SYSTEM FOR MANUFACTURING COVERING PRODUCTS, PARTICULARLY CERAMIC TILES AND/OR NATURAL STONES FOR COVERING WALLS OR THE LIKE

This invention relates to a system for manufacturing covering products, particularly ceramic tiles and/or natural stones for covering walls or the like.

As is known, to cover surfaces such as the walls of public and private premises, building facades, interior and outdoor masonry works, etc., the use is often made of plate-shaped products such as tiles, bricks and slabs made of ceramic material, natural stones or the like. Such products have an installation surface and a visible surface, meaning by installation surface the face of the product turned towards the wall once installed, and by visible surface the face opposite the installation and, generally, decorated surface.

In this particular sector, the need is very much felt to renew the manufactured products and find new ones so as to distinguish these to a greater extent from those of the competition.

In the light of such need, many manufacturers, to an increasing extent, are trying to develop products that have so-called "three-dimensional" visible surfaces, meaning some parts are in relief and others are sunken.

In this respect, ceramic products are known shaped by pressing inside presses, the dies of which are shaped so as to obtain the above reliefs/depressions on the visible surfaces.

These products do however have a number of drawbacks, among which should be recalled the fact that the costs of manufacturing the above shaped dies are usually very high and negatively affect the end cost of the products. Nor should the fact be ignored that standard pressing techniques are not always able to ensure big height differences between reliefs and depressions and thus obtain limited three-dimensional effects.

As an alternative to these products, the manufacture is known of flat slabs of bigger or smaller size and with differing thicknesses, the cutting of the slabs into smaller blocks and, then, the gluing together of the various small blocks, being careful to mix the higher blocks with the lower blocks.

The products obtained in this way therefore have a three-dimensional visible surface obtained by alternating the higher blocks with the smaller blocks. To manufacture the flat slabs with different thicknesses, a pressing operation is usually performed inside dies of different heights or by smoothing down the visible surface, or the installation surface, of initially thicker slabs.

Such types of manufacture, however, produce lots of waste material and high production costs caused, in particular, by the manufacturing difficulties and large energy consumptions required for smoothing and pressing operations performed on large quantities of ceramic mix. To overcome such drawbacks, the manufacture is known of flat slabs of constant thickness and the application on their installation surface of a layer of added material that permits keeping them slightly raised with respect to their support surface. The cutting of a series of slabs with layers of added material of different thicknesses and the subsequent gluing of the small blocks thus obtained permits the low-cost production of covering products.

Such manufacturing system, however, is susceptible to further upgrading aimed at considerably simplifying the procedure and further cutting production costs. In this respect, in fact, take into consideration that the above manufacturing system is currently performed at artisan level with operations done manually, with not always enough precision and attention and with particularly high labour costs.

The main aim of this invention is to provide a system for manufacturing covering products, particularly ceramic tiles and/or natural stones for covering walls or the like, that permits producing the covering products with "three-dimensional" visible surfaces in a practical, easy, functional and quick way. A further object of this invention is to considerably cut labour costs and the overall cost of manufacture and operation compared to traditional production methods. Another object of this invention is to provide a system for manufacturing covering products, particularly ceramic tiles and/or natural stones for covering walls or the like, that allows overcoming the above-mentioned drawbacks of prior art within the ambit of a simple, rational, easy and effective to use and low-cost solution.

The above objects are all achieved by this system for manufacturing covering

products, particularly ceramic tiles and/or natural stones for covering walls or the like, characterized in that it comprises at least one preliminary workstation for working at least one substantially plate-shaped semi-finished product having a visible surface and an installation surface, the preliminary workstation comprising a machine having a base frame supporting distributor means suitable for distributing at least one cement material in paste state on the installation surface of said semi-finished product to define a thickening layer of predefined height.

Further characteristics and advantages of this invention will appear even more evident from the description of a preferred, but not exclusive embodiment of a system for manufacturing covering products, particularly ceramic tiles and/or natural stones for covering walls or the like, illustrated by way of non limiting example in the accompanying drawings, wherein: figure 1 is a front view of a preliminary workstation of the system according to the invention; figure 2 is a side view of the station of figure 1 ; figure 3 is a side view, on an enlarged scale, of a detail of figure 2; figure 4 is a front view, on an enlarged scale, of a detail of figure 1; figure 5 is an axonometric view, on an enlarged scale, of a portion of semi-finished product obtained by means of the station of figure 1; figure 6 is an axonometric view of some small blocks obtained by means of the cutting station of the system according to the invention; figures 7 to 9 show, in a sequence of schematic and partial axonometric views, the assembly phase of the small blocks in the assembly station of the system according to the invention. With special reference to such figures, the reference numeral 1 globally designates a system for manufacturing covering products, particularly ceramic tiles and/or natural stones for covering walls or the like.

The system 1 comprises a preliminary workstation 2 suitable for operating on a plurality of plate-shaped semi-finished products 3. The semi-finished products 3 consist for example of tiles and slabs made of ceramic material, natural stones or the like, and having a visible surface 3a and an installation

surface 3b opposite to one another.

The preliminary workstation 2, in detail, is made up of a machine with a base frame 4 resting on the ground and which supports distributor means 5 suitable for distributing a cement material M in paste state on the installation surfaces 3b of the semi-finished products 3.

The application of the cement material M on the semi-finished products 3, in point of fact, is such as to define on these a thickening layer 6 with a predefined height. The cement material M is bi-component mortar to which are added particular types of selected resins in order to obtain a material with pre-established fluidity, strength and drying time properties that make it workable and efficient during use on the machine 2.

The distributor means 5 comprise feeding means 7 for feeding the semi-finished products 3 in a forward direction which, in Figure 1, is schematically shown by the arrow A. These feeding means 7 are made up, for example, of a conveyor arranged horizontally and of the belt type.

The conveyor 7, in detail, comprises a plurality of belts 8 closed in a loop and wrapped around corresponding pairs of operating wheels 9, one of which a drive wheel and the other a driven wheel. The upper sections of the belts 8, arranged side by side and parallel, define a support and forward surface on which the semi-finished products 3 are arranged resting on their visible surface 3a and with the installation surface 3b turned upwards. Alternative embodiments of the present invention cannot however be ruled out in which the conveyor 7 is of the continuous belt type wrapped around two or more horizontal cylinders.

In substantially median position with respect to the entire length of the conveyor 7 and above the belts 8, a dispensing element 10 for the cement material M is arranged which permits distributing such material by gravity on the installation surfaces 3b of the semi-finished products 3 which move along the forward direction A. The dispensing element 10 consists of a metal sheet tubular section with a slot 11 for the extrusion of the cement material M.

The slot 11 substantially extends horizontal and at right angles to the forward direction A.

Usefully the distributor means 5 comprise pushing means 12 for pushing the cement material M through the dispensing element 10. Such pushing means comprise a hopper 13 for loading the cement material M, which is associated above with a screw feeder 14 in fluidic communication with the dispensing element 10.

Preferably, the loading of the hopper 13 with the cement material M and the operation of the screw feeder 14 are timed according to the forward speed of the semi-finished products 3 and to the quantity of cement material M to be applied on these.

The distributor means 5 also comprise adjustment means 15 for adjusting the height of the thickening layer 6.

These adjustment means consist of a spatula that can be fixed to the base frame 4 and is suitable for spreading the cement material M on the semi-finished products 3. The spatula 15, in particular, has a work edge 16 that can be positioned at right angles to the forward direction A and close to the installation surface 3b of the semi-finished products 3 arranged on the conveyor 7.

Furthermore, the spatula 15 is substantially arranged tilted with respect to the forward direction A. In this respect, it must be noticed that the angle defined between the position plane of the spatula 15 and the forward direction A and which is turned towards the dispensing element 10 and towards the cement material M still to be spread is substantially acute.

Such inclination of the spatula 15, in point of fact, makes it easier to crush the cement material M on the installation surfaces 3b and consequently also makes it easier to spread.

Advantageously, along the work edge 16, a plurality of depressions 17 are obtained that permit splitting the thickening layer 6 up into an equal number of longitudinal segments 6a, separate from one another.

This solution, besides making the spreading operations easier and simpler, permits obtaining particularly thick thickening layers 6 with limited quantities of cement material M.

Usefully, the machine 1 has a kit of spatulas 15 that can be fitted onto it alternately and have depressions 17 of different shapes and/or dimensions. By alternating the use of the spatulas 15, therefore, different series of thickened semifinished products can be obtained, the total thickness of which is given as the sum of the thickness of the semi-finished products 3 and of the thickening layers 6 and which differ from one another in the fact that their thickening layers 6 have different heights. The system 1 also comprises a stop station of the thickened semi-finished products, which is associated with the preliminary workstation 2 and is suitable for allowing the hardening of the cement material M distributed on the semi-finished products 3. This stop station is not shown in the illustrations.

Downstream of the preliminary workstation 2 and of the stop station, a cutting station is provided for cutting the semi-finished products, whether thickened by means of the application of the thickening layer 6 or not. Such cutting station is suitable for obtaining small blocks 18 of different total dimensions and thicknesses, some of which are shown, by way of example, in figure 6.

Downstream of the cutting station, the system 1 has an assembly station for assembling the small blocks 18 suitable for forming covering products 19. This assembly station has one or more containment elements 20 for containing the small blocks 18, which consist in a bottom wall 21 and in a shaped side frame 22 associated with the bottom wall 21, on the inside of which the small blocks 18 can be positioned with the visible surface 3a turned downwards.

The assembly station also envisages the use of a gluing substance 23, of the vinyl glue type to be applied above the small blocks 18 distributed in the containment elements 20, and of a retention sheet 24, of the kraft paper type or the like, that can be positioned above the gluing substance 23 to adhere to all the small blocks 18 of each containment element 20.

The covering products 19 are at this point obtained by the simple overturning of the containment elements 20 above a flat surface as long as the gluing substance 23 is still fresh.

This way, in fact, the small blocks 18, initially positioned with the visible surface

downwards, are overturned and deposited by gravity above the retention sheet 24 which, by overturning, is placed extended on the above flat surface. The small blocks 18, therefore, rest on the retention sheet 24 and their visible surfaces 3a are arranged at different heights producing the desired three-dimensional effect. The retention sheet 24 acts as a support until the glue 23 hardens and stably fastens the small blocks 18 together.

It has in fact been ascertained how the described invention achieves the proposed objects.

The invention thus conceived is susceptible to numerous modifications and variations, all of which falling within the scope of the inventive concept.

Furthermore all the details can be replaced with others that are technically equivalent. In practice, the materials used, as well as the contingent shapes and dimensions, may be any according to requirements without because of this moving outside the protection scope of the following claims.