1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a non-halogen series floor material. More specifically, it relates to a non-halogen series floor material preferably used as a floor material for use in architectural structures including buildings, condominiums and commercial facilities or vehicle floor material of trains or buses, wherein the non-halogen floor material hardly generates toxic gases at the time of burning and is excellent in wear resistance, stain resistance, dimensional stability and workability.
2. Description of Related Art
The following description sets forth the inventor's knowledge of related art and problems therein and should not be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art.
Conventionally, as a floor material for use in architectural structures including buildings, condominiums and commercial facilities or vehicle floor material of trains or buses, a floor material made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resin is widely used. Since such PVC floor material is excellent in wear resistance and can contain a large amount of filler, the floor material is excellent in dimensional resistance and economical because the material costs can be decreased by increasing the amount of filler.
However, a PVC floor material generates a large amount of smoke and toxic gases such as hydrogen chloride at the time of burning. Accordingly, this causes difficulties from the viewpoint of disaster prevention because evacuees may inhale such toxic gases at the time of fire disaster and also causes environment pollution when incinerating such floor materials. Furthermore, since such a PVC floor material contains a large amount of plasticizer, there are problems that the floor material emits specific odor, the flexibility as a floor material gradually deteriorates as the plasticizer evaporates and the appearance gradually deteriorates because the plasticizer gradually causes dull deposits on the surface thereof.
Recently, there is a proposal to use the following material that generates less toxic gases at the time of burning for a floor material in place of the aforementioned PVC material. The material includes, for example, olefin series thermoplastic resin such as ethylene series copolymer including polypropylene resin, polyethylene resin, ethylene-ethyl acrylate copolymer, ethylene-metacrylate copolymer and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer and polybutene-1, acrylic series thermoplastic resin such as poly methyl meta-crylate, copolymer of poly methyl meta-crylate and acrylic rubber, polyurethane series thermoplastic resin, olefin series thermoplastic elastomer, and styrene series thermoplastic elastomer and urethane series thermoplastic elastomer. By using these materials for a floor material, the aforementioned problems including generation of toxic gases at the time of burning, odor inherent in plasticizer and dull deposits on the surface thereof can be almost solved.
However, in the latter conventional technique, since a large amount of filler cannot be contained, there are problems that the floor material is inferior to a conventional PVC floor material in dimensional stability and that the manufacturing costs increase as compared to a conventional PVC floor material. Furthermore, the material lacks flexibility, resulting in poor workability.