Armstrong World Industries, Inc.

Awi Licensing Company

Charles H Hines

Kean M Anspach

John R Eshbach, Jr

Michael E Buckwalter

James F Mathis

Lynn M Wise

Walter J Lewicki, Jr

Kenneth K Ko

Dean L Putt

Raymond G Davey

An easy-to-install and remove flooring system comprises three components: 1) a plurality of rolled-out liners, 2) a plurality of tiles, particularly resilient tiles, and 3) an adhesive adhering the tile to the liner. A grid pattern matching the size of the tiles is printed on the liner to enable easy centering and balancing of the tile in the room. The edge portions of adjacent liners are adjacent or overlapped. At least some of the tiles are adhered to two of the liners.

Easy to install and remove tile system

The adhesive system of the present invention is suitable for use in adhering an incompatible ink system to a polymeric film; particularly, adhering a lithographic ink or electrographic toner bonded to a floor covering. The polymeric sheet and incompatible ink have a primer layer interposed between them or the ink layer is encapsulated between the two primer layers. The primer may be solvent based or aqueous based and preferably includes a benzene derivative, ketone, acetate or nitroparaffin solvent or film former. The primer is compatible with the polymeric sheet and diffuses into the ink layer. The preferred solvent or film former includes methyl isobutyl ketone, methyl ethyl ketone, n-propyl acetate, isopropyl acetate, or N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone. The primer also includes a polyvinyl resin, acrylic resin, polyurethane resin or polyester resin, and optionally a pigment. To deter dot distortion of the ink, the primer should have a glass transition temperature (T.sub.g) of at least about 60.degree. C., and preferably at least about 100.degree. C.

Polymeric sheet having an incompatible ink permanently bonded thereto

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Columbia, PA, United States of America

Charles H Hines