The present invention relates to a process for the production of tiles, in particular for wall decorations, and to the tiles thus obtained.

More specifically, such a tile is formed of a plurality of adjacent tesserae, separated by a grid of interstices and held together by a support mesh glued to their rear face. In turn, the tiles are glued to the surface to be decorated, in particular a wall.

According to a known technique, these tesserae are made of ceramic or glass material, which has a rather high density, which may be problematic in an application sector of particular interest, such as that of ship cabins, wherein weight minimization is a crucial requirement.

In this regard, on one hand, an attempt has been made to reduce the thickness of the tesserae, but on the other hand, this reduction must not be too pronounced. The tiles are in fact typically fixed on a layer of adhesive applied to the wall to be decorated, whereby the thinner the tile, the more likely it is that, during installation, the adhesive will emerge from the interstices between the tesserae and smear the decorated front face, requiring an additional cleaning operation that may ruin the appearance of the tile.

On the whole, it has so far proved rather difficult to reconcile the opposing requirements of reducing the weight of the tiles and facilitating their installation.

Moreover, a further disadvantage of conventional tesserae made of glass material is their tendency to explode in the event of a fire, which is particularly critical in shipbuilding.

An object of the present invention is therefore to remedy the drawbacks highlighted above in the prior art.

According to the invention, this object is achieved by a process for producing a tile formed of a plurality of adjacent tesserae separated by a grid of interstices, comprising the steps of: - preparing a mold having a plurality of cavities separated by a grid of ridges, so as to reproduce in negative the arrangement of said tesserae and interstices,

- pouring a thermosetting resin into each of said cavities,

- placing a mesh above said cavities and in contact with the poured resin,

- causing said resin to cure, so as to form a resin layer for each tessera to which a part of said mesh adheres, and

- extracting from the mold the tile formed by the resin layers of the tesserae joined by the mesh and separated by a grid of interstices corresponding to the grid of the ridges of the mold.

A further subject matter of the present invention is a tile obtainable by means of the aforesaid process, which is formed by a plurality of adjacent tesserae separated by a grid of interstices, each tessera having a layer of resin, the front face of which preferably has a printed image on which a coating layer of transparent material is advantageously applied, as well as a mesh adhering to a rear portion of the resin layer of the tesserae, so as to interconnect them.

The tile of the invention is therefore formed by tesserae made essentially of polymeric resin which has a density decidedly lower than that of the ceramic and glass materials conventionally used, so that it is relatively light despite having an adequate thickness to allow easy application.

Further advantages and features of this invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, given by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 to 10 are schematic perspective views of successive steps of a process for manufacturing a tile according to the invention, and

Fig. 11 is a cross-sectional view of a tessera of a tile of the invention.

A process for the production of a tile 10 formed (Fig. 10) of a plurality of adjacent tesserae 12 separated by a grid of interstices 14, provides firstly for preparing (Fig. 1) a mold 16 having a plurality of cavities 18 separated by a grid of ridges 20, so as to reproduce in negative the arrangement of the tesserae 12 and of the interstices 14. The mold 16 has a rectangular shape, in particular square, and has a plurality of cavities 18 with a rectangular shape, in particular square, arranged according to a matrix arrangement of rows and columns.

Subsequently (Fig. 2 and 3), a thermosetting resin 22, for example of the polyurethane or epoxy type, is poured into each cavity 18 and cured, for example by heating in an oven or by exposure to IR lamps. The resin 22 may be filled with any combination of conventional additives, including in particular one or more flame-retardant additives. Before the resin 22 is completely cured, a support mesh 24 is positioned (Fig. 4 and 5) above the cavities 18, so that it comes into contact with the poured resin 22. Thus, at the end of curing, the poured resin 22 forms (Fig. 11) a layer 26 on each tessera 12, to the rear portion of which a part of the mesh 24 adheres, which will constitute a support and interconnecting element of the entire tile 10. The adhesion of the mesh 24 to the tesserae 12 may also possibly cause the related parts of the mesh 24 to be completely embedded within the respective tessera 12.

Then, an intermediate product 28 is extracted from the mold 16 (Fig. 6) formed by the layers 26 of resin 22 of the tesserae 12 joined by the support mesh 24 and separated by a grid of interstices 14 corresponding to the grid of the ridges 20 of the mold 16 and is turned 180°. As illustrated in Fig. 7, the support mesh 24 adheres to the rear portion of the layer 26 of resin 22 of each tessera 12, the front face 30 of which is formed by that part of resin 22 which in the mold 16 was in contact with the bottom of the respective cavity 18.

A desired image 34 is then printed (Fig. 8) on the front face 30 of the layer 26 of resin 22 of each tessera 12, for example by means of a UV technique. It goes without saying that the image 34 printed on the front face 30 of each layer 26 is part of an overall image represented by the tile 10, whereby it is possible that on certain tesserae 12 no partial image should actually be printed, since these tesserae 12 are in the parts devoid of colors and lines of the overall image.

Finally, on the printed front face 34 of the layer 26 of resin 22 of each tessera 12 a coating layer 36 is applied, for example by pouring (Fig. 9), made of transparent material, for example a light-resistant aliphatic polyurethane, which hardens, allowing the finished tile 10 (Fig. 10) to be obtained. Said tile is formed by a plurality of adjacent tesserae 12 separated by a grid of interstices 14, each tessera 12 having (Fig. 11) a layer 26 of resin 22, the front face 30 of which has a printed image 34 on which is applied a coating layer 36 of transparent material, advantageously lenticular in shape. As already indicated, the rear portions of the layers 26 of the tesserae 12 adhere to a respective part of the support mesh 24 which acts as a joining and interconnecting element of the entire tile 10.

As a whole, the tile 10 has a rectangular shape, in particular square, and has a plurality of tesserae 12 with a rectangular shape, in particular square, arranged according to a matrix arrangement of rows and columns.

In embodiments of the invention not shown in the figures, the tile 10 and the related tesserae 12 may have any desired shape, and the tesserae 12 of the same tile 10 may be the same or different from each other according to a regular or repetitive arrangement or one that is completely arbitrary. It goes without saying that the mold 16 and the related cavities 18 must be shaped in a manner corresponding to the shape of the tile 10 and the related tesserae 12 to be obtained.

Advantageously, the tile 10 has a thickness of between 2 and 5 mm and/or a mass referred to the surface unit of between 0.3 and 0.7 g/cm ² .

Naturally, the principle of the invention being understood, the details of construction and the embodiments may vary widely with respect to that which has been described purely by way of example, without thereby departing from the scope thereof. In particular, the front surface of the resin layers of each tessera may be made as desired, for example, flat and glossy, or matte and rough depending on the degree of finish of the cavities of the mold, and said surface may constitute the visible face of the tile without being molded and covered by an additional protective layer. In the latter case, therefore, that which was previously defined as the “intermediate product” identified by the reference number 28 constitutes the finished tile.