Laminate Floor Research Articles

Use of chatbots in the trade of building materials

The aim of the article is analysing the effectiveness of the use of chatbots in comparison with other e-commerce tools, in particular with websites; determining the functions and capabilities of the chatbot when used in the construction materials trade; indicating the advantages of using chatbots for sellers and for consumers; creation of a basic scheme of chatbot operation in the trade of building materials. Analyses results. Modern types of Internet communications are capable of acting as a virtual interlocutor, repeating and reproducing a written set of human signs, providing a programmed answer to the questions asked. Chatbots use conversational intelligence as a new user interface for e-commerce applications and, accordingly, have significant advantages over other sales channels, increasing sales, improving end-customer service and significantly reducing costs. According to Juniper Research, the total number of chatbot messaging applications available worldwide will grow from 3.5 billion in 2022 to 9.5 billion by 2026. A Ukrainian team of experienced specialists in the construction industry and IT developers developed a chatbot called BMBOT, which is aimed at the digital transformation of the construction industry using artificial intelligence, starting from communication with customers and ending with the collection and analysis of sales data. The article describes the features and capabilities of the chatbot, as well as the advantages of using it for customers and businesses. The authors showed a schematic diagram of a chatbot for a company - a supplier of construction goods, using the example of the selection and calculation of construction materials for the installation of a laminate floor. A chatbot can be developed for all types of system products. This project will be of interest to suppliers, as they will be able to convey to the client important differentials of their products, such as environmental friendliness, European standards, cost efficiency, ease of use, and others. Through the chatbot, you can form a complex customer order with the possibility of delivery, which will save the buyer's time and finances. For the seller, the use of a chatbot will facilitate communication between the client and the supplier, solve the problem of shipment and delivery of goods, and reduce the time and money spent on processing the client. The costs associated with the implementation and use of a chatbot include the initial investment in the creation of the platform and the ongoing costs of maintaining the messaging service. But these costs will be covered by the benefit received in the process of using the chatbot. Conclusions and directions for further research. The advantages of using a chatbot by trading companies: optimization of sales processes, increased decision-making efficiency, assessment and analysis of the target audience, which will lead to cost savings, increased customers, increased conversion, turnover and margins. For further research into the prospects of using chatbots in business, it is necessary to more actively introduce this digital tool into e-commerce of various fields of activity, collect information about the advantages and disadvantages of using chatbots, and improve the theoretical and methodological base of digital marketing and e-commerce.

Desempenho ao ruído de impacto de laje nervurada pré-fabricada com vigotas protendidas com pisos laminados de madeira

Abstract This research aims to discuss and determine acoustic performance values for impact noise insulation (L’nT,w) for 39 floor system compositions that have different resilient materials and wooden laminate floor finishing. The methodology is organized according to ISO 16283-2, ISO 717-2 and NBR 15575-3 for classification. The results obtained demonstrate that the prefabricated ribbed slab with prestressed joists and ceramic slabs, as well as the slab and subfloor system do not meet the minimum requirements for acoustic insulation, comprising values of 91 and 84 dB, respectively. Among the other 37 samples, it is worth mentioning that wooden laminate floors with better abrasion resistance is more efficient concerning acoustic performance, comprising impact noise insulation values ranging from 60 to 62 dB, due to its surface density. In the samples that use resilient materials, the performance values vary from 55 to 46 dB.

Application of Formaldehyde Free Adhesive in Composite Floor

With the enhancement of consumers' concept of "health and environmental protection", the requirements for the living environment are higher and higher, and the quality of home decoration materials has attracted much attention. The green adhesive without formaldehyde has become a research and application hotspot in recent years, and has been more and more widely used in the composite floor industry. Composite floor is an indispensable building material with large application area in residential decoration. The selection and use of adhesives directly determine the environmental protection grade of composite floor. Biomass adhesives, polyurethane adhesives and thermoplastic resin adhesives represented by soybean adhesives are the three types of aldehyde free adhesives with the greatest development potential in composite floor industry at present. This paper reviews the application of aldehyde free adhesives such as polyurethane (including isocyanate) adhesives, waterborne polymer isocyanate adhesives, polyethylene films, soybean protein adhesives and polyvinyl acetate adhesives in solid wood composite floors and paper impregnated laminated wood floors (laminate floor), bamboo floor and other common composite floors, discusses the existing problems, and looks forward to the main research and development direction in the future.

Impact sound insulation of a lightweight laminate floor resting on a thin underlayment material above a concrete slab

Impact noise is a major sound transmission problem in concrete buildings that severely affects the quality of life of residents. The impact insulation of a concrete floor can be improved by the use of floating floor constructions. Commonly, a floating floor consists of an upper panel and a resilient layer, which is in turn laid on the concrete structural slab. Lightweight laminate flooring has become one of the most common floor surfaces in many countries. It is not only used in new dwellings and modern concrete multistorey buildings, but also to replace allergy-causing carpeted floors. However, the improvement in impact sound insulation of lightweight laminated floors has not received much attention. This study aims to report the improvement in impact sound insulation of a typical laminated floor resting on different commercially available thin underlayment materials above a concrete structural slab. Although all the floating floor combinations exhibited different impact sound insulation performance as a function of frequency, the standardized single number ratings described in ISO 717-2 were almost identical. However, environmentally friendly fibrous continuous layers tested in this study reported better impacting sound performance compared with polymeric materials. The force transmissibility-based theory is applied and revised to properly predict the experimental results for this type of floating floor well: an empirical stiffness-dependent formula is derived. In general, the experimental results of the improvement of impact sound insulation are in close agreement with the results obtained with this empirical formula.

Numerical Study of the Mechanical Behavior of a Foundation Raft under the Hydrodynamic Influence of the Mechanical Characteristics of Clay Soils

The clay soils of the city of Douala are constantly saturated with water, which permanently favors the hydrodynamic behavior of the soils (swelling or consolidation). This phenomenon can cause serious disturbances in the structure of buildings resulting in the appearance of cracks in structures (buildings, road bridge, viaduct, etc.). The foundation raft is a very important structure in the dimensioning of structures. Given the soil-structure interactions, its mechanical characteristics must be the subject of a special study linked to the building environment. In this article, we present a study of the mechanical behavior of a foundation raft anchored in a laminate floor. The aim is to highlight the influence of the mechanical properties of the foundation soil on the evolution of the mechanical behavior of the raft. The method used is a numerical simulation. A physical model taking into account a 5-storey building based in Douala in the Denver district is studied. The foundation on the raft foundation of this building follows an elastic constitutive law with Mazars damage, and rests on a laminated soil of plastic elastic model with Camclay plasticity criterion. The ground-raft and ground-ground interfaces are carried out with the finite elements joined to three nodes (JOI3), and obey the Coulomb model; it is an expansion joint model with Mohr-Coulomb type criterion and associated flow. The numerical resolution is carried out by the finite element method, and the numerical simulations via the Cast3M calculation code. The results from the simulations show that the mechanical characteristics of foundation soils, in this case the water content, the compactness, the state of consolidation, greatly influence the mechanical behavior of the foundation slab. There is indeed a significant settlement and a great deformation of the raft foundation when the water content of the soil layers increases, and when the states of consolidation and compactness are low. This article allows us to predict and control the evolution of the behavior of the ground-structure interface of a raft foundation and to adopt a new model appropriate for the sizing of civil engineering structures.

Resuspension of house dust and allergens during walking and vacuum cleaning

ABSTRACTConventional wisdom has been that hard, resilient surfaces resuspend fewer particles than carpeted surfaces, however, exceptions to this have been demonstrated and uncertainty remains about the factors that lead to this resuspension, notably, the effect of vacuum cleaning on either increasing or reducing resuspension from flooring. The purpose of this study was to determine how resuspension of house dust by aerodynamic size or particle type, including cat allergen and bacterial endotoxin, is affected by flooring, dust loading, embedding dust, and walking/cleaning activities. House dust was blown in and allowed to settle in a walk-in chamber after overnight deposition followed by walking or a vacuum cleaning procedure. Using an aerosol particle sizer and large-volume air samplers at different heights in the chamber, concentrations of airborne particles, resuspension rates, and fractions were computed for four types of flooring conditions during six walking activities. Carpeting resulted in significantly more airborne cat allergen and airborne endotoxin than a laminate floor. Height does have an effect on measured allergen over carpet and this is apparent with concentrations at the infant and adult air samplers. Walking on laminate flooring resuspends less house dust than walking on an equally dusty carpeted floor, where dust is entirely on the surface of the carpet. However, vacuum cleaning a laminate floor resuspended more dust than vacuum cleaning carpets, at large particle sizes of 5 µm and 10 µm. Activities following a deep cleaning of hard resilient or a carpeted surface is likely to leave no differences in resuspended particles between them.

Electrostatic behaviour of wood and laminate floor coverings and current situation in standardisation

The tendency for laminate floor coverings to electrically charge can have consequences for the user. A charge can build when an insulating material, such as insulating flooring, comes into contact to another material, such as footwear. For human beings the threshold of sensation is roughly 2 kV of body voltage when touching grounded objects. As a consequence, manufacturers of laminate floor coverings strive to find technical solutions for antistatic laminate floor coverings to be able to declare products as “antistatic”, defined in EN 14041. This standard is based on measurements of a bodies’ voltage, according to the new EN 1815.

Wood or Laminate?—Psychological Research of Customer Expectations

Wood is generally associated with being practical, aesthetic and economy-friendly. Using wood in interior settings also can be based on psychological expectations and assumptions, as wood is attributed as warmer, more homely, more relaxing and more inviting. However, when investigating psychological differences, wood is usually compared to carpets, glass, leather, stone, or plastic but is not compared to a visually similar material such as laminate. The aim of this study is to analyze and compare the various psychological characteristics related to wooden and laminate materials in interior settings. The experimental design was a 2 × 2 design (material, sequence) with repeated measures for material. Forty participants were asked to evaluate a framed piece of wood floor and a framed piece of laminate floor regarding technical, practical, and psychological aspects. Further, three questions about one’s purchase decision were asked. The results show that the wooden floor was evaluated significantly better than the laminate floor regarding “materials and processing”, “atmosphere”, and “values and symbolic functions”. For the criterion “health”, a tendency in favor of wood could be found. In addition, the participants would more likely recommend and purchase wooden products and also accept more deficiencies in wooden products.

Severe Lactic Acidosis in a Diabetic Patient after Ethanol Abuse and Floor Cleaner Intake

An intoxication with drugs, ethanol or cleaning solvents may cause a complex clinical scenario if multiple agents have been ingested simultaneously. The situation can become even more complex in patients with (multiple) co-morbidities. A 59-year-old man with type 2 diabetes mellitus (without treatment two weeks before the intoxication) intentionally ingested a substantial amount of ethanol along with ~750 mL of laminate floor cleaner containing citric acid. The patient was admitted with severe metabolic acidosis (both ketoacidosis and lactic acidosis, with serum lactate levels of 22mM). He was treated with sodium bicarbonate, insulin and thiamine after which he recovered within two days. Diabetic ketoacidosis and lactic acidosis aggravated due to ethanol intoxication, thiamine deficiency and citrate. The high lactate levels were explained by excessive lactate formation caused by the combination of untreated diabetes mellitus, thiamine deficiency and ethanol abuse. Metabolic acidosis in diabetes is multi-factorial, and the clinical situation may be further complicated, when ingestion of ethanol and toxic agents are involved. Here, we reported a patient in whom diabetic ketoacidosis was accompanied by severe lactic acidosis as a result of citric acid and mainly ethanol ingestion and a possible thiamine deficiency. In the presence of lactic acidosis in diabetic ketoacidosis, physicians need to consider thiamine deficiency and ingestion of ethanol or other toxins.

Thickness Swelling and Water Absorption Character of Laminate Floor

Laminate floor coverings, with fiberboard in the middle layer, are hygroscopic which caused potential dimension instability. The paper tested thickness swelling (TS) and water absorption (WA) of 10 commercial laminate floors (LF) according to G/T 18102-2007 (GB/T) and LY/T 1611-2011(LY/T) and analyzed correlation between them. The results show that TS obtained by the GB/T method differed significantly from LY/T methods at the initial 14 days. 7d-TS and 7d-WA values of test specimen measuring 50 by 50mm both correlated well with internal bond (IB). For both kinds of test methods, the moisture content almost reached saturation at 28 days.

Estimating human indoor exposure to elemental mercury from broken compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs)

The 2008 EU regulation, which prohibits conventional incandescent light bulbs, is to be implemented in phases, completing in 2012. One of the possible substitutes is the compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), which, however, does contain up to 5 mg of mercury in its elemental or amalgamated form. The question arises as to the possible exposure of individuals to mercury as a result of lamp breakage during operation or when disconnected from the power supply. Therefore, an apparatus was built to shatter CFLs and drop the shards onto glycol-modified polyethylene terephthalate, a carpeted floor, or laminate floor under defined climatic parameters and operating conditions. Six CFLs of different types and mercury content were studied. After the breakage of a common CFL containing liquid mercury, concentrations up to 8000 ng/m(3) were reached in the chamber. Much lower peak values were obtained with amalgam-type lamps (414 ng/m(3)) or with lamps with a shatter-proof coating (60 ng/m(3)). It was found that ventilation can considerably reduce the indoor air concentration within 20 min. Acute health effects would only be expected if the mercury is not removed immediately. Careful collection and disposal of the lamp fragments would also prevent dwellers from the risk of long-term exposure. After accidental breakage of a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) indoors, dwellers could be exposed to high mercury concentrations. From the results of our studies in test chambers and real rooms using different lamp types and scenarios, it was possible to estimate the possible human uptake of mercury by inhalation. Immediate action is important to reduce indoor mercury concentrations to a minimum level. The first step is to maximize ventilation followed by careful collection of spilled mercury.

MakingSeminarsBetter through Popular Literature

Making<i>Seminars</i>Better through Popular Literature

Sound quality of laminate flooring systems.

The laminate flooring industry identifies the ability of a laminate floor to recreate the sound of traditional hardwood floors as an important metric for their perceived quality and acceptance. The market describes the inability of laminate flooring to reproduce the natural sound of wood as a drawback to their market appeal. Therefore, if a laminate flooring composite can be offered to the market, which recreates the natural wood floor acoustic experience, the floor will offer additional value to the consumer. Products on the market today exist, which do improve the sound quality of laminate flooring composites. However, there is no unified standard to justify or prove marketing claims made by manufacturers. Prior work in the area focused on the spectral content of the signal. In the area of psychoacoustics, many additional metrics exist to describe the human perception of sound, which aids in describing sound quality. These metrics can be utilized to characterize the sound of traditional hardwood floors and laminate systems, beyond what has been done in previous work. By employing these metrics and then correlating them to subjective sound jury perception, it is possible to better predict the sound quality of a laminate floor.

The role of the companion animal veterinary surgeon in behavioural husbandry

An American Veterinary Medical Association mission statement regarding the human-animal bond reads, veterinary surgeon's role in the human-animal bond is to maximise the potential of this relationship between people and animals. To fulfil this aim and implicit obligations, as well as enhancing the welfare of both human and animal companion, it is impossible to ignore the emotional and behavioural aspects of this relationship in favour of purely physiological illness and disease. Rather than only addressing defects in the dog-human relationship which have already occurred – the client complains about destruction in the home, urinating indoors or being snappy towards the children for example – the onus is now on all veterinary surgeons to be rather more pro-active in their approach. It must be appreciated that a relationship does not exist merely between a particular pet and members of their family, but also between that animal and all the humans it may happen to come into contact with elsewhere, including those inhabiting veterinary surgeries. The dog which becomes progressively harder to handle in the surgery over time, although frequently labelled as 'difficult', 'aggressive' or simply 'vicious', is in reality simply one whose behavioural needs and emotional welfare have been inadvertently damaged in the process of maintaining physical health or attending to physical disease. On the other hand, a dog who is genuinely pleased to enter a veterinary surgery, and whose behaviour and emotions have been nurtured in the same way as its physical needs, is a tribute to the attending veterinary surgeon as well as its owner. At present, lack of adequate and appropriate behavioural management is routinely compromising much of the treatment vets try to deliver to their patients, both medical and surgical. In the UK, the new Animal Welfare Act (2007) stipulates that all those in contact with an animal have a 'duty of care' towards it, which encompasses both physical and mental needs, health and well being. It is therefore a legal, if not also moral, obligation of veterinary surgeons in the UK to ensure that necessary, effective and humane behavioural management is in place, bearing in mind these requirements. It would however often seem that farm animals have the better deal in this regard. Management systems and environment are routinely considered to have a bearing on the cow, sheep or pig's physical health and the development of disease, and are therefore automatically included in the large animal veterinary surgeon's remit. Not so for the domestic dog, which may be skidding uncomfortably on a fashionable laminate floor, subjected to the impact of noise from a multitude of household gadgets, or contained and punished with electric shock, and yet its small animal veterinary surgeon be completely unaware of its plight. How can we truly say such animals are 'under our care' if this is the case? This poster presentation will summarise some of the very simple means whereby not only appropriate behaviour, but also accompanying emotions, can be generated and maintained in dogs in all veterinary contexts. Using basic knowledge of learning theory and its practical application, the behavioural repertoire of a dog can be manipulated and cared for in such a way as to ensure emotional welfare and maximum success of medical and surgical veterinary interventions. Not only will such care have benefits within the context of the surgery, as a dog's need to become aggressive will be diminished, but veterinary surgeons and nurses will be presented as 'role models' to be emulated by their clients in all aspects of the animal's life. It will help prevent iatrogenic behavioural damage, allow 'best practice' in terms of clinical care, and result in much improved client loyalty and compliance. Above all, the field of behaviour must not be viewed as time-consuming and financially inefficient, only to be tackled on a 'case-by-case' basis. Instead, it must become second nature for any veterinary surgeon to consider both external behaviour and underlying emotions as part of his or her daily clinical repertoire and demonstrate routine care for them. This is the basis of 'behavioural husbandry'.

Investigation of the Physical Mechanism of Walking Noise Radiation of Laminate Floor-Coverings

This paper reports on an investigation of the physical mechanism of walking noise radiated by laminate floor coverings with and without backings. In pretests of single laminate panels the influence of different backings on the structural vibration of the panels was determined and material parameters like Young's modulus and bending stiffness were obtained. From these parameters the coincidence frequency could be estimated. The main tests were performed with hard rubber balls falling on laminate floor coverings of different sizes and with different backings. Results show that the radiated sound has a single frequency maximum, which is far below the coincidence frequency. From this and from confirming sound intensity measurements it follows that the sound radiation is a locally constrained phenomenon. Additionally, vibration measurements show that the near field of bending waves dominates the vibration and bending wave propagation can be neglected. The characteristics of the near field vibration and therefore the sound radiation can be controlled by the choice of backing of the laminate floor covering.

Evaluation of Drum Sound with ISO Tapping Machine

A branch norm, EPLF NORM 021029-3,1 has been established for measuring drum sound on laminate floor coverings. ‘Drum sound’ refers to the sound occurring when an object, e.g. a foot, strikes the flooring in the room in which the receiving ear is located. The norm evaluates the subjective perception of the drum sound's loudness using the ISO tapping machine. A round-robin study of the norm is reported along with the results of a paired comparison listening test using the same floor coverings. The article discusses general aspects of evaluation measures, tapping machines, test environments, etc., that need to be considered when measuring drum sound on various floor coverings, such as linoleum, wood parquet and laminate. It is concluded that loudness as measured according to ISO 532B correlates the best with the subjective perception of the drum sound's loudness. The tapping machine can be used to excite hard floor coverings to produce the drum sound, but should be used with caution in studying low-level drum sounds due to the tapping machine's inherent mechanical noise.