US2245468A - Tile board - Google Patents

Description

June 10, 1941. L, DUSSQL 2,245,468

TILE BOARD Filed Dec. 15, 1940 INVENTOR: Lucien/1. u/sol,

BY www Patented June 10, 1941 UNITED STATES/PATENT OFFICE TILE BOARD Lucien A. Dussol, Mount Marion, N. Y.

Application December 13, 1940, Serial No. 369,924

4 Claims.

This invention relates to imitation tile as made by shaping, and covering with enamel, lacquer or the like, the surface of a selected side of a wall board, to have the board at such side simulate an area of a wall actually expensively covered by a plurality of separate ceramic tile individually laid in tile cement and spaced from each other by cement lines located below the plane of the top flats of the tile-simulating elements.

This tile .board, as it will be called, is commonly made of vwall board in the form of fairly thin sheets of compressed material, usually fibre, as wood pulp, and is given the shaping above reerred to by cutting into said surface intersecting grooves to subdivide the board into portions each of which is representative of v'a single ceramic tile.

After the board is thus shaped, the covering material is applied, in liquid form, and in two separate applications. The first of said applications` hereinafter called the tile finish, is laid all over the shaped surface, and the second of said applications, hereinafter called the cement flnish, is laid as stripings in the bottoms of the grooves,

Tile board made as above is now a widely used article of manufacture, being especially valuable for store-fronts, show-cases, bath rooms, showertub stalls, and kitchens, to mention only some of its important fields of usefulness.

The makers of tile board, however, have long sought a solution of the serious problem of so cross-sectionally shaping the grooves that after drying and hardening of the tile finish, saidtile finish will not be materially less resistant to water, steam and moisture at points along or adjacent to the lines of merger of the grooves with the main portions or top flats of the imitation tile units, than at said flats.

The previous inability adequately to solve this problem, I have found, has been due to universal adherence to the previous practice of cutting the grooves so that cross-sectionally they are shaped substantially like the lowerhalf, or the major portion of the lower half, of the letter O, or of a sanare. As a consequencein order to satisfy' the demand of the market that the imitation tile units of the tile board have, by actual or apparent lie oftheir top flats well above the plane of the imitation cement lines between said units, a very close if not a perfect resemblance to actual ceramic tile individually laid by the expert tile setter-grooves made according to the practice just mentioned have had to be kept at their tops top of a groove side-wall. This localized thinning of the tile finish to less than the intended thickness thereof all over the tile board, and to less than the thickness of the tile finish over the top flats of the tile units and over the lower portions of the grooves, establishes zones of weakness in the tile finish so far as is concerned the function it must perform in acting as a protective barrier against penetration of water and steam therethrough and deterioratingly into the material of the wall board.

Previous workers in the art, in endeavors to prevent final loss of adequate thickness in the tile finish adjacent to the tops of the groove while nevertheless retaining a shape for the groove requiring fairly steep side walls therefor, have proposed, as remedies for this side-wall steepness, special localized formations for the side Walls, such as roundedcorners for the tops of the latter, auxiliary curvatures immediately above or below such rounded corners, and like expedients.

The real solution of the difficulty indicated above, I have found, by actual manufacture of tile board, is actually obtainable by employing what I call a compound groove, and one characterized by a V-shaped upper portion anda distinctly stepped-down minor lower portion, this latter portion having substantially vertical side walls.

The present invention will be clearly understood, and the advantages thereof appreciated, from the following description of a now preferred embodiment of the new groove as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.

In this drawing:

Fig. 1 shows a portion of a tile board made according to the invention, looking toward the top of the same, that is, toward the side of the board carrying the imitation tile units.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view, taken at right angles to the plane of the board, throughone of the new grooves; this view being on an enlarged scale, but with none of the coatings shown in Fig. 4 yet applied.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to and drawn on the same scale as Fig. 2, showing the sides of the V-shaped upper portion of the groove at a less angle` to the plane of the board than in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to and showing the same groove as in Fig. 2, but on a much enlarged scale, and also showing, in the case of a board treated with a preliminary priming coat, thedispositions of such coat and of the tile and cement finishes at completion of manufacture of the tile board.

The new groove of the present invention, as shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 4, is marked generally I0. Such groove, it will be noted, is a compound one, having an upper major V-shaped portion II, and a lower minor distinctly stepped-down portion I2. The groove I' of Fig. 3 is shown as differing from the groove I0 only in that the side-walls of the upper V-shaped portion Il of the latter are inclined at angles of about 17 to the plane of the board while the side-walls of the upper V-shaped .portion of the groove I0' of Fig. 3, this portion marked II', are thus inclined at angles of about 12; and in that while the bottom wall of the stepped-down portion I2 of the groove Il is flat and horizontal, the same stepped-down portion of the groove I0', this portion marked I2', has a concavely-rounded bottom wall. These differences between the two grooves apparently are unimportant, so far as exhaustive tests have shown, in obtaining the advantages of the invention.

In preparation for the application of the tile and cement finishes, marked I4 and I5, respectively, in 4, the wall board, marked I E, after being grooved at a selected side thereof to subdivide that side into imitation tile units I 1, is customarily at said side given a priming coat Il of a highly pigmented varnish. The purpose of this priming coat Il is to hide the color of the board, tc ll in the minute porosities thereof,

and to afford a nice smooth foundation for thetile finish I4.

While a most important function of the tile finish Il is to give the Limitation tile units the usually intended pure-white, or other desired coloration, and to impart to them the sheen and gloss typical of genuine ceramic tile, a vitally important purpose of this tile finish is also to provide, all over theA whole side of the board carrying said units, a certainly dependable barrier against the penetration of moisture, steam and water into the material of the board.

In this last regard, I find that with a groove IB or III shaped to have an upper V-shaped portion II or II' as above described, and even with the legs I9 or I 9' of such V having nonrounded mergers with the top flats of the imitation tile units I'I, there is no really measurable thinning of the tile finish Il either near said mergers or anywhere down along said legs I9 or I9'. I thus completely overcome the trouble thought to reside in the existence of a non-rounded corner at the meeting line of the side wall of a groove and the top flat of an imitation tile unit.

But this solution of the problem of providing an adequate thickness of the tile finish Il at the lines of merger of the tops of. the groove with the top flats of the imitation tile units and all the way side walls were solelythe V-legs I9 or I9', would not provide a tile board satisfactory to the trade from the standpoint of having the imitation tile units I1 meet the requirement of having a very close resemblance to actually individually laid ceramic tile. The top ats of these units, for one thing, would not actually be, or at least not appear to be, high enough above the top surface of the cement finish lying in the groove bottoms.

This requirement, however, I fully meet by the groove of the present invention; due to the compound nature of the same as aforesaid, that is, due to the addition, below the V-legs I9 or I9', of `the central minor stepped-down portion I2 or I2. Such portion, it will be noted, is a comparatively narrow channel, and one of even less depth than width; this channel having side walls 20 which from tops to bottoms are straight and at right angles tcl the plane of the board, as in Fig. 2, or side walls 20 which from their tops to near their bottoms are straight and at right angles to the plane of the board, as in Fig. 3.

By the use of a compound groove of this kind, I actually lower the central longitudinal plane of the cement finish I5 to some extent below the bottoms of the Velegs I9 or I9', and at the same time I provide a shadow eii'ect the visual result of which is apparently further to lower said plane so much below the top hats of the imitation tile units Il that these units seem to stand.

out very boldly fromsaid plane, while giving the illusion that they have marginal shapings very close indeed to those typical of actual ceramic tile.

This visual eiect is apparently best obtained when the depth of. the compound groove, as the groove III or I0', ranges from substantially .090" as a maximum to substantially .050" as a minimum (the present preference for such depth being .078"); when the width of said compound groove at its top is about five times its said depth; and when the bottom channel, as the channel I2 or I2', has at its top a. width about twice its depth but onlyabout one-sixth the top width of the compound groove. In order to obtain the advantages of the invention, the top width of the compound groove should, it is believed, be so related to the top width of the bottom channel that the former width is a multiple, within the range substantially of four times as a minimum and six times as a maximum, of the top width of the bottom channel. It will be noted, that in Fig. 4 an attempt has been made, as far as the scale of the `drawing will allow, to show now preferred relative dimensions as between the upper or V-shaped portion I I and the lower portion or bottom channel I2 of the groove III; and also to show, more or less diagrammatically, less thickness of the priming coat I8 and of the tile finish I l, over the top ilats of the imitation tile units I1, than within the grooves, in view of the fact that, ordinarily, said coat I8, after drying and before application of the tile finish I4, is sanded, and the tile nish, after drying, is polished, with this sanding and polishing performed only at said top fiats.

Considering now particularly thecement finish I5, which is always of acontrasting color or shade of. color to that of the tile finish I4, the cement finish in practically every case being a pale gray or a grayish white, it will be noted that said cement finish, as finally set in Fig. 4, is almost entirely confined to the channel I2, having a main central body lying over the tile finish I I where the latter extends along the bottom of the channel I2, but with this body along its opposite sides carrying wing-like upward extensions tapered upwardly as shown, said extensions marked 2|. It

will also be noted that the top surface of said main body of the cement finish I! is distinctly below the corners 22 (Figs. 2 and 4) formed between the tops of the side walls 2l of the channel l2 and the bottoms of the legs I! defining the V- shaped upper main portion II of the groove, and that the tops of the `wing-likeextensions 2l are distinctly above said corners.

Such a final disposition of the cement finish in a groove I' always results, I have found, when the cement finish is discharged from the trailing end of a striping gun, the output of. which is regulated through controlled air pressure, with/this gun drawn along and guided by the groove while being held in alignment with 'the groove and upwardly inclined at about a 45 angle away from and ahead of its trailing end, and while the cement finish is being discharged from the gun in a volume relative to its speed of travel along. the groove suflicient to deposit in the latter the quantity of cement finish required, andat a low enough velocity to cause the cement finish to rise as high up along the sides of the groove as the points 23.`

As shown very clearly in Fig. 4, the final disposition of the cement finish is not only such that its extensions 2l rise up above the corners 22, as already pointed out,v but these extensions are so built up on the tile finish Il, in the vicinity of said corners, vthat there the combined thicknesses of the tile and cement finishes is at least equal to the thickness of the tile finish alone elsewhere over the tile Iboard.

What the present invention does, really, is to provide,.for use in making a tile board, a novel groove which from its very nature, transfers a necessarily present corner from a trouble-making location, to a new and innocuous one, so far as is concerned the previous difculty in endeavoring to employ a layer of tile nnish i4, evenly distributed in liquid form all over the board, vfor establishing a barrier against the penetration into the board of moisture, steam and water. Whereas the oldtrouble-making corner was at the very top of the groove, out of reach of assistance by the cement finish I5 to the tile iinish I4 in the work to be done by the latter in establishing said barrier, said corner is by the present invention lowered far enough down in the groove to allow the cement finish, applied as a striping at the depressed location at which it must be applied, to act conjointly with the tile finish, where the latter may be thinned in the vicinity of said corner, in establishing the required thickness of the barrier in said vicinity.

That the cement finish I5, after being deposited up along the sides of a groove as above described, always sets in such'manner that the extensions 2| are finally present substantially as shown in Fig. 4, is, I believe, due in part to what in physics is known as the meniscus effect, in part to the relatively high viscosity of tile and cement finishes (liquids such as lacquers, enamels, plastics, and the like), and in part to the tendency of a later applied coat of such a liquid to coalesce with or strongly cling to a previously applied coat of a like liquid, when the former coat is applied before Vthe latter coat, although dried somewhat, has fully set. In this latter connection, it should be noted that the now preferred practice in the art is to use a lacquer, enamel or plastic of the same kind, and of the same type or composition (except for coloring matter), for both the tile and like oblique inclinations to the plane of the board, such inclination being within the range of approximately 12 to said plane, as a minimum,

and approximately 17 to said plane, as a maximum, and the top width of said V-shaped portion being a. multiple, within the range substantially of rfour times as -a minimum and six times as a maximum, of the top width of said bottom channe v 2. A tile board having intersecting grooves in one of its sides whichk subdivide the latter into imitation tile units having flat tops, each groove comprised of an upper V-shaped portion and a lower minor central portion constituting a bottom channel; the' side walls of said V-shaped portion, hereinafter called the V-legs,having like oblique inclinations to the plane of the board, such inclination being within the range of approximately 12 to said plane, as a minimum, and approximately 17 to said plane, as maximum, and the top width of said V-shaped portion being a multiple, within the range substantially of four times as a minimum and six times as a maximum, of the top width of said bottom channel; said V- legs being substantially flat all the way down along the same substantially to the tops of the side walls of said bottom channel, these lastnamed walls hereinafter called the lower sidewalls, said lower side-walls from near their tops to near their bottoms having general lines of extension which are considerably closer to a angle to the plane of the board than to a 35 such angle, the hereinabove specified angles being such vthat the general line of approach of each V-leg to the general line of extension of the adjacent lower side-wall denes an angle which is at least three times greater than the angle of upward approach of said V-leg to a line joining the flat tops of the tile units at opposite sides of the groove.

3. A tile board as in claim 1, in which the side walls of said V-shaped portion have a sharpcorner joinder with the top flats of the imitation tile units, but a corner defining an angle less than one-third that defined by the corner first-mentioned.

4. A tile board as in claim 2, in winch said side of. the board is covered all over with a tile finish, and in which the bottoms of the grooves are covered with a cement finish overlying the tile finish in said groove bottoms, the cement nnish being in the form ci a substantially U-shaped nlm the upper ends of the legs of which U are located, with said side of the board uppermost, above the level vintermediate the top and bottom oi? the groove marked by the point of intersection of the general line of approach of a V-leg toward the adjacent lower side-wall, and the general line of extension of said side-wall.

LUCIEN A. DUSSOL.

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