US-12617196-B2 - Method to produce a panel with an embossed structure

US12617196B2US 12617196 B2US12617196 B2US 12617196B2US-12617196-B2

Abstract

A method to produce a panel with an embossed structure, including forming a substrate by a continuous process, wherein the substrate includes a polymer based material, providing a printed polymer based film, applying the printed polymer based film on the substrate, the printed polymer based film being continuously applied on the substrate, pressing the printed polymer based film to the substrate, thereby forming a laminated substrate, and embossing the laminated substrate by an embossing device having a perimeter, such that the laminated substrate obtains an embossed structure, dividing the laminated substrate into panels, each panel having a length and a width, and wherein the perimeter of the embossing device divided by the length of said panel is a non-integer.

Inventors

Per Nygren
Per Josefsson
Filip SKÖLD
Christoffer Nilsson

Assignees

Välinge Innovation AB

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20230530
Priority Date: 20220531

Claims (16)

1 . A method to produce a panel with an embossed structure, comprising: forming a substrate by a continuous process, wherein the substrate comprises a polymer based material, providing a printed polymer based film, wherein the printed polymer based film comprises a pattern, wherein the pattern has a length, applying the printed polymer based film on the substrate, the printed polymer based film being continuously applied on the substrate, pressing the printed polymer based film to the substrate, thereby forming a laminated substrate, and embossing the laminated substrate by an embossing device having a perimeter, such that the laminated substrate obtains an embossed structure, dividing the laminated substrate into panels, each panel having a length and a width, and wherein the perimeter of the embossing device divided by the length of said panel is a non-integer, wherein the length of the pattern is different than the length of said panel.
2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the perimeter of the embossing device exceeds the length of the panel.
3 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the perimeter of the embossing device is at least 110% of the length of the panel.
4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the embossed structure is in register with at least a part of the pattern of the printed polymer based film.
5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the pattern has a pattern repetition having a pattern repetition length, wherein the pattern repetition comprises at least two patterns, wherein the perimeter of the embossing device substantially corresponds to the pattern repetition length.
6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the printed polymer based film is printed by a rotogravure cylinder, wherein a circumference of the rotogravure cylinder substantially corresponds to the perimeter of the embossing device.
7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the polymer based film is printed by digital printing.
8 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the panel is a plank or a tile.
9 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the substrate is formed by extruding.
10 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the printed polymer based film is applied to the substrate prior to cooling the substrate.
11 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising applying a protective layer to the printed polymer based film prior to embossing.
12 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein pressing comprises applying heat and pressure.
13 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the substrate further comprises fillers, the fillers being one or more of: calcium carbonate, chalk, limestone, talc, stone dust, fly ash, wood dust, grounded rice husk, cork, bamboo dust.
14 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the printed polymer based film is a PVC film.
15 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method comprises producing multiple panels.
16 . The method according to claim 15 , wherein the method comprises producing at least 10 panels, wherein the pattern repeats on half the panels, while an embossing pattern is different for the panels with a pattern repeat, such that none of the panels are identical.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application claims the benefit of Swedish Application No. 22506489, filed on May 31, 2022. The entire contents of Swedish Application No. 22506489 are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD Examples of the present disclosure relate to a method to produce a panel with an embossed structure. The panel may be a building panel, such as a floor panel, a furniture component, a worktop, a wall panel, a ceiling panel. TECHNICAL BACKGROUND Panels such as building panels may be provided with a print for decorative purposes. The print may be a wood grain pattern simulating wood. In other examples, the print may be a stone pattern simulating stone, or a fantasy pattern. In order to increase the realistic look and feel of the panel, the panel may be provided with an embossed structure, comprising embossed portions and protrusions. The embossed structure may be in register with the print, such that the embossed structure matches the elements of the print. The elements of the print may be grains, knots, medullary rays, and other elements depicting structures in wood. The print may be printed by various methods. One method commonly used is rotogravure printing, wherein the pattern is printed by several gravure cylinders. Digital printing allows more variations in the print, thus being more flexible compared to engraving gravure cylinders. During recent years in the field of flooring, vinyl tiles have gained increasing success. One such type of tiles is SPC (Stone Plastic Composite), wherein the core is formed in a continuous process by extruding the core material. The pattern is provided by a separate print film, which most commonly is printed by rotogravure printing. The print film and a protective layer arranged above the print film is pressed to the core by one or several pressing rollers. An embossed structure may be pressed into the panel by an embossing roller. Due to the cost for engraving gravure cylinders and embossing rollers is the number of unique designs limited. Thus, after dividing the substrate into individual panels, a certain repetition of the pattern occurs after a number of panels. When installing the floor such repetitions are undesired. Increasing the number of variations and reduce the number of identical panels are therefore desired to improve the realistic look and feel of the floor. SUMMARY It is an object of at least examples of the present disclosure to provide an improvement over the above described techniques and known art. According to a first aspect of the disclosure, a method to produce a panel with an embossed structure is provided. The method comprises: providing a substrate, wherein the substrate comprises a polymer based material,providing a printed polymer based film,applying the printed polymer based film on the substrate,pressing the printed polymer based film to the substrate, thereby forming a laminated substrate, andembossing the laminated substrate by an embossing device having a perimeter, such that the laminated substrate obtains an embossed structure,dividing the laminated substrate into panels, each panel having a length and a width, andwherein the perimeter of the embossing device divided by the length of said panel is a non-integer. As used herein, the term “perimeter” means the length of the outer edge of a shape. In particular, the perimeter of the embossing device, as used herein means the length of the outer edge of the embossing device, which corresponds to the embossing length, such as the length of the embossing structure. Providing a substrate may comprise forming a substrate by a continuous process. The printed polymer based film may be continuously applied on the substrate. By the length of the panel not corresponding to the perimeter of the embossing device, and thereby not corresponding to the length of the embossed structure, a displacement of the embossed structure is obtained between the panels. Thereby, the embossed structure of one panel is not identical to an embossed structure of another panel. Consequently, the number of non-identical panels obtained can be increased. The non-integer may be regarded as a displacement factor. The laminated substrate may be divided into panels having equal length. The substrate may have a length and a width. The printed polymer based film may have a length and a width. The length direction of the printed polymer based film may be substantially parallel to the length direction of the substrate. The embossed structure may have a length and a width, wherein the length direction of the embossed structure may be substantially parallel to the length direction of the printed polymer based film. The embossing device may be an embossing roller or an embossing belt. Pressing and embossing may take place simultaneously. Pressing and embossing may be performed by a common device, such as an embossing roller or embossing belt configured for both pre