Patent ID: 6962146
Filing Date: 2005-11-08
Classification: B28D,C04B

Abstract:
1. Process for structurally repairing and aesthetically filling a plurality of slabs made of stone material and, for composites with a backing, providing the plurality of slabs with reinforcing nets or sheets adapted to further increase a tensile and flexural strength thereof, or for coupling said slabs to other slabs of stone material of a same type or a different type, or to slabs made of another material, all said slabs or sheets being dry assembled into a block, interposing layers of plastic separating sheets, said process comprising: heating the stone slabs to be able to dry the stone slabs afterwards and completely under vacuum; inserting said block composed of slabs, nets or sheets in an autoclave adapted to create a vacuum state to dry the slabs, nets or sheets at their core, and afterwards inserting, into a formwork in which the block is contained, resins at liquid state, in a necessary amount for completely impregnating the slabs, nets or sheets, said resins being inserted by pouring on a free upper surface of the block or inserted from a base of the block, a lower part and a perimeter of the block being contained into at least one of a liquid-tight and a gas-tight housing; making said resin penetrate between the layers composing the block and into fractures and flaws of the stone slabs by atmospheric pressure, said atmospheric pressure operating as a piston on the fluid resin accumulated into a space formed above an upper face of the multi-layered block, the resin being thereby injected between the layers and into the flaws and fractures of the slabs; inserting positive pressure into the autoclave; applying a coating around said block, said coating being wrapped around said block under and along a vertical perimeter thereof, said coating being composed of liquid-tight and gas-tight component elements, one of said component elements being higher than the block and wrapped around said block having, its extreme edges mutually connected with a welding or other liquid-impermeable or gas-impermeable connection, said coating being further composed of a liquid-permeable spacer element to space the coating from the block, said coating being formed as a liquid-impermeable and gas-impermeable housing and to allow the resin to flow around and inside the block, elements composing said coating being mutually connected, to form an envelope, by an impermeable structural junction between the liquid-tight and gas-tight component elements; containing hydrostatic pressures of the resin operating from inside to outside the block and controlling resin consumption through a formwork that gets a shape of the block contained therein, components of said formwork that are outside said coating not coming in contact with the impregnation resins, said coating being kept in position by panels and brackets that keep the panels against the block, said brackets being secured by a closing mechanism to a platform adapted to support and transport the block; directly supporting through said blocks generated by pressure differentials occurring during rebalancing steps to the atmospheric pressure of a space inside the autoclave, or when inserting overpressures inside the autoclave; when preparing said block, assembling said stone slabs into the block independently from their mutual thickness and distance between centers with other stone slabs placed at other levels of a composite block, said stone slabs being assembled together with other slabs made of different materials, every group of components of a composite slab being aimed to remain mutually strictly joined through separation by plastic separating sheets from every other equal or different group.