Improvements in Means for Imparting Surface Designs or Patterns to Bricks, Tiles, and other like Articles.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Apr., 1886.
Complete Left, 13th Jan., 1887.
Complete Accepted, 5th Apr., 1887.
Improvements in Means for Imparting Surface Designs or
Patterns to Bricks, Tiles, and other like Articles.
We, WILLIAM BENSON, brick and tile manufacturer, and LEHI GUNNING, fitter, both
of Rudgeway Road, Fishponds, in the county of Gloucester, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows :-
This invention consists in the employment of a rotating roller for impressing or
imprinting, in whole or in part, any desired design upon that face of a brick, tile or
other like or analogous article which is intended to be uppermost when such article is
laid to form part of a paved floor, or is otherwise similarly used.
Projections or recesses corresponding to the design or pattern to be imparted are
formed on the periphery of the roller.
The roller is preferably placed at or near the mouth of the die of the pug mill from
which the clay, as is well understood issues. The roller is adjustable in its bearings.
When in operation, the roller bears on the issuing mass of clay which receives the
desired impression as the roller rotates.
In a rectangular or square pattern the longitudinal indentations or grooves thereof
may, as heretofore, he imparted by means of corresponding projections or ridges
formed in the dic, and the transverse indentations or grooves by the roller. Similarly
with other patterns or designs. Or the design may in its entirety be imparted by
the roller.
Hitherto the practice has been either to impart the entire design by means of a press
after the articles have been cut at the cutting-off table, or to impart the design partially
in the die of the pug mill and, afterwards, to complete it in a press.
Now under this invention, the use of a press for the purpose stated is dispensed with
and the mass of clay may be divided into the required lengths at the cutting-off table
with great nicety of adjustment and reduced waste. For instance, it may be regularly
and evenly divided through the centre of a V-shaped indentation or groove such as is
common in certain kinds of bricks or tiles for stable and other paving.

page_text: In cases where the clay is divided horizontally into two layers as it issues from the
die of the pug mill, the required design may be imparted, either wholly or in part, to
the upper face of the top layer by a roller, as aforesaid, and the design for the under-
side of the lower layer by a second roller which, for the purpose of preventing waste
at the cutting-off table and for ensuring division at the proper place, is preferably
situated below the cutting-off table.
It may, however, be otherwise situated.

page_text: Improvements in Means for Imparting Surface Designs or
Patterns to Bricks, Tiles, and other like Articles.
We, WILLIAM BENSON, brick and tile manufacturer, and LEHI GUNNING, fitter, both
of Rudgeway Road, Fishponds, in the county of Gloucester, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention consists in imparting to the face of a brick, tile or other like or
analogous article a design or part of a design by means of a roller so situated as to
bear upon the mass of clay of which the article is composed as the said mass issues
from the die of a pug-mill. The roller which is capable of rotating in its bearings is
furnished on its periphery with projections or recesses corresponding to the design or
pattern to be imparted to the brick, tile or other article being made and, by bearing
on the issuing mass of plastic clay, the roller in rotating impresses the design thereon.
The whole of a design may thus be imparted to the article being manufactured. Or
the roller may be designed to impress a part only of the design, the other part being
imparted by ridges or recesses in the die, as is well understood.
By the employment of the roller, as above described, the use of the press hitherto
required for imparting designs to bricks, tiles and such like articles is dispensed with.
Further, greater accuracy and uniformity in dividing the mass into separate articles at
the cutting-off table is facilitated and less waste ensues. For instance, where the
pattern or design consists, in whole or in part, of V-shaped grooves, as is common in
certain classes of bricks and tiles for paving stables and for other purposes, the grooves
serve as gauges for adjustment of the clay to the dividing wires on the cutting-off
table so as to ensure accurate and uniform severance thereof into separate bricks or
tiles, it being understood that the distance at which the wires are placed apart agrees
with or is a multiple of the distance between the projections on the periphery of the
roller by which the said grooves are imparted to the clay.
Referring to the accompanying sheet of illustrative drawings, Fig. 1 thereon
represents a front view of the mouth of the die of a pug-mill. Fig. 2 represents a
vertical section of Fig. 1. Carried in bearings in the frame a formed on the die bis
a roller c the periphery of which is furnished with angular projections, as shown. The
roller c is capable of being rotated in its bearings through the medium of the toothed
wheels and e. In its rotation, V-shaped grooves, corresponding to the angular
projections aforesaid, are produced in the plastic mass of clay g as it is expressed from
the die and passes on the lower roller to the cutting-off table for division into
separate bricks, tiles or other like or analogous articles.
Instead of being furnished with angular projections, as shown in the drawing, the
periphery of the roller c may be furnished with variously shaped projections or recesses
according to the design or pattern intended to be imparted to the article in process
of manufacture.
If desired, a part only of the design may be imparted by the impressing roller, and
the other part by ridges or recesses formed or otherwise produced in the die.
A brush is employed for oiling the periphery of the roller c.

page_text: By the employment of the impressing roller in accordance with this invention'
the use of the press hitherto required to impart designs, in whole or in part, is
dispensed with. Further, greater accuracy and uniformity in dividing the mass at the
cutting-off table into separate articles is facilitated and less waste of material ensues.
Fig. 3 represents an elevation of a cutting-off table on which is a section of the
clay g to which V-shaped grooves have been imparted by a roller such as c Figs. 1
and 2. This pattern or design is commonly imparted to bricks and tiles used in stables
and for other like purposes. Fig. 4 represents a vertical section of Fig. 3.
As the mass of clay g issues from between the rollers placed, as aforesaid, in front
of the pug-mill, a section thereof is severed from the main body in the usual way at
the cutting-off table k.
Upon the shaft / carried above the face of the table are arranged a series of discs m
divided vertically as shown, and so placed that the cutting wires n, which are situated
in advance of the shaft 7, that is to say between it and the section of clay g as it comes
from the mill, pass within the peripheries of the discs, as seen more particularly at
Fig. 4. The discs m are free to revolve on the shaft 7. The distance between the
centres of each of the grooves or indentations being the same as that at which the
wires are placed apart, it follows that by adjusting the centre of one of the grooves
in the clay to coincide with the vertical axis of one of the discs m a gauge is obtained
for the accurate and uniform division throughout of the section of clay into separate
bricks, tiles or other slabs as the said section is transferred from one side of the
cutting-off table to the other in the direction indicated by the arrow, Fig. 4. Under
this arrangement there is less waste of material at the respective ends of the section
of clay, and as the peripheries of the discs are brought to bear upon the grooves
after cutting, the roughness caused by the wires in cutting is remedied by pressure of
the discs.
In a similar manner, sections of clay bearing other designs or patterns may be
accurately and uniformly divided.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we claim is :-
1. In the manufacture of bricks, tiles and other like articles, the use of a roller for
imparting thereto designs or patterns, in whole or in part, such roller being conveniently
situated at the mouth of the die of a pug mill or other analogous chamber and arranged
to rotate over and to bear upon the stream or mass of plastic clay or other material
issuing from such chamber and of which the bricks, tiles or other like articles are
in process of being made, substantially as herein before described with reference to
Figs. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings.
2. In the manufacture of bricks, tiles and other like articles, the combination in
connection with a pug-mill or analogous apparatus of a roller such as c for imparting
or assisting to impart designs thereto with a roller such as h upon which the lower
face of the stream or mass of clay or like material of which such articles are in
process of being made bears, substantially as herein before described.
W. LLOYD WISE,
46, Lincoln's dnn Fields, London, W.C.,
Agent for the Applicants."
W. LLOYD WISE,
46, Lincoln's dnn Fields, London, W.C.,
Agent for the Applicants.