GB2187219A - Floor tile or panel with edge of base tray enfolded with edge of lid - Google Patents

Abstract

An improved floor tile or panel comprising a metal tray 1 having a downwardly depending lip (10 Fig 1B) around its perimeter around which is folded the edge portion (20, 21 Fig 2A) of a lid (15 Fig 2A) to attach the lid to the tray and encapsulate an infill material (14) therein. A method of making such a tile is also described. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improved flooring tile or panel This invention relates to an improved flooring tile or panel and particularly to a tile which can be used in an access flooring system.

Access flooring systems are used to provide an overfloor underwhich services such as ducting, electrical cabling orotherwiring can befitted.

Floortiles are known which comprise a metal tray with an infill material in it, such as a piece of wood, plywood, chipboard or blockboard, the tray being covered bya lid which is glued tothe infill material but these tiles are expensive to manufacture as the gluing steps have to be done by hand and the glued tiles then have to be placed in a power press for sometime until the glue has set which is very time consuming and labour intensive.

It is therefore an object ofthe invention to provide an improvedfloortile/panel.

According to the invention there is provided a floor tile comprising a metal traywith an upstanding edge around its perimetertowhich a lid is irremovably attached by means otherthan welding to encapsulate an infill material within the tile. Desirably, the lid has a folded-over edge portion which engages the upper edge of the tray side wall.

Preferablythetray has a flange around its periphery to which the lid is attached. Conveniently the flange extendsaroundthewholeperipheryofthetraybutit will be appreciated-that an interrupted flange could be used or alternatively a flange on opposite sides of the tray is possible.

Theflangeandthelid may be crimped together but preferably the upper edge of the tray side wall is outwardly folded back on itself to entrap the free edge ofthe lid.

The invention also provides a method of making a floor panel comprising the steps of inserting an infill material into a metal traywith an upstanding sidewall around its perimeter, fitting a metal lid to said tray and irremovably attaching itto the side wall other than by weldingtoencapsulatetheinfill material within the tile. Desirably, the lid has an edge portion which is folded over so that it engage the upper edge ofthe sidewall ofthetray.

Preferably, the tray has a laterally extending flange thereon and the lid includes a downwardly depending lip at its edge portion which, after fitting ofthe lid to the tray, is folded underneath thetrayflange, said flange then being folded down against the upstanding sidewall ofthetraywherebythe lid lip is trapped between the upstanding tray side wall and the tray flange so as to be irremovable therefrom.

Throughoutthe specification, the word "irremovable" is used to mean that, once the tray is assembled, it can not be readily dismantled without damaging the tile.

A preferred tile method of manufacture thereofwill now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure lisa plan view of a blankfromwhich the tray ofthe panel can be formed; Figure 1 A is a cross section through the tray blank of Figure 1 but deformed into a first shape; Figure 1 B shows the tray blank of Figure 1 deformed into a second final shape; Figure 2 shows a tray lid blank; Figure 2Ashowsthetray lid blankofFigure2 deformed into a first shape; Figure 3 shows an assembled floor tile in accord ante with the present invention; and Figures 4A-4D show the steps required to manufacture the assembled floor tile of Figure 3.

Referring to Figure 3, there is shown a floortile in accordance with the invention which comprises a metal tray 1 having upstanding side walls including a lower portion 11 and an upper portion 13. An infill material 14 is placed insidethetray and this can be a piece of any suitable rigid material capable of bearing a load such as a rigid foam, plywood, blockboard, chipboard or a piece of wood, plastics material or other suitable composite material. A lid 15 is fitted to the top of the tray 1 toencapsulatetheinfill material 14 therein, edge portions 20, 21 ofthe lid being folded overin conjunction with thetray sidewall and its flange 10 to'secure the lid onthetray so that it is irremovable therefrom.

Figure 1 shows a blankforforming the metal tray 1 and itwill beseenthatthiscomprisesa metal base having edge flaps 2,3,4,5. Each flap is undercut at 23 toenabletheblankto be deformed intotheshape shown in Figure 1 B to provide the bevelled lower side wall portion 11.

The blank of Figure 1 is formed into the finished shape shown in Figure 1 B in two stages, the first stage being shown in Figure 1Awhere each flap 2, 3, 4, 5, is deformed along lines 8, 12, to provide laterally an extending flange 10 and an upper side wall portion 13.

Thereafter, during a second deforming operation, the partly formed blank of Figure 1Aisfurtherdeformed into the final tray shape shown in Figure 1 B.

The provision of the bevelled lower side wall portion 11 in the illustrated embodiment is only preferred and it will be appreciated that the tray blank can be altered in outline to provide a tray with either plane upstand ing side walls or side walls of a different configuration to that shown.

Referring nowto Figure 2, there is shown a blank 15 for forming a lid to be fitted to the tray just described with reference to Figure 1. This blank has four side flaps 1 6,1 7,1 8,1 9 each of which is deformed during an initial forming step into the shape shown in Figure 2Ato provide a downwardiy depending peripheral flange 20 and an inclined section 21 connected to the central lid section 15. The significance of the shape shown in Figure 2Awill become apparent when the method of manufacture ofthe floor tile ofthe invention is described shortly.

Referring nowto Figure4Ato 4D, the various manufacturing steps to produce the floor tile shown in Figure 3 using the tray blank of Figure 1 and the tray lid of Figu re 2 can be seen.

First of all a tray 1 ofthe shape shown in Figure 1 B is placed between upper and lowertools 24 and 25 on a pressure pad 26 supported on springs 27. The infill material 14will normally have already been placed inside the tray atthis stage but it can be inserted while the tray is on the tool if required. The tray lid 15 (partly pre-shaped as shown in Figure 2A) is then placed on top of the tray as shown in Figure 1 and the top tool 24 is lowered to the position shown in Figure4B where the upwardly inclined section 21 of the lid is pressed downwardly bythetool 24so that it becomes coplanar with the central section ofthe lid 15. The effect of doing this isto fold the edge portion 20 ofthe lid underneath the laterally extending flange 10 ofthe tray.Further depression ofthetop tool 24 into the position shown in Figure 4C folds the perimeter portion 20 of the lid hard up against the underside of thetrayflange 10 as illustrated. At this stage, the springs 27 are fully compressed and the pressure pad 26 is fully depressed againstthe bottom tool 25. The infill material 14 is now totally encapsulated within the floor tile but it still has an outwardly laterally extending lip around it comprising thetrayflange 10 and the edge portions 20 and 21 of the lid. These portions need to be folded down into the position shown in Figure 3 and this is done using a tool such as that shown in Figure 4D which comprises a lower support plate 33 and an uppertool 30 to engage the top plane surface ofthe lid 15.The tool also has peripheral side pieces 31 with a bottom surface 32 which initially contacts the laterally extending por tions 10,20,21 ofthetileto fold them down into a generally vertical disposition where the lid edge portion 21 abuts the upstanding portion 13 ofthetray sidewall. (See Figure3).

This completes the assembly process ofthetile and it can be seen that the infill material 14 is totally encapsulated within it in a mannerwhich should preventthe ingress ofthe atmosphere to the core of the tile. This rolling over and cleating/folding of the edge portion ofthe lid to the bottom tray provides a good way of secu ring the lid to the tray and results in a better external appearance as there are no sharp edges. It also makes the tile cheaper to manufacture as production can be fully automated and the known prior art gluing step can be omitted.

it should be appreciatedthatthe invention is not restricted to a floortile of the configuration shown in the drawings. The essence of the invention is the provision of a metal tile in which the lid is attached to the bottom tray, preferably by rolling over and cleating the edge portion of the lid to a flange on the tray bottom. This can be achieved in anysuitableway for instance as just described or by crimping the edge portions of the lid and bottom tray together.

By varying the thickness ofthe metal used for the tray and the lid in combination with the infill material, substantial savings in material costs can be made without affecting the strength and rigidity ofthe tile.

Claims (12)

1. Afloortile or panel comprising a metal tray with an upstanding edge around its perimeterto which a lid is removably attached by means otherthan welding to encapsulate an infil I material within the tile.

2. Atile as claimed in claim 1 wherein the lid has a folded-over edge portion which engages the upper edge ofthetray side wall.

3. Atile as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2wherein thetray has a flange around its periphery to which the lid is attached.

4. Atileasclaimed inclaim3whereintheflange extends continuously around the whole periphery of the tray.

5. A tile as claimed in claim 1 orclaim 2wherein a flange is provided on two opposite sides ofthe tray.

6. Atileasclaimed in anyoneofclaimsd wherein the or each flange and the lid are crimped together.

7. A file as claimed in any one of claims 2-5 wherein the upperedge ofthetray side wail is outwardly folded back on itself to entrap the free edge ofthe lid and irremovably attach itto the tray.

8. Afloortile or panel substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

9. A method of making a floortile or panel comprising the steps of inserting an infill material into a metal tray with an upstanding side wall around its perimeter, fitting a metal lid to said tray and irremovably attaching ittothesidewali otherthan bywelding to encapsulate the infill material within the tile.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9 wherein the lid has an edge portion which is folded over so that it engagesthe upper edge of the side wall ofthetray.

11. A method as claimed in claim 10 wherein the edge portion includes a laterally extending flange and the lid includes a downwardly depending lip at its edge portion which, afterfitting of the lid to the tray containing infill material, is folded underneath the tray flange, said flange then being folded down againstthe upstanding side wall of the tray whereby the lid lip is trapped between the upstanding tray side wall and the tray flange so as to be irremovable therefrom.

12. A method of making afloortile or panel substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.