The invention concerns a panel, in particular a floor panel, comprising a body with at least one plastic layer, complementary locking means provided in pairs at mutually opposite panel edges so that a plurality of said panels can be locked together, at least one pair of locking means with hook profiles, namely a receiving hook and in opposite relationship thereto an arresting hook, with the proviso that the receiving hook has remote from the body a hook edge and arranged nearer to the body a receiving recess, wherein the receiving recess is open towards the top side, the arresting hook is provided with an arresting recess arranged nearer to the body and open to the underside and has an arresting step which is arranged remote from the body and which fits in a vertical joining direction into the receiving recess of the receiving hook, the arresting hook has a joining surface remote from the body and also remote from the body a vertically acting arresting contour, the receiving hook has a joining surface nearer to the body and also nearer to the body a positively locking contour which fits together in positively locking relationship with the arresting contour, that is remote from the body, of the arresting hook so that vertical locking can be implemented, the arresting hook has arranged nearer to the body a horizontal locking surface at its arresting step, the receiving hook has arranged remote from the body a horizontal locking surface in the receiving recess, formed at the receiving hook is a narrowed receiving opening through which the arresting step can be inserted substantially in the vertical joining direction into the receiving recess.
A panel of the general kind set forth, for floors, is known from WO 2010/015516. The hook profiles of the known panels are adapted to the material from which the body of the panel is formed. Those panels which have a body comprising a flexurally soft and elastic plastic material can be hooked. The arresting contour provided beneath the joining surface of the arresting hook has regions which project with respect to the plane of the joining surface and other regions which are set back with respect to the plane of the joining surface. Equally the positively locking contour provided beneath the joining surface of the receiving hook has regions which project with respect to the plane of the joining surface and other regions which are set back with respect to the plane of the joining surface. The above-mentioned regions which project and are set back on the positively locking contour and the arresting contour form undercut configurations which counteract movement of the two hook profiles away from each other in a direction perpendicularly to the plane of the panel (vertically). To be able to fit the undercut configurations together the arresting contour and the positively locking contour are pressed against and past each other. In that case they have to be elastically deformed. The arresting contour and the positively locking contour are softly elastic and in that way can be brought into positively locking contact with each other. The maximum amount of undercut configuration is limited by virtue of the soft-elastic property of the plastic material. The action of vertical locking is unsatisfactory.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds