153 patents
Page 4 of 8
Utility
Methods for manufacturing bulked continuous filament
30 Aug 22
A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament which, in various embodiments, comprises: (A) washing a plurality of flakes of recycled PET; (B) providing a PET crystallizer; (C) after the step of washing the plurality of flakes, passing the plurality of flakes of recycled PET through the PET crystallizer; (D) at least partially melting the plurality of flakes into a polymer melt; (E) providing a multi-rotating screw (MRS) extruder having an MRS section; and a vacuum pump in communication with the MRS section; (F) using the vacuum pump to reduce a pressure within the MRS Section; (G) after the step of passing the plurality of flakes through the PET crystallizer, passing the polymer melt through the MRS Section; and (H) after the step of passing the polymer melt through the MRS extruder, forming the polymer melt into bulked continuous carpet filament.
Thomas R. Clark
Filed: 5 May 20
Utility
Methods for manufacturing bulked continuous filament
30 Aug 22
A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament, in various embodiments, comprises: (A) providing an expanded surface area extruder; (B) providing a spinning machine having an inlet that is operatively coupled to an expanded surface area extruder outlet; (C) using a pressure regulation system to reduce the pressure within the expanded surface area extruder; (D) passing a plurality of flakes comprising recycled PET through the expanded surface area extruder to at least partially melt the plurality of flakes to form a polymer melt; and (E) substantially immediately after passing the plurality of flakes through the expanded surface area extruder, using the spinning machine to form the polymer melt into bulked continuous carpet filament.
Thomas R. Clark
Filed: 5 May 20
Utility
Systems and Methods for Manufacturing Bulked Continuous Filament from Colored Recyled Pet
18 Aug 22
A system comprising: (1) a grinding unit configured to receive and grind recycled PET bottles into a group of polymer flakes comprising up to about ten percent colored polymer flakes and balance substantially clear polymer flakes; (2) a washing unit configured to wash the group of polymer flakes; and (3) an extruder configured to extrude material in a plurality of different extrusion streams.
Thomas R. Clark
Filed: 3 May 22
Utility
Roof Tile and a Roof Covering
11 Aug 22
A roof tile comprising a decorative layer, having at least a ceramic body, and a support layer disposed below the decorative layer, wherein the roof tile comprises an upper edge, a lower edge which is opposite to the upper edge and two opposite side edges, said side edges being transversal to the upper edge, wherein said roof tile comprises at least one anchoring element for anchoring the roof tile to a structure or framework.
Rahul Patki, Claudio Caselli
Filed: 10 Sep 21
Utility
Roof Tile and a Roof Covering
11 Aug 22
A roof tile comprising a decorative layer, the decorative layer comprising a ceramic body, and a support layer disposed below the decorative layer, wherein the roof tile comprises an upper edge, a lower edge which is opposite to the upper edge and two opposite side edges, the opposite side edges being transverse to the upper edge, wherein the roof tile comprises at least a first coupling elements configured for being coupled to an adjacent roof tile in a roof covering, and wherein the first coupling elements are provided at least at one side edge of the roof tile.
Rahul Patki, Terry Adams, Kyle Bartz, Claudio Caselli
Filed: 9 Feb 21
Utility
Method for manufacturing a plate shaped product and plate shaped product manufactured thereby
26 Jul 22
A method is presented for manufacturing a plate shaped product, comprising the steps of manufacturing a first intermediate product which comprises at least, successively, a carrier, a plastic printing layer, a decorative print layer and a plastic protective layer, by using a multiple coating process, manufacturing a second intermediate product which comprises at least one plastic layer, by using at least a calendering process, and combining the first and second intermediate products by laminating, such that the second intermediate product is attached to the first intermediate product.
Stefaan Gerard Lucien Duyck, Kristof Van Vlassenrode, Filip Gilbert Lucien Bossuyt, Stijn Michel Vermeulen
Filed: 14 May 20
Utility
Panel
14 Jul 22
A panel, which, at two opposite edges, includes coupling parts that allow joining by a downward movement, the coupling parts including a male part that fits in a female part, wherein the male part comprises a laterally protruding lip with at a lower side a downward facing support surface
Charles Edward Stevens, JR.
Filed: 29 Mar 22
Utility
Floor element for forming a floor covering, a floor covering, and a method for manufacturing a floor element
14 Jun 22
A floor element for forming a floor covering, wherein the floor element comprises a decorative layer made of a ceramic material and a support layer arranged below this decorative layer, wherein the support layer comprises edges provided with coupling elements configured to realize a mechanical coupling with coupling elements of an adjacent floor element and wherein the floor element comprises an intermediate layer having a resin material and wherein said resin material comprises a modulus of elasticity greater than 0.1 GPa, preferably greater than 0.5 GPa, even more preferably greater than 1 GPa.
Claudio Caselli, Rahul Patki
Filed: 7 May 20
Utility
Adjustable molding assemblies and methods
14 Jun 22
Adjustable molding assemblies and methods for bridging a gap between building elements are provided.
Benjamin R. Elliott, David W. Moore
Filed: 29 Sep 20
Utility
Systems and Methods for Manufacturing Bulked Continuous Filament
9 Jun 22
A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament which, in various embodiments, comprises: (A) grinding recycled PET bottles into a group of flakes; (B) washing the flakes; (C) identifying and removing impurities, including impure flakes, from the group of flakes; (D) passing the group of flakes through an MRS extruder while maintaining the pressure within the MRS portion of the MRS extruder below about 1.5 millibars; (E) passing the resulting polymer melt through at least one filter having a micron rating of less than about 50 microns; and (F) forming the recycled polymer into bulked continuous carpet filament that consists essentially of recycled PET.
Thomas R. Clark
Filed: 25 Feb 22
Utility
Systems and methods for manufacturing bulked continuous filament from colored recycled PET
7 Jun 22
Methods of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament which, in various embodiments, comprise: (A) grinding recycled PET bottles into a group of flakes; (B) washing the flakes; (C) identifying and removing impurities, including impure flakes, from the group of flakes; (D) adding one or more color concentrates to the flakes; (E) passing the group of flakes through an MRS extruder (400) while maintaining the pressure within the MRS portion (420) of the MRS extruder (400) below about 25 millibars; (F) passing the resulting polymer melt through at least one filter (450) having a micron rating of less than about 50 microns; and (G) forming the recycled polymer into bulked continuous carpet filament that consists essentially of recycled PET.
Thomas R. Clark
Filed: 29 Jan 18
Utility
Systems and methods for manufacturing bulked continuous filament
5 Apr 22
A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament which, in various embodiments, comprises: (A) grinding recycled PET bottles into a group of flakes; (B) washing the flakes; (C) identifying and removing impurities, including impure flakes, from the group of flakes; (D) passing the group of flakes through an MRS extruder while maintaining the pressure within the MRS portion of the MRS extruder below about 1.5 millibars; (E) passing the resulting polymer melt through at least one filter having a micron rating of less than about 50 microns; and (F) forming the recycled polymer into bulked continuous carpet filament that consists essentially of recycled PET.
Thomas R. Clark
Filed: 22 Jul 19
Utility
Method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament
22 Mar 22
In particular embodiments, a process for producing bulked continuous carpet filament from recycled polymer utilizes two vacuum pumps (140A, 140B) in combination with a single extruder (100).
Thomas R. Clark
Filed: 2 Mar 18
Utility
Systems and methods for manufacturing bulked continuous filament
15 Mar 22
Systems for manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament from polymer, where the systems are configured for: (1) melting polymer (e.g., derived from post-consumer PET bottles) to create a first single stream of polymer melt; (2) separating the first single stream of polymer melt into multiple streams of polymer melt; (3) exposing the multiple streams of polymer melt to a pressure of between about 0 millibars and about 5 millibars; (4) allowing the multiple streams of polymer melt to fall into a receiving section of a melt processing unit; (5) recombining the multiple streams of polymer melt into a second single stream of polymer melt; and (6) providing the second single stream of polymer melt to one or more spinning machines that are configured to form the second single stream of polymer melt into bulked continuous carpet filament.
Thomas R. Clark
Filed: 12 Mar 20
Utility
Low weight modular carpet components and methods of making the same
1 Mar 22
A low-weight carpet tile and process for making the same, wherein the carpet tile comprises a facecloth having a plurality of face yarns tufted through a primary backing, an extruded polymer secondary backing layer, and a reinforcing scrim layer partially embedded within the extruded polymer secondary backing layer.
Mike Gallman, Mike Bell
Filed: 13 Sep 17
Utility
Floor Mats and Methods of Producing the Same
24 Feb 22
Various implementations include a mat having a lower surface and first and second edge portions that define at least a portion of a perimeter of the mat.
Craig TRIMBLE, Joey JENKINS, Shawn EDWARDS, Anthony LAWSON, Franco SANCHEZ-CAMARILLO, Andrew BROWN
Filed: 12 Nov 19
Utility
Floor Board and Method for Manufacturing Such Floor Boards
24 Feb 22
A floor board including a decorative surface layer applied to a substrate, where the substrate has MDF or HDF material at a side edge thereof, where the side edge is treated both with an impregnation agent and/or a sealing agent based on a superabsorbing material.
Dieter D'HONDT, Aaron SHAW
Filed: 4 Nov 21
Utility
a Method to Provide Multifilament Bundles of Melt Spun Polymer Filaments
10 Feb 22
A method for providing a multifilament bundle of melt spun polymer filaments, the that includes providing a spinning device including at least M extruders for melting M polymers, M groups of spinning stations, each group comprising N spinning stations, each spinning station comprising and a spin pack coupled to a spin pump which receives molten polymer from one of the M extruders and spins a strand of filaments by pushing said polymer through the coupled spin pack, and N transformation stations for bundling M strands of filaments.
Anthony CASCIO
Filed: 22 Nov 19
Utility
Bulked continuous carpet filament manufacturing from polytrimethylene terephthalate
8 Feb 22
A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament from polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) comprises: (1) splitting the PTT stream extruded from the primary extruder into a number of polymer streams, each of the plurality of polymer streams having an associated spinning machine; (2) adding a colorant to each split polymer stream; (3) adding PET to the extruded polymer stream downstream of the primary extruder; (4) using one or more static mixing assemblies for each split polymer stream to substantially uniformly mix each split polymer stream and its respective colorant and PET; and (5) spinning each polymer stream with its substantially uniformly mixed colorant and any additives into BCF using the respective spinning machine.
Thomas R. Clark
Filed: 17 Jul 19
Utility
Floor Board and Method for Manufacturing Such Floor Boards
3 Feb 22
A floor board including a decorative surface layer applied to a substrate, where the substrate has MDF or HDF material at a side edge thereof, where the side edge is treated both with an impregnation agent and/or a sealing agent based on a superabsorbing material.
Dieter D'HONDT, Aaron SHAW
Filed: 19 Oct 21