Bricks are those well-known materials for buildings consisting substan¬ tially of clay that has been suitably processed and burnt. These building materials can be bricks that are solid or contain two, three, four and six holes and also tiles of various kinds, cladding products, tubes, joists.

Bricks, especially hollow bricks, whether of clay or some other material, are mostly parallelepiped in shape and are used for building walls, floors and covering structures. As the case or part of the structure concerned may require, bricks can be completed by being filled with various kinds of mortar. On account of their specific formation and of their component materials, hollow bricks are usually supplied semi-finished and, during building work, need certain finishing processes to even up the surface and achieve the required satisfactory appearance.

Starting from the semi-finished hollow brick, the purpose of this invention is to complete the brick with the desired filling, with useful processes such as boring, grooving and the like, with the addition of reinforcing and

covering structures and then to finish it to facilitate use reducing other finishing work on the building and so saving time and materials Subject of the invention is a process for completion and finishing of hollow bricks, comprising one, some or all of the following installations and one, some or all of the work stations included in them for:

- filling the hollow bricks with fluid types of mortar, grinding the surfaces and drying them out ;

- trimming by a milling process the four longitudinal edges of the brick, creating channels with a cross section of 90°, for spraying on one or more coats of mixed fluid mortar, application of netting between one coat and another, surface finishing with smoothed plaster or some other kind

- forming channels and holes in the bricks by milling and core-boring to make to make vertical, horizontal and frontal holes, as required, for elec¬ trical and hydraulic installations, - milling and core-boring to form vertical holes so that when the wall is built the holes will be aligned in order to receive metal reinforcements for anti-seismic purposes and to secure them to the horizontal reinforce¬ ments in the structure The installations and stations for these purposes are connected one to another by conveyor belts and the like to move the bricks from one station to the next

Equipment is placed between installations to form packages of bricks and move them onto a pallet feeder In this way packages of bricks can be withdrawn at the desired state of formation at the exit point of one or other installation and after one or another of the successive stations.

State of formation corresponds, as the case may be, to filling the bricks with mortar, to surface grinding, to trimming longitudinal edges, to appli¬ cation on their sides of netting and plaster, to formation of holes and channels to receive electrical and hydraulic installations, to formation of holes and channelling for antiseismic reinforcements

The filling, grinding and drying installation comprises a circuit for con¬ tinuous circulation of brick-carrying platforms that follow a substantially four-sided route. This installation in turn comprises a feed line for the filling machine, a line with a drying tunnel for ventilated drying of the filled bricks, a line for moving the dried bricks to a machine for turning the bricks on end at 90° and a line for returning the emptied platforms back to the start where they began by carrying bricks to be filled. The filling machine comprises a tank with hopper and a conveyor-propor- tioner with vertical nozzles, the number of which corresponds to the holes in the bricks, said nozzles penetrating inside said holes by means of a hy¬ draulic device.

While the holes are being filled this hydraulic device gradually lifts up the nozzles as the mortar rises to avoid the formation of air bubbles in it. The mobile platforms carrying the bricks have a soft floor and a template for formation of a protective grid in the spaces between one brick and the next.

The drying tunnel is situated immediately after the filling machine so that the filled bricks can be moved on immediately after filling before the fluid begins to set.

There are two elevators one at each end of the tunnel for raising and lowering the platforms carrying filled bricks, said translating platforms therefore moving along vertical circulating trajectories consisting of two lines of horizontal transfer one above the other and connected at the two ends by the two elevators; a descending flow of warm dry air is put into the tunnel, said air emerging below when saturated with moisture, after drying out the circulating bricks, and flowing in the direction opposite to that taken by the platforms. Bricks coming from the drying tunnel, from a feed line of hollow bricks in their ordinary condition, namely without filling, are moved to a machine that turns them up at 90° so that the vertical holes lie horizontally. On leaving this machine the turned-up bricks move to a grinder to have their surfaces milled and smoothed so that a minimum quantity of strong

high-quality binder can be used on them, thickness being even of only 1 mm so that laying can be done rationally and simply. Diamomd-coated discs are used for grinding, these generally being of a large diameter, grinding tolerances being possible even of less than 0,2 mm, fitted with abrasive and cutting blocks such as can produce smooth bricks of an even plane all over.

The two disks are placed one opposite the other and their position in rela¬ tion to the bricks is automatically adjusted as the cutting and abrasive blocks become worn down. This process is done wet, water being recycled after cutting and washing the bricks, and being showered in from nozzles at the edges of the cutting wheels and along the path taken by the bricks when they leave the grinder. After grinding the bricks pass through a fan-operated drier and then through drying equipment programmed to avoid shrinkage of the filling material and therefore detachment of the plug so formed, at the same time ensuring complete elimnation of humidity in the filling to prevent growth of fungi. This drying line comprises a number of parallel drying lines served by a line of transversal transfer upstream and by second line of transversal transfer downstream.

Forward movement of bricks along the parallel drying lines is operated by a system of hygrometric control that starts up or stops forward movement in accordance with a previously set drying curve depending on the quan- tity of bricks.

On leaving the filling, grinding and drying installations, the bricks pass on to a finishing installation comprising a station where the four longitudinal edges are trimmed, so as to obtain between one brick and another an angular groove, approximately mm 4 x 2, whose presence during the plastering stage will enable the plaster to harden up in the joint created between one brick and the next because of its greater thickness in the groove.

From the trimming station the bricks pass to a station at which there is a plaster spraying machine and one that feeds in a reel of netting. Here, after a coat of plaster has been sprayed on, a micrometric net, preferably of fiberglass, is automatically applied to the surface of the brick that will remain on view.

After application of the net one or more coats of plaster will be given ac¬ cording to the type of finish required.

At the edges of the net, threads from it will emerge from the surface of a brick and these, penetrating into the groove in the adjacent brick when the wall is built, will assist connection between bricks and give better con¬ tinuity to the final coat of plaster.

The installation for making channels and holes in the bricks comprises three stations respectively with horizontal mandrels for cutting horizontal and longitudinal holes in the bricks, horizontal mandrels for cutting frontal holes in the bricks and vertical mandrels for cutting vertical holes.

By means of this process of making channels and holes, pre-plastered bricks can be used for building which do not then suffer deterioration due to insertion of wiring and of sheaths for hidden tubes for installation of electrical and hydraulic systems. This chanelling and boring is so done that, during building, they will lie horizontally on the perimeters of the various rooms and vertically at the doors.

Positions of the milling and core-boring mandels can be varied as desired according to required arrangements and to forward movement of the feed line that carries the pre-plastered bricks to one, another or all of the finishing stations.

At these finishing stations mandrels are respectively vertical, horizontal and frontal in relation to the surfaces of the brick that will be visible after the wall is built. The installation for chanelling by milling and core-boring of vertical holes in which means of anti-seismic reinforcement are inserted, comprises a milling station with vertical mandrels.

In this way, after a wall is built, the holes bored in the bricks are in perfect vertical alignment so that metal reinforcement can be easily run in and connected with horizontal reinforcements.

After this special high-resistance mortar can be injected which, on expansion, ensures that reinforcements remains stably in position. Bricks can be made of clay or of any other suitable material. Transfer of bricks from one installation to another and from one station to another is obtained by lines of transfer formed of continuous slat belts. These lines of transfer at each installation and at each station in each in- stallation have branch transfer lines so that bricks can pass through all the stations of all the installations, even automatically, or else through the installations and stations chosen for such movement. In any case bricks can be returned into circulation towards any chosen installation and station. Between one installation and another and especially between the filling installation comprising the filling stations, drying station, up-turning station, grinding station, drying station, finishing installation comprising the edge trimming station, the station for application of net and plaster, the installation for channelling and boring for electrical and hydraulic sys- terns comprising stations respectively for horizontal, vertical and frontal boring of holes in bricks, the installation for channelling and boring for anti-seismic reinforcements, among all these installations equipment is provided with portal grabs and trolleys for movement and formation of packages of bricks and for carrying them to where they can be loaded onto pallets.

In this way bricks can be withdrawn, after each installation and each station, at whatever stage of completion and finishing they have reached. The invention offers evident advantages. By means of the process described hollow bricks of clay or of other materials can be completed and finished for building fire-resisting, anti- seismic carrying or insulating walls.

Bricks so processed are ready to receive electrical and hydraulic equip¬ ment as well as anti-seismic reinforcement and can present their visible surfaces almost completely finished, complete with netting and plastering. Ordinary mortar is replaced by a binder offering high resistance, only a minimum quantity of which is necessary since the matching surfaces of bricks have been ground. Wall building is therefore rational and simple. Bricks filled by a gradual automated method of filling and dried immediately after are proof against shrinkage of the filling material, any remaining moisture being removed thus avoiding formation of mould and fungi over a period of time that would weaken or cancel the product's capacity for heat resistance and greatly lower its quality. Finishing on the outer sides of the bricks with a micrometric net, especially if of fiberglass, provides strength and support for the plaster while also facilitating connection between one brick and the next by the emerging ends of the net at the sides of the bricks where grooves are created on the longitudinal edges.

In these grooves a thick layer of plaster can be applied and this creates a kind of reinforcement between one brick and another. The desired degree of finish can automatically be given to bricks from the float stage to final smoothness.

Prior preparation given for installation of electrical and hydraulic systems and for insertion of anti-seismic reinforcement avoids any kind of cutting or boring being necessary after a wall is built, as happens at present causing loss of time and increased costs The advantages may be summarised in greatly facilitated wall construc¬ tion excluding the use of the classical equipment for this purpose. All that is necessary is to lay the brick on the mortar, consumption of which is extremely small and may be even one fiftyith of the amount normally used with present methods. Walls built with bricks completed and finished in accordance with this pre¬ sent process undoubtedly possess better resistance in both compression and traction, improved elasticity for absorbing structural bending, high

resistance to passage of heat and to fire, considerable resistance to anti- seismic thrusts

Characteristics and purposes of the invention will be made still clearer by the following examples of its execution illustrated by diagrammatic drawings.

Fig 1 Installation for filling, drying and up-turning, plan view

Fig 2 Detail of the filling machine

Fig 3 Installation for grinding and for drying, plan view

Fig 4 Installation with stations for trimming, application of the net and of plastering

Fig. 5 Detail of a structure built with trimmed and plastered bricks, a ver¬ tical section

Fig 6 As above, side view

Fig 7 Installation with three stations for channelling and boring for elec- tncal and hydraulic systems, plan view.

Fig 8 Installation for channelling for insertion of anti-seismic reinforce¬ ments, side view.

Fig 9 Detail of a structure built with bricks containing channelling for an- ti-seismic reinforcement, side view Fig 10 As above with anti-seismic reinforcements already inside.

Fig 1 1 As above, plan view.

The chain of installatioins subject of the invention comprises all or part of the following systems for completion and finishing of hollow bricks:

- drilling, drying, up-turning, grinding and drying, - trimming, application of a net and plastering;

- channelling and boring for electrical and hydraulic systems;

- channelling for insertion of anti-seismic reinforcements

The filling and drying installation 35 is formed of a circuit for continuous circulation of platforms 60 carrying bricks, substantially following a route along four sides comprising the line 41 for feeding the filler 90, the line 42 with a drying tunnel 100 for ventilated drying of filled bricks, the line 43 for moving the dried bricks to the brick up-turning machine 1 10 aηd the line 44 for returning the empty platforms 60 towards the initial line 41

The hollow bricks 10 are transferred to installation 35 by the feed line 40 formed of a slat conveyor belt, served by a station 70 comprising a platform 71 for the piles 9 of bricks and an unstacking trolley 72 sliding on rails 73. From the line 40 the bricks 10 are transferred to the line 41 in the continuous circuit and from there to the filling machine 90. As seen in Fig. 2, said filling machine comprises a tank and hopper 91 of fluid mortar with a conveyor-proportioner 92 fitted with nozzles 93. The nozzles are made to penetrate inside the holes 10' in the bricks 10. In said nozzles there are channels 94, worked by a hydraulic device which, during filling of the hollow bricks 10, progressively raises said nozzles as the mortar 95 fills up the base of the hole 10' in the hollow brick 10, doing so to avoid formation of air bubbles in the mortar. The mobile platforms 60 have a template, for forming a protective grid in the spaces between one brick and another, made of a soft material for perfect adherence with the bricks in spite of their edges being irregular, the purpose of this being to prevent the fluid mortar from running out. The filled bricks 10, indicated with the number 12, are transferred along the line 41 to line 42 that runs inside the ventilated drying tunnel 100, (not shown in detail in Fig:1 for simplicity) and as this is situated immediately after the filling machine, the filled bricks can be set in motion at once before the fluid in them has set.

Two elevators 101 and 102 are situated at the two ends of the tunnel and these respectively raise and lower the platforms 60 with the filled bricks so that the platforms follow a trajectory of circultion on two levels one above the other.

Said platforms move inside the tunnel into which a downward flow of warm dry air is sent, emerging from below when saturated with moisture. Air flow moves in the opposite direction to movement of the platforms. From the drying tunnel 100 the dried bricks 12 pass into line 43, similarly consisting of a slat conveyor belt, which carries them to the up-turning machine 1 10.

The bricks 12 therefore reach said machine with holes 12' lying vertically while after being turned up they assume a position at 90° so that the holes 12' are then horizontal and are indicated by number 13. From the turning-up machine 110 the bricks 13 pass along the slat con- veyor line 45 to the grinding and drying installation 36 (Fig. 3).

The bricks 10 can be brought to the up-turning machine 110 along the line 40', served by a station 70 substantially similar to that already des¬ cribed for loading the line 40. But the bricks that reach the turning-up machine 1 10 along line 40 have no filling and can therefore be moved on to the other installations in their original condition with open holes 12'.

The grinding and drying installation 36 exhibits the grinder 1 15 compri¬ sing, alongside the feed belt 45, a guide strip exerting lateral pressure to assist positioning and another such strip exerting vertical pressure during grinding.

Grinding is done by abrasion using two diamond-coated discs 116, 1 17, diameter of about 0.7-0.8 m, comprising abrasive and smoothing blocks able to cut and grind simultaneously. In this way the two faces of the brick, indicated by number 14, held between two parallel disks, are smoothed on even planes.

Coplanarity is assured by automatic disk movement to compensate wear on both the cutting and grinding blocks.

The water needed both during cutting and for subsequently washing the treated bricks is recycled by a hydraulic system. Washing is done through nozzles 118, 1 19 placed in the peripheral areas of the cutting disks and at the washing station, situated on the slat conveyor, supplied by the water recovered after previous use. After washing, the slat conveyor 46 carries the bricks through a drier 120 with fans 121 , 122 and from there to the further drier 130. Said drier 130 comprises a set of parallel drying lines 131 along which the bricks have to move under a system of hygrometric control that starts or stops their movement in accordance with previously established drying values.

On reaching the end of the parallel lines 131 , the bricks move onto a dis¬ charging slat line 47.

From line 47 the bricks pass onto a second up-turning machine 1 10' so that their holes are vertical and are indicated by number 15. At a pallet loading station 80 said bricks 15 can be moved by pallet trucks 65.

At the loading station 80 a grab 81 forms the bricks into packages and a transporting means 82 transfers the packages onto the trollley 83 sliding on guides 84 passing from there to the empty pallet supplier 85 from which the bricks 15 can be taken by the pallet truck 65.

From line 47 the bricks can be transferred along line 48 to the finishing installation 37 comprising trimming, applying the net and plastering. Inside the chamber 139, this installation comprises the trimmer 140 to which the brick 15 arrives along line 49. During this process, grooves 25 measuring about mm 4 wide and 2 deep (see also Fig.5) are cut in two upper and two lower edges of the brick. This trimmer 140 works with a pair of milling cutters 141 , 142 between which the brick 15 passes, its number changing to 16 on emerging. Leaving the trimmer 140, the bricks 16 pass along line 50 to the net ap- plying machine 150 which applies a net 26 of microfibergtass to support and strengthen the plaster.

Threads 27 of the net mounted on the face of the brick project outward for a length of about mm 3-4 at the ends. The net applier has a support for a reel of netting 28 for the net 26. The netting 28 is cut by a knife into lengths to suit that of the brick.

Rollers 151 , 152 make the cut netting adhere to the surface 29 of the brick 17.

From the net applier 150 the brick 17 passes along line 51 to the spraying machine160 with sprayers 161 , 162 that apply a thickness of from 6 to 8 mm of fine plaster 30 to the external side of the brick 17 pro¬ tected by the net 26. Finishing can then be given to the surface of whatever kind is preferred.

The plastered brick, here given the number 18, is then moved by the slat conveyor 52 to a pallet loading station 80 like the previous one, from where the bricks can be taken on by the pallet truck 65. From there the bricks can be put into store. The brick 18 can however continue towards line 53 onto installation 38 for chanelling and boring to receive electric wiring and tubes for plumbing.

This installation 38, creates under-surface channels for the above wires and tubes so that no further work is needed on walls for these connections.

Installation 38 comprises a horizontal cutter 171 with mandrel 172 for horizontal holes 190 in the bricks 19, a frontal cutter 175 with mandrel 176 for frontal blind round or rectangular holes 191 in bricks 20 and a vertical cutter 180 with mandrel 181 for round vertical holes 192 in bricks 21. These cutters comprise mandrels to make holes right through and blind holes whose positions can be altered by an automated control device connected to forward movement of the feed slat conveyor 53-57. All these cutters operate in a chamber 170 with air suction that carries the dust to a separator from where it is taken to a silo for sedimentation. The dust thus collected can be used again to make bricks.

The frontal blind holes 191 are fitted with a system for expulsion of the core when the hole is made and for filling it up with inert material. After this process the bricks 21 leave the chamber 170 and are carried on line 57 to a station 80, like the earlier one, where they are piled onto pallets.

The chain of installations is also completed with a further one, 39, compri¬ sing a horizontal cutter 186 to prepare the bricks 22 with holes 195 for insertion of vertical anti-seismic reinforcements. Prepared in this way anti-seismic resistance can be ensured combined with the horizontal reinforcement of the structure.

The holes 195 made in the bricks for anti-seismic reinforcement are made with a vertical mandrel 187 to ensure perfect vertical alignment of holes

to receive the anti-seismic steel bars 196 of a suitable diameter to permit connection with the horizontal reinforcing bars.

Subsequent injection of a special high-resisting mortar fixes the reinforcing bars firmly in place. The cutter 186 is situated in a chamber 185 with air suction.

The hollow brick 22 can be moved along the slat conveyor 59 to the station 80 to be formed into packages and taken away on the pallet truck 65.

Fig. 9 shows a structure 194 made with bricks 22 which have been pre- pared with channels 195 to receive anti-seismic reinforcements.

Into these channels the bars 196 are inserted as seen from one side in Fig. 10 and in the plan view in Fig. 1 1 .