Wall design imprint tool
The present invention is a tool for forming aligned repeating pattern impressions in a deformable material. This tool comprises an upper support plate with at least one handle and a lower forming surface adjacent the upper support plate. The lower forming surface has raised elements designed to form pattern impressions in the deformable material. The raised elements are defined in part by four opposite edges forming a lower perimeter adjacent an upper perimeter of the upper support plate. One of two edges of the lower perimeter is designed to create a respective impression that will match only with an impression created by a respective one of two opposite edges. To ensure proper alignment of the impression, the tool also is provided with alignment indicia to align a first impression made by one continuous perimeter edge of the raised elements to a subsequent impression made by the opposite perimeter edge of the raised elements. The alignment indicia includes both the upper perimeter of the upper support plate corresponding to the edges forming the lower perimeter or the upper support plate being transparent. Either alignment indicia will ensure that an operator can align a prior impression made by the tool with one of the perimeter edges of the tool so that the subsequent perimeter impressions will overlap one another.
The present invention relates to tools for forming patterns in a soft material, and more particularly, to an improved impression tool for forming decorative patterns in plaster, cement, and paint.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONTools for forming decorative patterns in plaster, cement, and paint to provide the appearance of designs which include, for example, the skin of an animal such as a crocodile or snake, brick work, crackle, or stylized figures such as flowers, have gained in popularity in recent years.
Two general classes of tools or methods have been used previously for forming decorative patterns. One class of tools includes a template or stencil. One such stencil appears in U.S. Pat. No. 4,510,729 to Syring. This patent discloses a method using a template or stencil to create a brickwork appearance on a wall. The template, made from cardboard and corresponding to brick joints, is applied to a wall surface. Plaster is applied to the wall surface as well as over the template. After the template is removed the plaster takes on a brick like appearance. This method is time consuming, requires the template to be fixed to the wall, requires the template to be discarded or cleaned after every application, and does not ensure that a consistent plaster thickness will result.
A second class of tools used to form designs includes those which are forced into plaster to make the impressions. Such a tool used to make impressions in concrete appears in U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,656 to Kaitanjian. This patent discloses a tool having an identical periphery after rotation about a center point in any one of four 90-degree positions. In other words the tool can be fitted with adjacent tools in any one of four orientations. Another tool appears in
The biggest problem with the prior art impression tools has been the proper alignment of tool impressions made subsequent to prior tool impressions. Without proper alignment the impression perimeters will not overlap one another and therefore will be visible. With proper alignment the impression perimeters will overlap and therefore create a continuous and seamless pattern. There currently is a need for an improved forming tool for making impressions in plaster, cement, and paint where the edges of the separate tool are in complete alignment and therefore overlap one another creating an overall design on a wall that looks uninterrupted. The object of this invention is to satisfy this need.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention provides a tool 20 for forming aligned repeating pattern impressions in a deformable material. This tool comprises an upper support plate 22 with at least one handle 24 and a lower forming surface 26 adjacent the upper support plate 22. The lower forming surface 26 has raised elements 28 designed to form pattern impressions in the deformable material. The raised elements 28 are defined in part by four opposite edges 30, 32, 34, 36 of the raised elements forming a lower perimeter adjacent an upper perimeter 38 of the upper support plate 22. One of two edges 30, 34 of the lower perimeter of raised elements is designed to create a respective impression 40, 44 that will match only with a respective impression 42, 46 created by a respective one of two opposite edges 32, 36. To ensure proper alignment of the impression, the tool also is provided with alignment indicia to align a first impression made by the one continuous perimeter edge of the raised elements to a subsequent impression made by the opposite perimeter edge of the raised elements.
In one embodiment the alignment indicia is the upper perimeter 38 of the upper support plate 22 that corresponds with the edges 30, 32, 34, 36 forming the lower perimeter of the raised elements. In another embodiment the support plate 22 is transparent so that the impression made by the one of two edges 30, 34 of the raised elements forming the perimeter will be visible to the tool operator to help the tool operator align one of the subsequent impressions 42, 46 made by one of the opposite edges 32, 36 of the raised elements to one of the first impressions 40, 44. In this second embodiment the lower perimeter edge of the raised elements visible through the support plate is the alignment indicia. In a further embodiment the upper support plate 22 and the raised elements are made from a flexible material such as polyurethane.
In a preferred method of use of the present invention, one tool can be used to imprint a continuous pattern design, the tool being properly aligned with the use of the alignment indicia.
The present invention overcomes the deficiencies of impression tools of the prior art by being capable of providing a tool operator with visual alignment indicia for easy alignment of the perimeter edge of the raised elements. This alignment indicia is a visual indication of the location of the lower perimeter edge of the raised elements so that an opposite edge of the lower perimeter can be visually aligned with an edge of a previously made impression.
The operator in
Although the tool can be rigid, the upper support plate 22 in
Both cross sections shown in
Although the present invention is described herein with some particularity, it should be understood that this disclosure has been made only by way of example. Therefore medications can be made to the invention as claimed herein without departing from the scope of the invention.
Claims
1. A tool for forming aligned repeating pattern impressions in a deformable material, comprising:
- an upper support plate;
- a lower forming surface adjacent the upper support plate having raised elements designed to form the pattern impressions in the deformable material, the raised elements defined in part by four opposite edges of the raised elements forming a lower perimeter adjacent an upper perimeter of the upper support plate, one edge of the lower perimeter of raised elements being designed to create an impression which will match only with an impression created by an edge of the lower perimeter opposite said one edge;
- at least one handle fixed to the upper support plate; and
- alignment indicia designed to align a first impression made by said one edge of the raised elements to a subsequent impression made by said opposite edge of the raised elements to create the repeating pattern impressions with properly aligned impression edges.
2. The tool as set forth in claim 1, wherein the alignment indicia is a profile of the upper perimeter in the upper support plate which corresponds to the edges forming the lower perimeter of the raised elements.
3. The tool as set forth in claim 1, wherein the raised elements of the lower forming surface having portions which extend away from the lower forming surface and ending in raised sections.
4. The tool as set forth in claim 3, wherein the raised elements are fixed to the bottom of the upper support plate and are defined by raised section walls extending a defined distance from the lower forming surface toward the raised section and the lower forming surface and further wherein the raised section walls form chambers with the lower forming surface which will maintain a preset amount of deformable material within the chambers so that the impression of the deformable material made by each impression will have a thickness which consistent with the thickness made by subsequent impressions made by the tool.
5. The tool as set forth in claim 4 further including a filet formed at the vertex between the raised section walls and the lower forming surface so that deformable material has a reduced tendency to adhere to the lower forming surface and the raised elements.
6. The tool as set forth in claim 1, wherein the raised elements of the lower forming surface are formed from portions of the lower forming surface which remain after portions of the lower forming surface have been removed.
7. The tool as set forth in claim 6, wherein the raised elements have walls extending a defined distance from the lower forming surface toward an upper surface and form chambers which will maintain a preset amount of deformable material within the chambers so that the impression of the deformable material made by each impression will have a thickness which consistent with the thickness made by subsequent impressions made by the tool.
8. The tool as set forth in claim 6 further including a filet formed at the vertex between the imprint walls and the lower forming surface so that deformable material has a reduced tendency to adhere to the lower forming surface and the raised elements.
9. The tool as set forth in claim 1, wherein the upper support plate is transparent and the alignment indicia include the four opposite edges of the lower perimeter of raised elements which edges are observable through the transparent upper support plate.
10. The tool as set forth in claim 1, wherein the upper support plate is formed from a flexible material.
11. The tool as set forth in claim 10, wherein said flexible material is substantially constructed from polyurethane.
12. The tool as set forth in claim 10, further comprising two handles attached to said upper support plate.
13. The tool as set forth in claim 1, wherein the lower perimeter formed by the four opposite edges of the raised elements is continuous.
14. The tool as set forth in claim 4, further comprising an opening in both the lower forming surface and the upper support plate communicating with the chamber so that a small amount of deformable material can exit from the chamber through the opening to further ensure a consistent thickness of the impressions.
15. The tool as set forth in claim 7, further comprising an opening in both the lower forming surface and the upper support plate communicating with the chamber so that a small amount of deformable material can exit from the chamber through the opening to further ensure a consistent thickness of the impressions.
16. The tool as set forth in claim 1 wherein two handles, each having a longitudinal axis, are fixed to the upper support plate wherein the longitudinal axis of both handles are parallel to one another.
17. The tool as set forth in claim 1 wherein two handles, each having a longitudinal axis, are fixed to the upper support plate wherein the longitudinal axis of both handles are perpendicular to one another.
Type: Application
Filed: Apr 6, 2009
Publication Date: Oct 7, 2010
Inventor: Antonio Pinto (Park Ridge, IL)
Application Number: 12/384,463
International Classification: E04F 21/00 (20060101);