US-12624556-B2 - Decorative surface covering element, surface covering element covering, and method of producing such a decorative surface covering element

Abstract

The invention relates to a decorative surface covering element, in particular a floor panel, ceiling panel or wall panel. The invention also relates to a panel covering, such as a floor covering, ceiling covering or wall covering, including a plurality of panels. The invention further relates to a method of producing a decorative surface covering element.

Inventors

• Lin Li

Assignees

• Northann Building Solutions LLC

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20210111

Priority Date

20200109

Claims (20)

1. 1 . A decorative surface covering element, in particular a decorative panel, such as a floor panel, ceiling panel or wall panel, comprising: a core provided with an upper side and a lower side, a decorative top structure affixed, directly or indirectly, on said upper side of the core, said decorative top structure comprising: at least one decorative print layer forming at least one decor image, a substantially transparent or translucent three-dimensional embossing structure at least partially covering said print layer, wherein the embossing structure is a multi-layer embossing structure which comprises: at least one, at least partially cured base layer provided with a plurality of indentations, and at least one at least partially cured elevated pattern layer formed by a plurality of elevations digitally printed on top of said base layer, wherein at least a part of an upper surface of the embossing structure is provided with a roughened texture, and at least one finishing layer at least partially covering the roughened embossing structure.
2. 2 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein the upper side of the base layer defines an embossing base level, and wherein the indentations and at least a part of the elevations are situated at opposite sides of said embossing base level.
3. 3 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein the upper side of the base layer defines a base level, and wherein the indentations and at least a part of the elevations are situated at the upper side of said base level.
4. 4 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein a part of the base layer is provided with said plurality of indentations, and wherein another part of the base layer is free of indentations.
5. 5 . The surface covering element according to claim 4 , wherein at least a part of the elevations are printed on the part of the base layer which is free of indentations.
6. 6 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of indentations of the base layer forms a discontinuous indentation pattern.
7. 7 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein the base layer is a printed base layer.
8. 8 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , Wherein at least a part of the indentations of the base layer is aligned in register with at least a part of at least one decor image formed by the decorative print layer.
9. 9 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein a colored coating is provided in the indentations and onto the base layer.
10. 10 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein the base layer comprises acrylic resin.
11. 11 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein the elevated pattern layer comprises acrylic resin.
12. 12 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one finishing layer is applied and wherein the upper surface of the embossing structure is entirely covered by one of the at least one finishing layer, wherein, the at least one finishing layer comprises a lacquer layer.
13. 13 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one finishing layer is applied and wherein one of the at least one finishing layer is free of any roughened texture.
14. 14 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein at least a part of the decorative layer is printed directly onto the upper side of the core.
15. 15 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein the upper side of the core is provided with a carrier layer, wherein the carrier layer comprises a primer or a film, wherein at least a part of the decorative layer is printed directly onto the carrier layer.
16. 16 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein in between the printed decorative layer and the embossing structure at least one intermediate layer is situated, wherein at least one intermediate layer is formed by a transparent or translucent light reflective thermoplastic layer, wherein the transparent or translucent light reflective thermoplastic layer comprises a polyester layer or a polyethylene terephthalate layer, wherein said transparent or translucent light reflective thermoplastic layer is glued onto the printed decorative layer.
17. 17 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein a first panel edge comprises a first coupling profile, and a second panel edge, preferably opposite to the first panel edge, comprising a second coupling profile being designed to engage interlockingly with said first coupling profile of an adjacent panel, both in horizontal direction and in vertical direction, wherein the first coupling profile and the second coupling profile are configured such that two of such surface covering elements can be coupled to each other by means of a lowering movement.
18. 18 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein the core is at least partially foamed.
19. 19 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein the core comprises at least one composite material of at least one polymeric material and at least one non-polymeric material.
20. 20 . The surface covering element according to claim 1 , wherein the embossing structure comprises a plurality of base layers and/or a plurality of elevated pattern layers.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is the United States national phase of International Application No. PCT/IB2021/050164 filed Jan. 11, 2021, and claims priority to The Netherlands Patent Application No. 2024631 filed Jan. 9, 2020, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The invention relates to a decorative surface covering element, in particular a floor surface covering element, ceiling surface covering element or wall surface covering element. The invention also relates to a surface covering element covering, such as a floor covering, ceiling covering or wall covering, comprising a plurality of surface covering elements according to the invention. The invention further relates to a method of producing a decorative surface covering element according to the invention. Description of Related Art Laminated panels comprise a decorative layer having a decorative pattern which typically has the appearance of a wood pattern. The decorative layer is covered by a transparent layer to preserve and protect the decorative layer. In order to improve the optical and haptic appearance of the decorative pattern of the decorative layer, impressions can be realized in the transparent layer, this in order to obtain an e.g., imitation of wood pores and other unevennesses which can be present at the surface of real wood. With the known panels, this is performed by simply providing a series of impressions in the floor panels, which impressions substantially extend according to one and the same direction. Notwithstanding the use of such impressions, also known as embossing, the known panels show the disadvantage that the imitation effect still is not optimum. So, for example, they show the disadvantage that if one looks at such floor panels at a relatively small angle, a light refraction at the transparent layer of synthetic matter is created, as a result of which only a glossy surface can be seen, without any visible effect of the actual print being perceived. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the invention to provide an improved surface covering element having an improved embossing effect. This object can be achieved by providing a surface covering element according to the preamble, comprising: a core provided with an upper side and a lower side, a decorative top structure affixed, directly or indirectly, on said upper side of the core, said decorative top structure comprising: at least one decorative print layer forming at least one décor image, a substantially transparent or translucent three-dimensional embossing structure at least partially covering said print layer, wherein at least a part of an upper surface of the embossing structure is provided with a roughened texture. The three-dimensional embossing structure is preferably a printed embossing structure comprising one or more printed embossing layers, wherein each embossing layer is substantially composed of (embossing) ink, as will be elucidated below in more detail. Preferably, roughening of the texture of at least of part of the upper surface of the embossing structure is taking place when the embossing ink is partially cured, hence partially (still) soft, which allows the embossing ink to be mechanically deformed and/or mechanically treated relatively easily. Typically, the roughened texture is provided to at least a part of the upper surface of the embossing structure by means of mechanical interaction with said upper surface, preferably by making use of one or more (rotating) brush rollers, such as metal, in particular steel, brush rollers. During this mechanical treatment of at least a part of the upper surface of the embossing structure, material will be removed from and/or displaced of the initial embossing structure, leading to a roughening (sharpening) of the texture of the embossing structure. This roughening effect leads to a relief which comes closer to the look and feel of natural wood nerves, typically also having sharp edges (non-differentiable, discontinuity edges) rather than conventional smooth, rounded edges (which are typically realized by mechanical impressions), which improves the visual appearance and/or haptonomic (tactile) properties of the surface covering element according to the invention. Hence, by means of conventional mechanically impressions a roughened texture cannot be obtained, but merely a relief with smoothly curved boundaries. Apart from this, mechanically impressing a layer covering a decorative layer in order to realize some kind of embossing structure often not only deforms the covering layer, but also the decorative layer, which is highly undesirable as this latter deformation affects, and normally visibly affects, the appearance of the decorative layer, and which normally leads to a distorted, malformed appearance of the decorative layer. By building the embossing structure by means of material depos