The present invention relates to building and, more particularly, the production of materials aged quickly and effectively.

It is currently very difficult to carry out an early ageing treatment, on one side, because of the time required for such a processing and, on the other side, because of the large amount of waste due to the breaking of the treated materials which become useless.

A further problem of the known methods consists in the non-homogeneous treatment of the materials, i.e. in that the treated materials (such as bricks, stones, tiles, marble, etc.) do not undergo a homogeneous ageing but some materials are more "worn-out" than others and then a further waste is caused because of too much or not enough ageing relative to most of the materials treated by the same method.

A first object of the present invention is overcoming the problems of the known art by providing a device capable of carrying out a homogeneous ageing method with a negligible waste amount. A second object of the present invention is providing an apparatus capable of recovery of the liquids and/or solids possibly added to the ageing method.

A third object of the described invention is providing an apparatus which allows the speed and the duration of the method to be programmed depending on the treated material. A fourth object of the invention is providing an apparatus which allows the working waste to be recovered.

Still a further object of the invention is providing an apparatus capable of a drastic reduction of the acoustic noise.

A better understanding of the invention will ensue from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings which schematically show by way of a not limiting example a preferred embodiment of the invention. In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the apparatus according to the invention,

Figures 2 and 3 show elevation front and rear views of the apparatus of Fig. 1, respectively,

Figures 4 and 5 show elevation views of the right side and the left side of the apparatus of Fig. 1, respectively,

Figure 6 is an end cross section of the moving parts of the apparatus according to the invention, and

Figure 7 is a longitudinal section of the moving parts of the apparatus according to the invention.

With reference to the figures, the apparatus consists essentially of a rigid self-bearing framework 14 which supports a circular cylinder 1 having a horizontal axis and rotating about the latter.

A second cylinder or processing room 2 with its longitudinal axis coplanar and incident to the axis of rotating cylinder 1 is provided within such rotating cylinder 1 to which it is secured through its front and rear bases parallel to those of cylinder 1. In other words, there are provided two cylinders which are placed within each other so that the respective bases are adjacent to each other, the outer cylinder 1 beings a right cylinder, the inner cylinder 2 being a cylinder having an axis inclined to a plane parallel to its bases. From the foregoing description and the figures it is apparent that, when rotating cylinder 1 about its horizontal axis, also cylinder or processing room 2 integral with the former rotates about the same horizontal axis so as to be both in rotating and oscillating motions which cause the bases of cylinder 2 to assume alternatively higher and lower positions to each other.

This particular arrangement, which is peculiar of the described apparatus, causes the material within the cylinder or processing room 2 to undergo a rotating motion and at the same time a shaking or a beating

from the front to the rear bases e vice versa when the bases and the side surface of the processing room 2 are completely closed. To sum up, during the treatment, said material is subjected to a motion similar to that of the balls in the drawing of the lottery numbers.

In order to increase the mixing efficiency and to guarantee a homogeneous treatment, projecting ribs 3 essentially parallel to the directrices of cylinder 2 are further provided on the inner surface of processing room 2. Said projecting ribs 3 act on the material to be processed and make the mixing action more continuous and regular so as to guarantee that the material is subjected to a homogeneous treatment along with the beating action from the front base to the rear base and vice versa.

In the described preferred embodiment rotating cylinder 1 is rolling on four small rolls 7 (Figs. 1 and 2) parallel thereto and is driven by a motor 10 through a transmission chain which transmits the movement to a crown gear 8 coaxial to cylinder 1 and integral with the rear base thereof. Particularly, such motor 10 is provided with a preferably oleodynamic reduction or speed change gear 12, while such crown gear 8 is supported on a central shaft 9A of cylinder 1 which rotates within a support 9. The apparatus can operate under dry conditions or with the addition of liquids (for instance, water) , solids and/or chemical solution and/or dyes. The choice of the processing type is made by the operator depending

on the ageing effect to be obtained.

The ageing degree of the various treated materials is further a function of the processing length which is short for soft materials, such as bricks, and get longer as the hardness of the material to be processed increases.

In addition to the processing length also the rotating speed may be varied by operating the speed change gear of the motor through an electric control panel 11. In conclusion, the longer the processing length and/or the higher the rotating speed, the greater the achieved ageing effect.

It should be noted that in the described embodiment the rear base of the processing room 2 is enclosed in the rear base of rotating cylinder 1, the walls of processing room 2 being directly welded to the base of cylinder 1.

The front base of cylinder 1 has an opening at the front base of processing room 2 which is provided with a cover or shutter 4 for loading/unloading the material to be processed. Such shutter 4 is provided with a closure member 13 and hinged supports 5 as well as holes 6 for charging and discharging any liquid necessary to the ageing treatment. Such holes 6 have taps which can be opened and closed at will for charging and discharging the liquids.

The particular described construction arrangement allows a particularly delicate processing which markedly avoids the breaking of the treated objects, while the rotating, oscillating, mixing movement

guarantees an advantageous treatment homogeneity also owing to the projecting ribs 3.

Furthermore, the variation of the rotation speed as well as the processing time allows different treatments of a number of materials to be performed so as to further ensure that the processing can be repeated with the aim at achieving a predetermined ageing effect on different material batches even if processed in different times. Advantageously, also the acoustic noise is strongly reduced by the presence of a double soundproof chamber arranged on the outer frameworks 14 so as to damp the unavoidable noises produced during the movement of the materials which are being processed. Such an acoustic protection surrounds and encloses completely all of the moving parts.

Such framework 14 is mounted on supports capable of absorbing vibrations in order to further reduce the interference of the apparatus with the environment in which it is used.

It should be noted that the edges of the bases of the processing room 2 are tangential, on diametrically opposed parts, to the inner edges of the corresponding bases of rotating cylinder 1. Another advantage of the invention is the recovery of the treatment liquids by discharging them through the already described taps of holes 6 before emptying room 2 for processing the aged materials. Still another advantage of the invention is that the apparatus can be stopped by the gearmotor when the

loading/unloading shutter 4 is in its lower position so that the treated materials can be more easily extracted because of the inclination of the processing room 2. Finally, it should be noted that instead of rotating cylinder 1 a pair of gearwheels are provided at the front and rear bases of said cylinder 1 and driven by a pair of gears journalled, for example, on a shaft having a driven axis parallel to that of said pair of gearwheels.

Experimental tests have proved that materials of different size from a few centimetres to some tens of centimetres can be processed, larger size being reserved to stone materials. In addition, it has been proved that the optimum size of the processing room 2 is kept within 1 diameter. A size longer than l m implies a considerable increase of cost due above all to a greater amount of broken processed materials. The present invention is described and illustrated according to a preferred embodiment thereof, however, it should be understood that modifications and/or equivalent changes may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present industrial invention.