WO2019115940A1 - Tool for spreading a plaster - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a tool for spreading a plaster on a surface, comprising a gripping means attached to a plate extending in a first direction and a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, said plate comprising a working surface and a gripping surface, characterized in that the working surface has a radius of curvature making it convex, this radius of curvature being constant in the first direction, and in that said plate is made of a plastics material.

Description

 TOOL FOR DISPLAYING A COATING

The present invention relates to the field of tools for spreading a coating on a wall of a wall, floor or ceiling or on a structure attached to the wall, floor or ceiling.

PRIOR ART

 It is known trowels or floats 1 to apply a coating on a wall. Such a trowel consists of a plate 2 or thin blade on which is fixed a handle 3 as shown in Figure 1. The thin blade may have various shapes such as a rectangular or substantially triangular shape.

 Currently, the thin blade is made of metal or metal alloy and the handle is fixed on the thin blade or on an intermediate base attached to the thin blade by welding or soldering or gluing or screwing.

 The use of this trowel is to place an optimum amount of plaster on the wall and manipulate the trowel to spread the plaster. For this, the user tilts the trowel relative to the surface of the wall to spread said coating while giving it a desired thickness.

 However, the dosage of the desired thickness is not simple. One solution is to make a crenellated tooth type 4 on one side of the thin blade, more particularly on the side of the thin blade in contact with the wall during the display operation of the coating. This toothing allows better dosage thickness of the coating since it allows to partially pass the coating through the crenellations. In addition, during the application of the coating and its display, the user inclines more or less the trowel. This gives the user better control over the thickness of plaster on the wall.

 However, this trowel according to the prior art has several disadvantages.

Firstly, the use of the teeth makes the trowel easier to use but does not guarantee a constant coating thickness. Indeed, the maximum thickness of plaster is allowed when the plate is perpendicular to the surface to be coated. Thus, the inclination of the plate relative to the surface to be coated modifies this thickness. Therefore, during the display of the coating, a change in the inclination causes a change in the thickness applied.

 Then, the contact, friction of the toothing with the wall causes the appearance of wear at the level of the toothing. This wear makes the teeth less regular and leads to less precise control.

 In addition, this toothing makes cleaning the trowel less simple. Indeed, with a normal trowel, cleaning is not easy because the corners of the thin blade can bump against the corners of the bucket or get stuck in the sponge cause deterioration of the bucket and / or sponge but also a possible deterioration of said corners. However, with the presence of the teeth, the risk of deteriorating the sponge increases.

 Therefore, these problems of wear or deterioration require frequent replacement of the equipment.

 This wear also presents a danger for the applicator in that it sharpens the teeth, especially during cleaning.

 Likewise, the friction of the metal on a rough substrate is noisy and can become troublesome for the applicator

 The trowel according to the prior art by its metallic composition is heavy to handle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention therefore proposes to solve these drawbacks by providing a trowel that is effective in controlling the thickness of the coating to be spread while ensuring a more comfortable use and a low cost of the tool. .

To this end, the invention relates to a tool for displaying a coating on a surface comprising a gripping means attached to a plate extending in a first direction and a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, said plate comprising a work surface and a gripping surface, said plate further comprising a toothing extending over a side of the plate extending in the first direction, characterized in that the working surface has, in the second direction, a constant or evolving hollow profile in the first direction, and in that said plate is made of a material deformable elastic plastic.

 The present invention has the advantage of allowing a more effective deposit of the coating. Indeed, the recessed surface causes a position of the tool relative to the surface to be spread which is more constant correcting the natural inclination of the hand.

 In one example, the section of the plate in the second direction comprises at least a first portion and a second portion.

 In one example, said first portion is rectilinear and said second portion is curved.

 According to an example, said first portion is rectilinear and said second portion is rectilinear, the first portion and the second portion being intersecting.

 In one example, the section of the plate in the second direction further comprises a third portion, rectilinear and arranged to be contiguous and secant to the first portion.

 In one example, the section is arranged so that the working surface has a radius of curvature making it concave, this radius of curvature being constant in the second direction.

 In one example, the gripping surface has a radius of curvature making it convex, this radius of curvature being constant in the second direction.

 In one example, the radius of curvature of the gripping surface is equal to the radius of curvature of the work surface.

 In one example, the recessed profile is constant in the first direction.

 In one example, said toothing further extends on one side of the plate in the second direction.

 In one example, said toothing extends in the extension of the working surface.

In one example, the gripping means comprise a gripping ball attached to the plate. According to one example, the gripping means comprise an L-shaped handle having a point of attachment with the plate.

 In one example, the gripping means comprise a U-shaped handle having two attachment points with the plate and extending in the first direction.

 In one example, the gripping means are fixed by gluing.

In one example, the gripping means are fixed by screwing, said plate comprising on its working surface, for each attachment point, a blind hole for housing a screw.

 In one example, the gripping means and the plate are made of the same material.

 In one example, the gripping means and the plate are made of material.

 In one example, the handle extends in the first or second direction.

 According to one example, the elastically deformable plastic material has a flexural Young's modulus of between 25 and 2300 MPa, preferably between 25 and 250 MPa.

 According to one example, the elastically deformable plastic material is selected from the list comprising: TPO (olefinic thermoplastic elastomers), TPV (elastomeric alloy), PVC (polyvinyl chloride), SEBS (polystyrene-b-poly (ethylene-butylene) ) -b-polystyrene), NBR (butadiene-acrylonitrile copolymers), PEBA (Polyether block amide), EPDM (ethylene-propylene-diene monomer) rubbers.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Other particularities and advantages will emerge clearly from the description which is given hereinafter, by way of indication and in no way limiting, with reference to the appended drawings, in which:

 FIG. 1 is schematic representations of a tool according to the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of a tool according to the invention; -the figs. 3 and 4, 5a, 5b, 5c and 6 are schematic side views of two versions of the tool plate of the invention;

 -the figs. 7, 8a, 8b and 8c are representations of the tool according to the invention and its teeth;

 FIG. 9 is a schematic representation of the placement of the tool according to the prior art and the tool according to the invention with respect to a surface to be coated;

 -the figs. 10 to 13 are schematic representations of examples of gripping means of the tool according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In Figures 2 and 3 is shown the tool 100 for displaying a coating according to the present invention. This coating is spread on a wall, floor or ceiling, or on a wall, floor or ceiling structure. This tool 100 comprises a plate 200 for the display of the coating on which a gripping means 300 is associated allowing a user to manipulate said tool. The tool 100 can be a manipulable one-handed tool or a large tool manipulable two-handed.

 The plate 200 of the tool extends in a first direction called length and a second direction, orthogonal to the first direction and called width to obtain a substantially rectangular shape. It is understood that the plate 200 is longer than wide. This plate 200 comprises a working surface 201 on which the coating is placed and which serves to spread the coating and a gripping surface 202 on which the gripping means are fixed.

According to the invention, the plate 200 has a specific design. For this, the work surface 201 is designed not to be rectilinear. More specifically, the work surface 201 is designed to have a profile, in the second direction, recessed. Such hollow profile may be defined in that it has a space E between the working surface of the plate 200 and a plane P passing through the ends of said plate as visible in Figure 4, this plane P being, for example, the surface to be coated. In a first embodiment, the section of the plate 200, in the second direction, comprises at least a first portion 200a and a second portion 200b.

 According to a first example shown in FIG. 5a, said first portion 200a is rectilinear and said second portion 200b is rectilinear, the first portion and the second portion being intersecting.

 Preferably, the first portion, on which the gripping means are arranged, extends over a larger part of the plate than the second portion. For example, the first portion extends over at least 70% of the width of the plate 200, preferably at least 80%, preferably at least 90% and even more preferably at least 95%.

 The angle between the first portion and the second portion will be between 90 ° and 135 °.

 According to a second example shown in Figure 5b, the section of the plate in the second direction further comprises a third portion 200c, rectilinear and arranged to be contiguous and secant to the first portion. The tool 100 can thus be arranged so that the second portion 200b and the third portion 200c are not inclined in the same way relative to the first portion 200a.

 According to a third example shown in FIG. 5c, said first portion

200a is rectilinear and said second portion 200b is curved.

 In a second embodiment, the working surface 201 of the plate 200 is arranged to include a radius of curvature. This radius of curvature is realized so that the working surface 201 can be concave. The working surface 201 of the plate 200 is designed so that the radius of curvature is constant in the first direction.

In both embodiments, it should be understood that the recessed profile is constant or inconstant in the second direction. For example, for the first example of Figure 5a, an inconstant hollow profile means that the first portion 200a and the second portion 200b are secant in the second direction but the angle formed by these portions may vary. In the case of the second embodiment in which the working surface 201 of the plate 200 is curved and has a radius of curvature, it will be understood that this radius of curvature is uniform or not. A uniform radius of curvature is to have the same radius of curvature over the extent of the profile of the work surface.

 Regarding the gripping surface 202, it may be designed to be flat as can be seen in FIG. 3 or to also have a radius of curvature as can be seen in FIG. 6. In the case of a gripping surface 202 having a radius of curvature , it will be defined so that the gripping surface 202 is convex that is to say that the gripping surface 202 and the working surface 201 are parallel.

 Cleverly according to the invention, this arrangement of the working surface 201 of the plate 200 is accompanied by a specific choice for the material of which the plate is formed. Indeed, the plate is made of a flexible material, preferably a plastic material. This material will be chosen, for example, from the list comprising: TPO (olefinic thermoplastic elastomers), TPV (elastomeric alloy), PVC (polyvinyl chloride), SEBS (polystyrene-b-poly (ethylene-butylene) -b -polystyrene), PEBA (Polyether Block Amide), EPDM (ethylene-propylene-diene monomer) rubbers, NBR (butadiene-acrylonitrile copolymers, also called "nitrile rubbers"). Of course, the list of elastomeric materials above is not limiting and other plastic materials may be used depending on the design or the thicknesses.

 Thus, the material used is a plastic material whose bending Young's modulus is between 25 and 2300 MPa, preferably between 25 and 250 MPa. This material is advantageously elastically deformable, that is to say that the material is able to be deformed under the effect of a constraint and to resume its initial shape when the stress is relaxed.

This material is also chosen according to various properties such as fracture toughness ranging from 0.3 to 4 MPa.m ^{0 5} or a shore hardness A75-A90 or D25-D40. The use of such a material makes it possible to have a reduction of the force necessary for the display and a reduction of the noise. This reduction in noise is accompanied by a change in the nature of the noise, the latter changing frequency range so as to be less acute. This results in improved user comfort. In addition, the plate 200 of the tool according to the invention further comprises a set of teeth 400 as can be seen in FIG. 7. This toothing 400, consisting of teeth 401 in crenellations, is arranged on one of the sides extending according to the first direction. The teeth 401 of this toothing 400 are used to control the amount of spread coating and protrude from the plate 200 in the extension of the working surface as shown in Figures 8a, 8b and 8c. In the case where the gripping surface 202 and the working surface 201 are curved and parallel, the teeth are arranged to extend in the extension of the gripping surface 202 and the working surface 201.

 In the case of the first embodiment, the teeth 204 of the toothing will advantageously be made at the second portion 200b.

 In the case of the second embodiment, each tooth 401 has a front face 402 in the extension of the working surface 201 of the plate 200 and a rear face 403. It is then understood that in the case of a gripping surface 202 plane visible in Figure 8c, the teeth 401 of the toothing 400 are arranged so that the front face 402 of each tooth extends in the extension of the working surface while the rear face 403 of each tooth 401 is not in the extension of the gripping surface 202. The rear face of each tooth 401 may be formed such that a flange exists with the gripping surface 202 or be formed to form a junction with said gripping surface 202.

 These teeth 401 can protrude from the plate 200 just as they can be made by cutting said plate 200. In the case of projecting teeth 401, the surface of the teeth 401 is added to that of the plate 200, so when in the case of cut teeth, the surface of the plate 200 is amputated from the inter-dental surface.

 In the case where the gripping surface 202 and the working surface 201 of the plate have the same radius of curvature and are parallel, the front face 402 and the rear face 403 of each tooth 401 extend in the extension, respectively, of the work surface and the gripping surface as visible in Figures 8a and 8b.

In both cases, the teeth 401 will extend substantially rectilinearly and the end of each tooth 401 may be refined and rounded. This configuration of the display tool 100 with a plastic plate 200 having a non-planar work surface 201 and teeth 401 provides a more consistent coating display while having a greater use of the tool. pleasant.

 Indeed, such a coating tool 100 is used by applying the coating on the surface S to be coated and then using it to spread it. For this, the tool 100 is placed by positioning the working surface 201 facing the surface S to be coated, said working surface 201 being inclined at an angle less than 90 ° with the surface to be coated. Following this, the tool 100 that is to say the trowel is manipulated to spread said coating. The design according to the invention is clever in that the curvature of the working surface 201 allows to have an angle between the plane of the teeth 401 and an orthogonal plane O to the plane of the surface S to be coated weaker. Indeed, as shown in Figure 9, the positioning of a tool 1 according to the prior art and a tool 100 according to the invention is shown. The tool 1 of the prior art is shown with its gripping surface positioned angularly at an angle b1 relative to the surface S to be coated. Since the plate 2 is flat and the teeth 4 extend in a rectilinear manner in the same plane as said plate 2, the teeth form an angle a1 with a plane orthogonal to the surface S to be coated.

 In the case of the first embodiment of the invention, the example comprising a second portion 200b whose plane is intersecting with the plane of the first portion allows the teeth 401 to form an angle a3 with an orthogonal plane O to the S surface to be coated less than the angle a1 formed with a plate 2 completely flat.

In the case of the tool 100 according to the second embodiment of the invention or third example of the first embodiment, this tool 100 is shown with the tangent to va gripping surface positioned angularly at the same angle b1 relative to the surface to be coated. Since the curvature of the work surface 201 and the teeth 401 extend rectilinearly in the extension of the work surface, the teeth 401 form an angle α 2 with an orthogonal plane O to the surface S to be coated. Now, the curvature of the working surface 201 of the tool 100 according to the invention causes the angle a2 to be smaller than the angle a1. By Therefore, for an identical angular position of the tool 100 relative to the surface to be coated, the teeth 401 of the plate 200 according to the invention have an angular position closer to the orthogonal plane O to the surface to be coated than the teeth 4 of the tool 1 according to the prior art. The thickness of the spread coating is therefore greater with the tool 100 according to the present invention.

 In addition, during the display operation of the coating, the plate 200 is deformed. This deformation advantageously allows the teeth 401 of the toothing 400 to maintain an angular position relative to the orthogonal plane O to the surface to be coated substantially identical. Indeed, the plate 200 is made of a plastic material having elastic deformation properties. However, during the display of the coating, the friction between the surface to be coated and the plate 200 generates the appearance of stresses on said plate 200, the elastic properties of said plate allowing it to deform elastically. This deformation tends to allow said teeth 401 to keep a similar angular position relative to the surface S to be coated so that the thickness of the spread coating is substantially constant, the variation in thickness being small.

 In a first variant of the second embodiment, the plate 200 of the tool 100 according to the present invention is designed to have an optimized flexibility. For this, this variant proposes to have a plate 200 whose deformation is adjustable. For this, the present variant proposes to have a plate 200 of variable thickness as visible in Figure 10. This variable thickness is already present for the variant in which the working surface 201 of the plate has a radius of curvature while the gripping surface 202 is flat. However, the present variant uses the characteristic variable thickness to locally modify the rigidity and therefore the response to a constraint knowing that the greater the thickness is important and the more the plate will be rigid and therefore more difficult to deform.

This variant advantageously makes it possible to control the deformation of the plate 200 and therefore its behavior during the display of the coating. In this way, an extra thickness of the plate can be arranged at the level of the area to be stiffened, for example, at the central portion of the plate 200 so that make this central portion more rigid and less deformable than the area comprising the toothing 400.

 To use the tool, the gripping means 300 are used. These gripping means 300 may be various and varied.

 In a first example, the gripping means comprise an L-shaped handle 301 having a point of attachment with said plate 200 as can be seen in FIG. 11. This L-shaped handle 301 can be arranged on the plate 200 so that extend in the first direction or in the second direction that is to say with an angle of 90 ° with respect to the first direction horn visible in Figure 12.

 In a second example, the gripping means 300 comprise a U-shaped handle 302 having two attachment points with said plate 200 as visible in FIG. 2. This U-shaped handle can be arranged on the plate 200 so as to extend according to the first direction.

 In the first example and the second example, the handle may be made so as to be rounded or to have salient angles.

 In a third example, the gripping means 300 comprise a gripping ball 303 as visible in FIG. 13. Such a gripping ball 303 consists of a spherical element provided with a flat part. This flat is used to allow the contact between said sphere and the plate 200.

 The gripping means can be made in various materials such as wood or metal or plastic.

 To fix the plate to the gripping means, fixing means are used.

 In a first embodiment of the fixing means, the gripping means are fixed by gluing. For this, a bonding point is arranged between the plate 200 and each point of contact with the gripping means 300. In the case of a U-shaped handle, there are two bonding points, for an L-shaped handle. there is only one point of collage.

In a second embodiment of the fixing means, the gripping means are screwed with the plate. For this, the plate 200 is pierced and a blind hole is arranged on the gripping means 300 at each point of contact between the gripping means 300 and the plate 200. drilling plate 200 is placed opposite a blind hole gripping means 300 and a screw is inserted and rotated to ensure the attachment. In a variant of this embodiment, each piercing of the plate is arranged to have a shape allowing the screw head not to protrude from drilling the plate. For example, for a screw head having a frustoconical profile, the drilling of the plate is made to have a profile also frustoconical.

 In a variant of the first embodiment and the second embodiment, an intermediate element called base may be arranged on the plate 200 and serve for fixing the gripping means.

 In a third embodiment of the fixing means, the gripping means are arranged to be integral with the plate. For this, the gripping means and the plate are made of the same material. This characteristic then makes it possible to mold the plate and the gripping means in a single extrusion or plastic injection step.

 Of course, the present invention is not limited to the illustrated example but is susceptible of various variations and modifications that will occur to those skilled in the art.

 Thus, it can be provided that the plate can have various shapes such as a triangular shape and have various dimensions. Thus, it will be possible for the tool according to the invention to have a length of about 30 cm to a width of about 15 cm or to have a length close to 60-100 for a width of about 30-45 cm.

 Furthermore, it may be provided that the toothing extends on one side of the width of the plate to use said tool in two different ways.

Claims

1. Tool (100) for displaying a coating on a surface (S) comprising a gripping means (300) associated with a plate (200) extending in a first direction and a second direction orthogonal to the first direction said plate comprising a working surface (201) and a gripping surface (202), said plate (200) further comprising a toothing (400) extending on one side of the plate extending in the first direction, characterized in that the working surface (201) has, in the second direction, a recessed profile extending in the first direction, and in that said plate (200) is made of an elastically deformable plastic material. 2. Display tool according to claim 1, wherein the profile of the plate in the second direction comprises at least a first portion (200a) and a second portion (200b). A display tool according to claim 2, wherein said first portion (200a) is straight and said second portion (200b) is curved. 4. Display tool according to claim 2, wherein said first portion is rectilinear (200a) and said second portion (200b) is straight, the first portion and the second portion being intersecting. 5. Display tool according to claim 4, wherein the section of the plate in the second direction further comprises a third portion (200c), rectilinear and arranged to be contiguous and secant to the first portion (200a). 6. Display tool according to claim 1, wherein the section is arranged so that the working surface (201) has a radius of curvature making it concave, this radius of curvature being constant in the second direction. A display tool according to claim 6, wherein the gripping surface (202) has a radius of curvature making it convex, the radius of curvature being constant along the second direction. A display tool according to claim 6, wherein the radius of curvature of the gripping surface (202) is equal to the radius of curvature of the work surface (201). 9. Display tool according to claim 6, wherein the recessed profile is constant in the first direction. 10. Display tool according to one of the preceding claims, wherein said toothing (400) further extends on one side of the plate in the second direction. 11. Display tool according to claim 10 dependent on one of claims 6 to 9, wherein said toothing (400) extends in the extension of the working surface. 12. Display tool according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the gripping means (300) comprise a gripping ball (303) fixed to the plate. 13. Display tool according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the gripping means comprises a handle (301) L having a point of attachment with the plate. 14. Display tool according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the gripping means comprises a handle (302) U having two points of attachment with the plate (200) and extending in the first direction. 15. Display tool according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the gripping means are fixed by gluing. 16. Display tool according to one of claims 12 to 14, wherein the gripping means (300) are fixed by screwing, said plate comprising on its work surface, for each attachment point, a blind hole for housing a screw. 17. Display tool according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the gripping means and the plate are made of the same material. 18. Display tool according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the gripping means and the plate are made of material. 19. Display tool according to claims 13 or 14, wherein the handle extends in the first or second direction. 20. Display tool according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the elastically deformable plastic material has a flexural Young's modulus of between 25 and 2300 MPa, preferably between 25 and 250 MPa. 21. Display tool according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the elastically deformable plastic material is selected from the list comprising: TPO (olefinic thermoplastic elastomers), TPV (elastomeric alloy), PVC (polyvinyl chloride) , SEBS (polystyrene-b-poly (ethylene-butylene) -b-polystyrene), NBR (butadiene-acrylonitrile copolymers), PEBA (Polyether block amide), EPDM rubbers (ethylene-propylene-diene monomer).