MECHANICAL LOCKING OF FLOOR PANELS WITH VERTICAL SNAP FOLDING
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Floor panels are shown, which are provided with a mechanical locking system on long and short edges allowing installation with vertical snap folding that could be accomplished automatically without tools and where the short edge locking system has a tongue made in one piece with the panel.
148 Citations
32 Claims
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1-22. -22. (canceled)
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23. A set of essentially identical floor panels, each comprising a plastic core, each comprising long and short edges, whereby the short edges are provided with a mechanical locking system comprising first and second connectors integrated with the floor panels, wherein immediately juxtaposed upper parts of two adjacent short edges of two joined floor panels together define a vertical plane perpendicular to the main plane of the floor panels, the first connector comprises a locking strip with an upwardly directed locking element, at a first edge of a floor panel, configured to cooperate with a downwardly open locking groove at an adjacent second edge of another floor panel for connecting the adjacent edges in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the vertical plane, the second connector comprises a tongue, at the first edge, extending in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the vertical plane, configured to cooperate with a horizontally open tongue groove, at the second edge, for connecting the adjacent edges in vertical direction parallel to the vertical plane, configured to be locked with a vertical motion, wherein the tongue at the first edge is formed in one piece with the panel and configured to protrude from a substantially vertical upper surface at the first edge,
wherein an upper surface of the tongue is substantially parallel to a locking surface of the locking groove, wherein the angle of the upper surface of the tongue and the locking surface of the locking groove against the horizontal plane is more than about 50 degrees, and wherein the second edge is provided with a second tongue.
Specification