Patent Application
20090049793
This invention relates to a laminated tile and a method of manufacturing such a tile.
Tiles are commonly manufactured monolithically of a single material. Glazes and coatings are sometimes applied to one or more faces of the tiles.
There is a demand for natural look tiles which are made of clays. However, the supply of some clays is limited.
This invention proposes a laminated tile in which an upper layer of the tile is made of a first material or materials and the remainder is made of a different material or materials.
The invention also provides a method of forming a laminated tile, including the steps of:
Adhesive can be applied to both the mating surface of the tile cap and the base.
Different adhesives or adhesive components can be used for the cap and the base.
The first adhesive can be mortar.
A second adhesive can be a resinous adhesive.
The second adhesive can be PVA.
The base can include concrete.
The cap can include clay.
The cap can include ceramic material.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the method can include the steps of:
The method can include the step of compressing and de-watering the concrete mix.
The method can include the step of distributing the concrete mix by vibration.
Preferably, the vibration is not done during tile cap application.
The invention also provides laminated tile manufacturing equipment including:
The equipment can include a second adhesive application station adapted to apply a second adhesive layer to a mating surface of the tile cap.
The equipment can include a robot arm with a gripper capable of picking up the vibrating head as well as a tile cap independently.
The gripper can include a vacuum pad to pick up a tile cap for placement on the substrate.
An embodiment or embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The mixer provides a preset measured amount of concrete mix equivalent to one concrete tile base to a delivery system such as a screw feed 5, which transports the mix to a mold 4 on a carousel table 3 which carries molds 4 through a sequence of stations where the stages of the manufacturing process are performed. The operation of the carousel table 3 can be synchronized to the slowest operation in the process.
The molds are preferably steel plates with a cavity of the shape of the tile. To facilitate the removal of the assembled paver from the cavity, the cavity can be a through-hole. Usually the cavity will be square, but other shapes are within the scope of the invention.
The various elements of
When the concrete base mix has been delivered to the tile cavity in mold 4 and the compaction process has been completed, and all other stages have been completed on the other molds on the carousel, the carousel 3 indexes to the next stage which is agitator station 6. At agitator station 6, the concrete mix in the mould 4 is shaken and vibrated to spread the mix evenly and condense the mix within the cavity of the mould.
Details of the agitation station 6 are shown in
At the succeeding press station 7,
Optionally, the press can impress a keying pattern on the upper surface of the compressed concrete base, such as those shown in
An alternative tile base 1102 is shown in
When the pressing operation is complete, the carousel indexes to the next station 8, which is a mortar application station. Mortar is fed from a hopper 281 containing a pre-blended mix of dry polymer mortar via a feeder 282 which lays an even depth of mortar on the wet uncured concrete paver base. The feeder 282 can be a traversing vibrating feeder. The deposited layer of mortar is wetted by a spray 283. A shield 284 is provided to reduce spillage from the mortar application station.
On completion of the mortar application process, the carousel 3 indexes to a tile delivery station 9. The delivery station includes a robot arm 291 adapted to transfer a tile cap from a stack of tile caps 292 and apply it to the pre-mortared concrete tile base after an adhesive, for example, a PVA solution, has been applied to its underside by spray 293 to aid adhesion between the tile cap and the mortar. The robot arm has a head 294 which is adapted to grip each tile cap and lift it from the stack 292, transport it via the PVA wetting station 293 and embed the tile cap on the layer of mortar on the concrete paver base. The assembled tile is then delivered to the tile unloading station 10, where it can be placed on a conveyor for delivery to further processing such as drying.
Details of the tile cap delivery process are illustrated in
The robot arm has a gripper capable of picking up the vibrating head as well as a tile independently, combined with a vacuum pad underneath the vibrating head to pick up a tile for placement on the substrate.
At tile capping station 772, the vibrating head settles the tile cap into the mortar to ensure sound contact between the tile cap and the mortar. A lateral vibration combined with a compressive force serve to form a sound contact. While the vibrating head settles a tile on to the base during a carousel-stationary period, the robot/gripper takes a dry tile and places it over the sprays or dips it in a water tub and leaves it there. When vibrating has finished it collects the vibrating head and uses it to pick up the tile with the now-wet underside, placing both on top of the mortar layer in the current mold.
After the tile cap has been applied to the concrete base, the carousel indexes to the unloading station 10, where the tile is pressed from the underside of the mould plate onto a tray on a conveyor to transport the paver for further processing. The paver can be transferred to a drying/curing rack (not shown) which can be transported to a drying/curing area by suitable means such as a conveyor or forklift.
While the process has been described in relation to a carousel table, the process could also be implemented using a sequential line to implement the process steps. For example, a shuttle press can be used to implement the invention.
The tile 900 includes an upper layer 902, and a lower layer 904. The layers 902 and layer 904 interface along the planes of line 906. The interface can be a suitable adhesive or mortar.
The lower layer has a first thickness 908, and the upper layer has a second thickness 910, which may be the same as or different from the thickness 908. Preferably the thickness of the upper layer is less than the thickness of the lower layer.
In
Optionally a second pair of rollers 1210, 1212 can be used to apply a keying surface to the mating surface of the upper extrudate. Similarly a third pair of rollers 1214, 1216 can apply a keying surface or roughening to the mating surface of the base extrudate before they are pressed together by the first pair of rollers. The rollers 1214, 1216 can also act as a de-watering press.
A surface texturing roller 1226 can be used to apply a pattern or texture 1228 to the surface of the tile. This roller 1226 can be used in place of roller 1222.
A flying cutter, such as described in Australian patent application AU2004906979 can be used to dissect the combined extrudate into individual tiles for downstream drying and processing in a manner similar to that disclosed in the above referenced Australian patent application.
A supply of pre-made paver bases 1340 and a supply of pre-made caps 1342 are fed to an assembly station via conveyors 1354, 1344 respectively. Robot arm 1343 having a gripping or vacuum head 1308 can be used to transfer the bases and caps to their conveyors. Alternatively, a dedicated machine can be used to place the caps and bases on their respective conveyors. Alternatively, the caps and bases can be loaded manually.
The base passes through adhesive station where a predetermined amount of mortar or glue is applied to the mating face of the base from adhesive vessel 1362 and spread evenly by vibration, raking or other suitable spreading means. The adhesive station can include a squaring and locating device 1353 to align the base for processing.
At wetting station 1348, the cap is placed on an array of pegs to enable the underside to be wetted by a spray from underneath. The wetting agent can be water or a mixture of water and PVA, or other suitable wetting agent. A collecting trough is provided to collect the excess wetting agent. Instead of a spray, the cap interface surface can be wetted by dipping into a bath of wetting agent. Precise alignment means, such as squaring and location device 1351 accurately aligns the cap for precision placement on the tile base at combining station 1350 after the base has also been accurately aligned by locating/squaring device 1352. The robot arm can provide the required amount of pressure and vibration to ensure proper adhesion. The robot arm 1309 then places the assembled tile on the unloading conveyor 1356 or transferred for drying, curing, packaging, etc. Again, the transfer of the assembled tile to the unloading conveyor can be done manually or by a dedicated machine.
The Component Table below lists elements of the embodiments of the invention.
Where ever it is used, the word “comprising” is to be understood in its “open” sense, that is, in the sense of “including”, and thus not limited to its “closed” sense, that is the sense of “consisting only of”. A corresponding meaning is to be attributed to the corresponding words “comprise”, “comprised” and “comprises” where they appear.
It will be understood that the invention disclosed and defined herein extends to all alternative combinations of two or more of the individual features mentioned or evident from the text. All of these different combinations constitute various alternative aspects of the invention.
While particular embodiments of this invention have been described, it will be evident to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the essential characteristics thereof. The invention covers various combinations of the features and functions of the different embodiments which would be apparent to a person skilled in the art. The present embodiments and examples are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and all modifications which would be obvious to those skilled in the art are therefore intended to be embraced therein.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005907220 | Dec 2005 | AU | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/AU2006/001889 | 12/13/2006 | WO | 00 | 9/8/2008 |
