Awi Licensing Company

Armstrong World Industries, Inc.

Afi Licensing LLC

Ahf, LLC D/b/a Ahf Products

Gary A Sigel

William J Kauffman

Jeffrey S Ross

Dong Tian

Rebecca L Winey

Fang Qiao

F Joseph Appleyard

Donald E Barshinger

Larry W Leininger

Clifford M Rosenau

Craig W Desantis

John R Eshbach, Jr

Ralph W Wright, Jr

George E Bagley

Jennifer W Sager

Michael H Maney

Craig W DeSantis

Burton L Wilson

Ronald S Lenox

Roman C Domszy

Richard E Herr, Jr

Elizabeth A Malkowski

Daniel P Baker

Jacob A Roodman

Burton Wilson

Described herein is a flooring product comprising a base layer, the base layer comprising: a filler and a polymeric binder, the polymeric binder comprising: an amorphous thermoplastic polyester and a semi-crystalline thermoplastic polyester, wherein the thermoplastic amorphous polyester has a Tless than 30&#xb0; C.

Polyester binder for flooring products

A product is provided having a biobased component where the biobased component includes recycle polyester resin and the recycle polyester resin includes polyethylene terephthalate, polybutylene, or polypropylene terephthalate. The biobased component includes a polyester resin where the polyester resin is the co-reaction product of an aliphatic polyester having renewable components and a recycle polyester resin. Included is a composition having a filler and a polymeric binder. The filler includes inorganic biobased filler or recycle thermoset resin based filler.

PVC/polyester binder for products

A flooring product is provided comprising at least one layer including a polymeric binder comprising at least one thermoplastic polyester resin, wherein the polyester resin comprises at least one renewable component. A flooring product is also provided that includes at least one layer comprising filler and at least one thermoplastic, high molecular weight polyester resin. The flooring product may also qualify for at least one point under the LEED System. A composition is also provided that can be melt mixed in low intensity mixers and processed into flooring layers.

A flooring product comprises a heterogeneous design layer having multiple regions wherein two regions comprise compositions having different recycle content or renewable content. The thickness of the design layer may be greater than the dimensions of the regions or the regions may extending from the top surface of the layer to the bottom surface of the design layer. The heterogeneous layer may be composed of consolidated particles/chips which may contain a polyester binder system with a renewable component. Additionally, a method for making a heterogeneous layer having a target wt % recycle content or renewable content is also disclosed.

Flooring product having regions of different recycle or renewable content

A flooring product is provided which has at least one layer including a polymeric binder comprising homo-polymer PVC resin and thermoplastic, high molecular weight polyester resin or highly viscous polyester resin. The polyester resin comprises renewable components, and can be amorphous or crystalline in nature. A flooring product is described that comprises a renewable or recycle content that classifies the product for points under the LEED system for commercial products.

PVC/polyester binder for flooring

The methods for making a coated thin veneer, plank or wood product in which the coated surface does not crack due to instability of the wood involve applying to a veneer, plank or wood product a composition including a hydrophilic polymer and a reactive monomer or a composition including a reactive (meth)acrylate. In one embodiment, the hydrophilic polymer is a polyalkylene glycol, such as polyethylene glycol. The composition also advantageously includes a thermally activated free radical initiator, a photoinitiator or both. The veneer is further laminated into wood product boards that are cut down to planks. In another aspect of the current invention, several solvent based resins are roll coated onto the loose and/or tight side of the thin veneer or unfinished plank wood, dried to remove solvent, and exposed to UV radiation to cure the resinous material by radical initiation of the photoinitiator that leads to polymerization. Further polymerization of the resin material within the pores or voids occurs by heat induced initiation of the organic peroxides at the time of lamination in the case of veneer or by UV radiation exposure in the case of planks.

Method and process to reduce surface cracking for coated hardwood composite flooring

Surface covering components that include a topcoat layer with different gloss levels in various regions on the top coat layer, and methods of manufacturing such surface covering components, are disclosed. The surface covering components include a coating layer that includes regions that have a relatively higher gloss, and regions with a relatively lower gloss. The differential gloss is provided by coating a substrate with a UV-curable coating composition, subjecting a first region of the surface coating to polymerization under a first set of conditions, and subjecting a second region of the surface coating to polymerization under a second set of conditions. The UV-curable coating compositions include UV-curable components and one or more flatting agents. The different polymerization conditions involve applying various photoinitiators, thermal initiators and/or cure altering agents to some regions of the coated substrate, and not applying these components to other regions of the substrate. The components are applied in the form of a pattern. Regions in contact with these components are cured at different rates in one step or in different steps, for example, sequential UV and EB irradiation or UV irradiation at different wavelengths and/or exposure times. The resulting surface coverings and surface covering substrates have differential gloss in register with the printed and/or sprayed patterns.

Surface covering having gloss-in-register

Coated hardwood composite flooring having reduced surface cracking

Method of making a surface covering having gloss-in-register

Composite wear layers that include a polyethylene terephthalate wear layer adhered to an organic/inorganic (O/I) top coat layer, and surface coverings and surface covering components including the composite wear layers, are disclosed. The organic/inorganic top coat layer is formed from a top coat formulation that comprises a coupling agent that includes an organic polymerizable moiety such as epoxy, acrylate and the like, as well as an inorganic polymerizable moiety such as a silanol. The wear layer is typically in the range of about 1-20 mils thickness, and the top coat layer is typically in the range of 2 microns to 0.5 mils thickness. The composite wear layers can be included in surface coverings or surface covering components, such as floor and wall coverings. An adhesion promoter/binder can be used to better adhere the polyethylene terephthalate wear layer to the organic/inorganic top coat layer.

PET wear layer/sol gel top coat layer composites

A method and composition for providing a colored high performance wear surface for floor coverings is disclosed. Specifically, the floor covering includes a substrate and a high performance layer comprising a radiation cured pigmented composition. The exposed surface of the floor covering has a stain resistance of less than about 150 Delta E units. A pigmented high performance wear layer can be added in register with a printed design on the substrate or in register with an embossed texture of the substrate. Additionally, a high performance topcoat wear layer may be added. The pigmented high performance layer may include a nacreous pigment.

Pigmented radiation cured wear layer

Surface covering having gloss in-register and method of making

A surface covering has a base to which is laminated a rigid vinyl film. The film is precoated with an electron beam cured wearlayer. The preferred wearlayer composition is a polymerizable organic urethane-polyester wearlayer coating. The coated printed film is prepared by application of a polyester urethane acrylate composition to a printed sheet of rigid vinyl film and the coating is exposed to a low accelerating energy Electro-curtain to form an abrasion resistant topcoat with no apparent degradation of printed rigid vinyl film.

Surface covering having a precoated, E-beam cured wearlayer coated film and process of making the same

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Millersville, PA, United States of America

Gary A Sigel