­ques used in the sector had remained stable for some time.

[0010] This strip was in fact obtained by using thin elements in high quality wood with its grain at right-angles to the visible face; these elements were positioned side by side and glued to one another so as to form a strip with different possible decorative patterns on the visible face, according to the various combinations of said elements cut across the grain.

[0011] Such an artefact in itself constituted a notable technical and esthetic evolution in that it could be used to obtain functional re­sults, and, above all, decorative ones of considerable value, and furthermore similar to those previously obtained in floors using whole blocks of wood cut across the grain by means of the complex and precarious positioning technique previously mentioned.

[0012] Such a structure, however, still seemed to be penalised by cer­tain drawbacks; in fact, especially when produced in pieces of very limited thickness, it proved to be rather fragile, to the extent of easily breaking during handling before and during the positioning procedure.

[0013] Furthermore, this artefact, like anything made from wood cut across the grain for that matter, was rather sensitive to climatic variations, to the extent of being subject to bending and deformat­tion, although this was limited to the period prior to its final pos­itioning.

[0014] However, not even the precaution of mounting this strip onto a supporting base, preferably an item made for this purpose providing for easy mounting (also the object of specific patent applications in the name of Prof. Gugliemo Giordano, bought by the applicant com­pany) has given really satisfactory results in that such a base, even if it did endow the strip with additional strength, was still subject to the negative effects of deformation on the part of said strip.

[0015] In other words, the tensions that developed in the high quality wooden strip were offloaded onto the underlying base which generally bent longitudinally; the very presence of this curvature then rend­ered the positioning of the entire high quality strip/base composit­ion particularly difficult.

[0016] In the face of these persistent drawbacks, following a detailed study, the solution according to the invention was proposed, an ex­tremely radical solution which not only enables the problem of strip deformation to be definitively overcome, but also enables particul­arly brilliant results to be obtained both with regard to the esthet­ic quality of the artifact and its versatility, thus rendering it suitable for a wide variety of applications.

[0017] Thus, a high quality wooden strip has been produced composed predominately of wooden elements cut across the grain and glued to one another, also bearing however, in combination with said wooden elements cut across the grain, a number of elements with their fibres running parallel to the plane of the visible face, glued to the strip both in longitudinal and transversal directions.

[0018] The aim of the presence of said elements with their fibres para­llel to the visible face is to 'bind' the elements cut across the grain , acting in practice as stays for the entire strip.

[0019] In addition to guaranteeing better resistance to slip for the whole artefact, the action of these elements with parallel fibres, of the same limited thickness, naturally, as those elements cut across the grain, also aims to prevent deformation of the strip as said elements are capable of preventing any undue shifting of said pieces cut across the grain, or at least, of limiting the effects of such deformations by dispersing them over the whole surface of the artefact.

[0020] It can therefore be affirmed that the presence on the invention of elements with fibres parallel to the plane of the visible face radically eliminates the principal drawbacks of the previous version of the strip, in that they enable an artifact to be obtained that, however thin and therefore elastic, is endowed with considerable strength and, at the same time, they eliminate the risk that deform­ation on the part of this new strip may also affect a supporting base, causing it to bend in an undesirable fashion.

[0021] Furthermore, it is clear that these elements arranged with their fibres parallel to the visible face, whether transversal or longitud­inal, if applied to an artefact of this kind, would help to enor­mously increase its esthetic value, thus becoming useful specific decoartive elements able to form a pattern composed of pleasing geo­metrical motifs on the visible face of the strip in question.

[0022] In any case, the artefact produced according to the invention, with its high degree of stability, may be used with good results, even as a single element of limited thickness made up of just the upper wooden layer; the latter is particularly suitable for use in all circumstances where heavy loads due to trampling by feet are for­seen.

[0023] Apart from its considerable possibilities of use as a single piece, the strip according to the invention, the advantages of which should now be sufficiently clear, may be used to its best advantage when set in place according to the wooden floor assembly technique introduced by the same Prof. Gugliemo Giordano who, as previously mentioned, has already presented specific patent applications to en­sure the exclusive rights to this method of procedure which, over re­cent years, has proved to be extremely functional, obtaining a consid­erable degree of success with the public and on the market.

[0024] According to this assembly technique, a strip of high quality wood, like the one just mentioned, can be put onto a plywood base of the type described in the aforementioned patent applications in the name of Prof. Gugliemo Giordano, to then be positioned in combination with other similar strips, also mounted onto longitudinal plywood bases, conveniently taking advantage of the groove-and-tongue joints with which said plywood pieces are equipped.

[0025] To sum up, as a result of this method, it is possible to obtain a technically valid artefact of exceptional stability. In addition to the high degree of stability, the adhesion of the strip of high quality wood to the base is guaranteed in that the presence of the wood with parallel fibres on the visible surface and on the surface to which the adhesive is applied, leads to a notable increase in the power of adhesion of the assembly.

[0026] To conclude,the ease with which each single strip of the type in question may be produced should also be emphasised, in that in a preferred embodiment , it can easily be obtained by slicing a com­posite loaf-like structure made by glueing together a large number of wooden blocks with their grain at right-angles to the cutting plane, duly interposed and/or covered externally with a layer of wood with its grain running longitudinally in relation to the aforesaid plane.

[0027] It is clear that, employing the same construction technique, the artefact according to the invention may be made in many different configurations, and therefore not only on the form of a longitudinal strip but also as a tile of differing shapes and dimensions, as long as thay are compatible with the technical characteristics of the in­vention.

[0028] For greater clarity of explanation the description of the inven­tion proceeds with reference to the enclosed tables of drawings pro­vided for illustrative and not limitative purposes, wherein;

-figs. 1,2 and 3 are schematic illustrations of three of the count­less possible combinations obtained by glueing together elements with the grain at right-angles and elements with the grain parallel to the visible face in order to make a strip according to the inven­tion, wherein the elements with the grain at right-angles are always predominant;

-fig.4 is a schematic illustration of the composite loaf-like struc­ture which, when sliced, produces the strips according to the in­vention.

[0029] With reference to the enclosed figures, the number (1) indicates the areas of the strips made from one or more elements with the grain at right-angles in relation to the visible face, glued to­gether and then attached, again by means of glueing, to elements with the grain parallel to the visible face and arranged transvers­ally (2) and longitudinally (3) in relation to the actual strip.

[0030] With particular reference to fig.4, the loaf-like structure(10) which, when thinly sliced produces a number of strips (10a), is com­posed of numerous blocks of wood (1a) with the grain at right-angles to the cutting plane, duly interposed and/or covered externally with wooden layers (2a) and (3a) with fibres parallel in relation to the aforementioned plane.

Claims

1) Wooden strip for floors and panelling made up of a combination of wooden elements with their fibres at right-angles and elements with their fibres parallel with respect to the visible face, characterised by the fact that upon a structure formed predominantly of thin elements cut across the grain (1) and glued together, one or more wooden ele­ments (3) with their grain parallel to the visible face are glued and positioned longitudinally in relation to the strip and/or one or more wooden elements (2) with their grain parallel to the visible face, pos­itioned transversally in relation to the strip, it having been pro­vided that one (2) or the other (3) type of the aforementioned ele­ments with fibres parallel to the visible face can occupy an inter­mediate position or external position in relation to the zones com­posed of elements (1) with fibres at right-angles to the visible face.

Drawing