DE102019005505B4 - Process for the manufacture and attachment of tile or mosaic mesh - Google Patents

Abstract

Process for the production of mosaic nets comprising a carrier material (1) with a pressure-sensitive adhesive pattern (2) applied thereto, a lattice-like scrim or fabric (3), a release liner (4) and tesserae (5) in the following steps:
- Provision of the carrier material (1) with a pressure-sensitive adhesive pattern (2) on it
- Application of a scrim or fabric (3) to the pressure-sensitive adhesive pattern (2)
- Applying a release liner (4) to the scrim or fabric (3) and uniform pressing of the release liner.
- Reverse this sequence of layers so that the carrier material (1) is then on top
- Removal of the carrier material (1)
- Applying the mosaic stones (5) to the adhesive lines and nodes of the scrim (3)

Description

The method according to the invention describes a process for the production and attachment of tile or mosaic nets. If tiles, mosaics and nets or panels of tiles or mosaics are mentioned in the further text, these terms are to be understood as synonyms and interchangeable

A network of tesserae consists of a planar arrangement of individual more or less large tesserae on a flat surface. Such an arrangement may result in a particular pattern for a single net, possibly some pattern may result from the arrangement of multiple nets, but an arrangement without a pattern is equally possible. The tesserae are attached individually or arranged in a net to floors or walls, and in extreme cases also to ceilings. They are usually found inside buildings, less often outside. The tesserae themselves can be in a wide variety of geometric shapes or colors, they can be of different sizes and weights. Mosaics can be made of stone, marble, ceramic, glass or similar materials. They are used for architectural-aesthetic reasons or for functional reasons (e.g. to protect against moisture or to increase strength).

At present, such mosaic nets are produced using liquid adhesives, a method that is also frequently described in the patent literature: So there WO 2011/148338 A1 an overview of various patent applications that describe the manual production of mosaic nets using liquid adhesives. Liquid adhesive is applied to the back of the mosaic stones, with the help of which these stones are then glued to a surface or a wall, for example. Certain disadvantages are of course associated with this, such as the problem of precise dosing of the adhesive, possible contamination of the area around the adhesive or the need for additional work steps to produce a firm adhesive connection, which is also associated with a greater expenditure of time before further processing is possible. In order to overcome such disadvantages, an automated process is proposed here in which a robot-like adhesive device applies the adhesive in lines by injection from the side onto an adhesive-repellent substrate, on which the tesserae are then attached with their backing. This enables the tesserae to be positioned precisely without them having to be turned again, and the effort involved in cleaning the surrounding area, for example, is also significantly lower than with other known liquid bonding methods.

EP 2 390 110 A1 describes a mosaic panel consisting of a panel that is provided with square honeycombs, which are arranged in lines and columns and are each intended to accommodate a mosaic element. These elements are connected to each other by an elastic film that adheres to the decorative side of said elements and that is removed after the panel has been positioned in the intended place.

EP 2 259 932 B1 Claims the manufacturing process of an arrangement of mosaics on a base in the form of a foil, for example. The mosaics are attached to this base by means of a sprayed or printed liquid adhesive and its subsequent hardening, for example by heat or UV radiation. The purpose of this system is on the one hand a safe transport of the mosaics and on the other hand a simpler and error-free application at the respective destination.

A mechanical device for attaching support and protective elements to mosaics is the subject of the WO 2009/136 420 A1 . These elements are arranged on a continuous strip, taken from it and placed on the visible side of mosaics located on another strip. The elements are equipped with removable adhesive on both sides, so that they can be detached from the continuous strip mentioned on the one hand and from the visible surface of the mosaics on the other. The exact timing of the two strips with the supporting and protective elements and with the mosaics makes it possible to produce mosaic panels very quickly and efficiently.

As the closest prior art WO 2011/123778 A2 identified: A multi-layer laminate for the manufacture and processing of mosaic tiles is claimed here. This laminate consists of a plastic lattice with adhesive applied to it by means of a nozzle and thus tesserae attached to the lattice, as well as a support structure with a second plastic lattice that is adhesive on both sides. The mosaic stones are now applied to the first adhesive side of the support structure and fixed there. The second adhesive side is covered with a release liner, i.e. an adhesive-repellent paper or an adhesive-repellent protective film. This liner is removed before the entire laminate of mosaic stones, first plastic grid and support structure with second plastic grid is adhesively attached to a floor or wall. That second sticky side replaces the mortar commonly used to fix mosaics.

From the EP 1 035 269 A2 a membrane is known which has a first layer of an adhesive composition and a second layer of a mesh, the mesh being directly embedded in a surface of the first layer and the adhesive composition being contactable through the meshes of the mesh.

From the EP 3 023 260 A1 a mosaic panel for wall and floor coverings and a device for assembling individual panels to form the mosaic panel is known.

However, none of these documents describes a method for producing mosaic nets using a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape with a patterned adhesive application and a single plastic grid.

1. 1 = Trägermaterial/Release Liner 1
2. 2 = Gemusterte Haftklebstofffläche
3. 3 = Gelege/Gewebe
4. 4 = Release Liner 2
5. 5 = Mosaiksteine

The inventive method is based on the 1 until 5 described and includes the following steps, the reference numbers used in the drawings are to be understood as follows:

1. 1 = carrier material/release liner 1
2. 2 = Patterned pressure sensitive adhesive area
3. 3 = scrim/fabric
4. 4 = release liner 2
5. 5 = tesserae

First of all, an adhesive tape coated on one side in a pattern with pressure-sensitive adhesive (2), in which the adhesive is applied to a release liner (1) or another carrier material from which the adhesive (2) can be easily detached, is placed on a smooth, placed flat underlay so that the adhesive side (2) on the side opposite the underlay is exposed at the top. Such an adhesive tape can be, for example, the "DuploCOLL TP 258" from "Lohmann GmbH & Co.KG", consisting of a synthetic rubber pressure-sensitive adhesive which is applied in strips approx. 0.05 mm thick to silicone paper approx. 0.07 mm thick (1) was applied. Both the distance between the adhesive strips and their width is approx. 3 mm. The synthetic rubber pressure-sensitive adhesive has a very good tack, i.e. very good tack. "Tack" describes how quickly an adhesive bond is formed when the adhesive comes into contact with the surface to be bonded for the first time. A high tack is present when a very strong connection is created even with minimal pressure and a very short pressure. The tack is measured in the 90° peel test based on DIN EN 28510-1, AFERA 4025, EN 1945 or ASTM D 2979 in the currently valid version or in the "rolling ball tack test". Procedure. In the present case, the adhesive has a very high tack, especially on rubber, on extruded plastic and on surfaces such as stone, marble, glass, etc., i.e. surfaces that are typical for mosaics. In principle, however, other pressure-sensitive adhesives can also be used here, provided they enable quick, reliable and permanent bonding of mosaics and their easy redetachability. Both the application weight of the pressure-sensitive adhesives and the pattern of the adhesive application are in principle variables that can be adapted to the surface types of the mosaics, as well as to their size and weight, so the adhesive application could also be dot-like, for example.

In the second step, this adhesive application is covered by a grid (3), which is fixed to the adhesive surface (2) under uniform pressure. This grid (3) consists of a woven fabric or scrim - both terms are to be understood as synonymous in the further description - from an arrangement of warp and weft threads, which are arranged at a certain distance and angle to each other.

The use of a grid in connection with the production of larger mosaic composites composed of individual tesserae or their processing on a wall or on a floor is known. In the prior art, such grids are impregnated or soaked with a liquid adhesive, which in turn is used to fix the mosaics on these networks. The disadvantages of this method are the general disadvantages of using liquid adhesives: precise dosing is hardly possible and contamination of the area around the bond or of surfaces that are not to be bonded is often the case, so that increased cleaning effort is necessary. In addition, this type of bonding involves increased time and/or process expenditure, which is reflected in a certain waiting time until the desired adhesive bond is achieved and/or the use of drying or curing technologies. Practical experience also shows that the reliability of fixing the mosaics with the help of previously known nets soaked in liquid adhesive leaves a lot to be desired: the mosaics often come loose before the nets are fixed at their respective destination, so that in such cases time-consuming post-processing by hand is necessary

• - die gewichts- und flächenmäßigen Dimensionen der Mosaiksteine (5)
• - die Notwendigkeit, dass für die spätere Verklebung der Mosaiknetze zwischen den Klebeflächen ausreichend klebstofffreie Flächen verbleiben, in die der zur endgültigen Befestigung auf Böden oder an Wänden benötigte Mörtel fließen kann - als ausreichend haben sich in Handversuchen 50% bis 80% der Gesamtfläche erwiesen.
• - die Oberflächenart und -beschaffenheit der zu verklebenden Mosaike (5)

In the process of the invention allow not only the selection of the type of adhesive, but also its pattern application (2) and the pattern of the grid (3), ie the distance and the Angle between the warp and weft threads a certain individualization of the manufacturing process according to the invention in each case tailored to in particular:

• - the weight and area dimensions of the tesserae (5)
• - the need for sufficient adhesive-free areas to remain between the adhesive surfaces for later gluing of the mosaic nets, into which the mortar required for final attachment to floors or walls can flow - manual tests have shown that 50% to 80% of the total area is sufficient.
• - the surface type and texture of the mosaics to be bonded (5)

A fabric (3) that was tested in connection with the method according to the invention and proved to be well suited is “Articolo 0075-A” from “Gavazzi Tessuti Tecnici SpA”. The lattice fabric (3) consists of glass fibers and has a raw weight of about 75 g/m ² or a weight after an anti-alkaline coating of about 90 g/m ² . The distance between the warp and weft threads is about 4 mm in width and about 5 mm in height. The stretching power of the threads is around 4.5%, the tear strength of the warp threads is around 1450 N/5 cm and the weft threads are around 1550 N/5 cm.

In the next process step, the fabric (3) applied to the adhesive pattern (2) is covered with a commercially available release liner (4). This is applied under uniform pressure to the fabric (3), the threads of which are thereby pressed to some extent into the adhesive pattern (1), while where there are no threads the adhesive is in contact with the release liner (4). comes, as a result of which the entire construct finally adheres to the release liner (4). As a result, a composite of four layers that are in contact with one another is created: carrier material (1) with adhesive in a specific pattern (2) - scrim (3) - release liner (4).

This composite is now reversed so that the carrier material (1) forms the top layer and the release liner (4) the bottom. The carrier material (1) is now detached from the composite. The side of the fabric (3), which was originally pressed into the adhesive surface (2) of the adhesive tape and which then also gives threads and knots adhesive, is now freely accessible as an open side and enables the fixing of mosaic stones (5) on the Scrim (3), so that finally a network of connected mosaic stones (5) is created.

This entire process can be automated in a simple manner with suitable machine technology, but the production of such a mosaic network can also be done manually.

Finally, the respective mosaic grids can be packed and either stored or shipped directly.

For permanent and reliable attachment of the mosaic grid nets to walls or floors at their final destination, the nets are finally fixed to these walls or floors in the mortar already applied thereto, while exerting a certain pressure. As a result, the warp and weft threads are pressed into the mortar and the surfaces surrounding these threads are firmly connected to the mortar.

• - Das erfindungsgemäße System ist kostengünstiger als andere Systeme, die mit zwei Gitternetzen oder auch mit Flüssigklebstoffen arbeiten.
• - Das System ist sehr flexibel insofern als es leicht anpassbar ist beispielsweise an die Dimensionen, Gewichte und Oberflächenbeschaffenheiten der Mosaiksteine.
• - Das System bietet eine deutlich exaktere und dadurch auch reproduzierbarere Lösung zur Herstellung von Mosaiknetzen gegenüber Systemen, die Flüssigklebstoff verwenden.
• - Das System ermöglicht eine exzellente Befestigung der Mosaiknetze auf Böden oder an Wänden, dadurch dass der Befestigungsmörtel die klebstofffreien Flächen gut benetzen und ausfüllen kann. Der dadurch gegebene großflächige Kontakt der miteinander zu verklebenden Flächen bewirkt deren dauerhafte und verlässliche Verbindung.

Compared to existing methods, the process described here offers a number of advantages:

• - The system of the invention is cheaper than other systems that work with two grids or with liquid adhesives.
• - The system is very flexible in that it is easily adaptable to, for example, the dimensions, weights and surface finishes of the tesserae.
• - The system offers a significantly more precise and therefore more reproducible solution for the production of mosaic nets compared to systems that use liquid adhesive.
• - The system enables an excellent fixing of the mosaic nets on the floor or on walls, as the fixing mortar can wet and fill the non-adhesive surfaces well. The resulting large-area contact of the surfaces to be bonded together results in a permanent and reliable connection.

Claims (6)

Process for the production of mosaic nets, comprising a carrier material (1) with a pressure-sensitive adhesive pattern (2) applied thereto, a grid-like scrim or fabric (3), a release liner (4) and tesserae (5) in the following steps: - providing the carrier material (1) with pressure-sensitive adhesive pattern (2) on it - application of a scrim or fabric (3) to the pressure-sensitive adhesive pattern (2) - application of a release liner (4) to the scrim or fabric (3) and uniform pressing of the release liner. - Reverse this sequence of layers so that the carrier material (1) is then on top - Remove the carrier material (1) - Apply the mosaic stones (5) to the adhesive lines and nodes of the fabric (3) Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the pattern of the adhesive application (2) is a line or point pattern. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the pressure-sensitive adhesive pattern (2) occupies a total of 20 to 50% of the area of the carrier material (1). Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the pressure-sensitive adhesive is a synthetic rubber adhesive. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the grid-like scrim or fabric (3) consists of glass fibres. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the method can be mechanical or manual.

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