US3413678A - Carpet seam securing device - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 3, 1968 J. M. KRANTZ CARPET SEAM SECURING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Sept. 28, 1965 ly l INVENTR. Jon/s M KRA /vrz AT TORNEYS Dec. 3, 1968 JA M. KRANTZ 3,413,678

CARPET SEAM SECURING DEVICE filed Sept. 28, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 3 30 30 3 30 32] 30 3/ FIG. 4

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FIG. 5

I NVE NTOR.

24' ,2 ,22' 23" AT To/QNEYS nited States Patent O 3,413,678 CARPET SEAM SECURING DEVICE Joris M. Krantz, 3132 Edgewood Ave. N., Minneapolis, Minn. 55427 Filed Sept. 28, 1966, Ser. No. 582,698 4 Claims. (Cl. 16-16) ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE A substantially flat elongated strip of material having upwardly projecting barbs adapted to receive thereon along an imaginary seam line extending parallel with the longitudinal axis of said strip both edges of the carpet making :up a seam in overlying relationship to said strip, adhesive on the upper surface of Said strip to prevent Vertical movement of the carpet relative to the strip, padding material atlixed to the under surface of the strip so that the strip .and the padding material have a thickness approximately equal to standard carpet padding, and means for atiixing the strip to a floor yalong the desired seam line.

This invention pertains to a device for securing the edges of a carpet in a smooth seam and more particularly to a one step securing device which embodies all of the materials necessary for the use thereof.

In the prior art edges of carpets are connected in a variety of ways to form seams, some of which include sewing, taping, etc. In all of these methods of forming a seam a special person utilizing special tools and skills is required to perform the work. In one prior art method of joining the edges of a carpet to form a seam, a special tape having what is commonly referred to as built-in grippers is rst glued to the oor by a special adhesive after which the same adhesive is .applied to the upper surface and the carpet is laid in place. The built-in grippers hold the two edges of the carpet together until the adhesive sets. This method has many disadvantages since the entire tape must be correctly positioned and gl-ued in place on the door first. Then the entire upper surface is covered with the .adhesive and both edges of the rug are laid in place simultaneously. During the time that the carpet is actually being engaged over the tape, the adhesive is open to receive lint, dust, and other foreign objects therein, Which greatly reduce the adhesive quality of the material. Also, in applying the adhesive to the oor and to the upper surface of the tape, if too much adhesive is utilized it will penetrate the backing material 0f the carpet and may ruin the nap. If too little adhesive is utilized, the carpet may quickly come loose, thereby, ruining the entire carpeting operation. In addition to these problems, the individual performing the operation must perform the disagreeable and often messy task of applying the adhesive. This task is also time consuming since the adhesive below the tape must be allowed to dry before the adhesive can be applied to the upper surface thereof.

In the present invention `a strip of rigid material is constructed with carpet engaging means, such .as a plurality of barbs, nails, etc., extending upwardly therefrom. In addition, the barbs are angled slightly inwardly toward the longitudinal center of the strip. The lower surface of the strip generally has a resilient padding means thereunder with the combined thickness of the two being approximately equal to the thickness of the carpet padding. The upper surface of the strip has 4an adhesive means applied thereto in advance which adhesive means is covered by a protective material that can be quickly and easily stripped therefrom. The rigid strip of material can be quickly and easily attached to the oor at the correct location after which a portion of the protective means is stripped from the upper surface and one edge of the rug ice is placed in position. D-uring this operation the remaining portion of the upper surface of the strip is protected by the remaining protective means and, thus, does not receive dirt, lint, etc. When the first piece of carpet is in place the remaining portion of the protective material is removed exposing the adhesive, and thereby preparing the strip for the positioning of the second piece of carpeting.

Thus, the present invention greatly simplifies the task of joining two pieces of carpeting by making the entire task a one step operation. In addition, there is no danger of utilizing incorrect quantities or types of materials, since all of the material is embodied in the single device. In addition to the above advantages the present device saves time in the operation of forming a seam and makes the entire task less messy. Other advantages will become apparent upon the following detailed description of several embodiments of the device.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved carpet seam securing device.

It is a further object of the present invention to pro- Vide a carpet seam securing device, the use of which greatly simplilies the task of joining carpet edges in a seam.

These .and other objects of this invention will become apparent .to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the accompanying specification, claims, and drawings.

Referring t-o the drawings, wherein like characters indicate like parts throughout the figures:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary view in perspective of the present invention operating to form a seam;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary view in top plan of an ernbodiment of the present invention, portions thereof removed;

FIG. 3 is `an enlarged view in end elevation of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary View in side elevation of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view as seen from the line 5 5 in FIG. l; and

FIG. 6 is a transverse sectional view in perspective of a different embodiment.

In the figures the numeral 10 generally designates a floor covered by carpet padding 11 and carpet 12. The carpet padding 11 and carpet 12 are laid in the usual manner except for a seam 13 between two sections 14 and 15 of carpet 12. The seam 13 between the sections 14 and 15 of the carpet 12 is held fixedly in place by a seam securing device 20, which is one embodiment of this invention and is illustrated in more detail in FIGS. 2 through 5. In FIG. 1 the oor 10 is illustrated partially covered by the carpet 12 to illustrate the operation of the seam securing device 20. Referring to FIGS. 2 through 5, the seam securing device includes a strip 21 of rigid material, which in this embodiment is a light relatively rigid metal, and a layer 22 of spongy material, such ras sponge rubber or the like, attached to the strip 21 by a layer of adhesive 23. The lower surface of the layer 22 of spongy material has a strip 24 of heavy paper or the like attached thereto by a layer of adhesive 25 to retain the spongy material 22 in approximately its original shape. The metal strip 21 has a plurality of 'barbs 30 extending generally upwardly therefrom. The barbs are triangular shaped portions of the metal strip 21 which are partially sheared from the metal strip 21 and bent partially upwardly. In this embodiment the longitudinal axis of the seam securing device 20 forms an imaginary seam line along which either edge of the sections 14 and 15 of the carpet 12 lie in abutting relationship to each other. It should be understood that the imaginary seam line might lie in some position other than the longitudinal axis of the seam securing device 20, but this is considered the most convenient position for it. The barbs 30 are positioned in two spaced apart rows along either side of the imaginary seam line, and each barb 30 is angled inwardly toward the imaginary seam line. Thus, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the barbs 30 engage the carpet 12 and tend to hold the edges of the sections 14 and 15 in abutting relationship along the seam 13.

The metal strip 21 has a coating of adhesive 31 over the upper surface thereof' to hold the carpet 12 securely along the seam 13 and prevent horizontal movement thereof. The adhesive 31 may be any convenient type which will effectively hold the carpet 12 securely. The upper surface of the adhesive layer 31 is covered with a exible peel-away strip 32 of material which may be plastic, coated paper, or the like. The peel-away strip 32 should be easily removable from the adhesive 31 and should be perforated along the seam line, as illustrated in FIG. 2 so that the adhesive 31 to one side of the seam line can be exposed without exposing the adhesive 31 to the other side of the seam line.

In the operation of the seam securing device 20, the person first determines where the seam 13 will lie. Then the seam securing device 20 is secured to the floor 10 by some means such as nails 35 (illustrated in FIG. 5), or some other convenient means such as screws, glue, etc. Once the seam securing device 20 is securely in place, a portion 36 of the flexible protective material 32 is removed rom the upper surface of the adhesive 31 along the perforated seam line. The section 14 of the carpet 12 is then placed on the seam securing device 20 so the edge thereof lies along the seam line. Once the carpet sectional 14 is in place, the remaining portion 37 of the flexible protective material 32 is removed from the upper surface of the adhesive layer 31 and the section 15 of the carpet 12 is positioned so the edge thereof abuts the edge of the section 14 to form the seam 13. As illustrated in FIG. l, the portions 36 and 37 of the flexible protective material 32 are removed only as the sections 14 and of the carpet 12 are placed in position. This protects the layer of adhesive material 31 until the carpet 12 is actually in place so that lint and other foreign materials do not adhere thereto and decrease its eiciency. Referring to FIG. 5, it can be seen that the padding 11 is cut so that it abuts the edges of the seam securing device and the thickness of the seam securing device 20 is approximately equal to the thickness of the carpet padding 11 so the carpet 12 lies at thereover.

Another embodiment of the seam securing device 20 is illustrated in FIG. 6 and designated 20. The various components of the seam securing device 20 Iwhich are similar to the components of the device 20 are designated with a similar numeral having a prime added to indicate that it is another embodiment. The device 20' has a rigid strip 21' which consists of a formable plastic material, rather than metal. A plurality of barbs are formed by imbedding staples or the like in the plastic 21' while it is still in the formable or soft state. Thus, once the plastic strip 21 hardens, the staples are held rigidly in place to form barbs 30. All of the remaining parts of the seam securing device 20 are similar to the parts of the device 20 designated with similar numerals.

While I have shown and described a specific embodiment of this invention, furtherA modifications and improvements will occur to th'ose skilled in the art. I desire it to be understood, therefore, that this invention is not limited to the particular form shown, and I intend in the appended claims to cover all modifications which do not depart from the spirit and scope of this invention.

I claim:

1. A carpet seam securing device comprising:

(a) a relatively flat, elongated strip of rigid material adapted to receive thereon along an imaginary seam line extending parallel with the longitudinal axis of said strip both edges of a carpet making up a seam in overlying relationship relative to said strip and in abutting relationship relative to each other;

(b) carpet engaging means attached to said strip adjacent either side of said seam line and extending generally upwardly from the surface of said strip for substantially preventing horizontal movement of the edges of the carpet away from each other;

(c) adhesive means preapplied to the upper surface ot' said strip for engaging the carpe-t and substantially preventing vertical separating movements of the carpet and said strip;

(d) protective means removably engaged in overlying relationship with said adhesive means for preventing foreign materials from contacting said adhesive prior to use of said seam securing device;

(e) resilient padding means secured to the lower surface of the strip, the thickness of said padding means and said strip combined being approximately equal to the thickness of standard carpet padding; and

(f) means associated with said strip for securing said strip to a oor.

2. A carpet seam securing device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the strip is constructed of metal and the carpet engaging means are integral barbs sheared and bent outwardly from said strip.

3. A -carpet seam securing device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the protectivemeans includes two separable portions o-f exible material one of which overlies the portion of the strip to one side of the seam line and the other of which overlies the portion of the strip to the other side of the seam line, said flexible portions further being separately removable.

4. A carpet seam securing device as set forth in `claim 1 wherein the strip of rigid material is formed from plastic material and the carpet engaging means areI imbedded therein when the plastic material is still formable.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,552,114 5/1951 Reinhard. 2,673,169 3/1954 Finch 161-36 3,014,829 12/1961 Curtin 161-36 3,029,173 4/1962 Reinhard 161-50 3,234,581 2/1966 Reiling 16-8 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,043 3/ 1926 Australia. 151,119 4/1953 Australia.

BOBBY R. GAY, Primm), Examiner.

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