Patent Description:
Current cladding manufacturing machines are designed to produce two layer pavements and tiles. A standard manufacturing system comprises two separate containers that contain the compositions of the base and upper layers, a production plate, a vibration table and a mould that receives the compositions to form the shape of the pavement or tile. One configuration of a current manufacturing machine <NUM> is schematically illustrated in <FIG>. Every one of the major containers <NUM> also carries a basket at its bottom <NUM> for letting out the composition it contains in a controlled manner. In the particular configuration in <FIG>, the two containers are positioned above the production plate in opposing relative positions, and travel back and forth above the mould for releasing their respective compositions. At the center of the machine stands is a vibration work table, which is designed to condense the concrete inside the template. Above the vibration table stands a "production board", which can be made of wood, synthetic material or metal. The template lowers onto the plate with a desired pattern of a tile or brick, where the shape of the tile, brick or cladding is obtained by partitions within the template which is hollow. Above the template stands a "tamper head" with plates in the size of the tiles, bricks or claddings in proper position relative to the template. In common technology, flooring and tiling products are manufactured with automatic machines that produce one or two layer concrete pavements and tiles, where the second upper layer is visible and made from a slightly different composition than the first base layer. The first base layer imparts the pavement/tile its strength and is embedded in the infrastructure or body of a pavement or wall. The second layer is the upper layer that contains aggregates and sometimes pigments if required and gives the pavement and tile their decorative look.

Custom coloring of pavement/tile cladding is done by mixing colorants in the manufacturing system. One or more selected pigments are mixed into a concrete mixture in known amounts to obtain a desired color, hue and color intensity. The way of mixing the pigments in the concrete batch determines the color pattern. The pigment particles cover the particles of the concrete cement, thus providing the concrete its color. The concrete is then cast onto a template and becoming dense by vibration. Such coloring methods require relatively large amounts of colorant materials to make the cladding color visible at the top of the claddings. In addition, mixing the colorants into the bulk of the claddings significantly limits the variety of color hues and patterns that can be obtained at their top surface.

<CIT> describes a machine for manufacturing industrial blocks and coloring their upper surface with a single color or a plurality of colors. This machine combines the coloring mechanism with the block manufacturing machine so that coloring of the upper surface of the blocks is done in concert with the manufacturing of the blocks. The coloring of the surface is done with the set of coloring sprays, where every spray is charged with a particular color or color mix. The coloring of the surface is controlled by a CPU according to a pre-planned pattern. In addition, the CPU controls the diminishing hue of a sprayed color on the upper surface of the blocks. A die-press lowers down on the cement of the block to condense it.

It is, therefore, desirable to provide claddings with a greater variety of color patterns which are visible at least on the claddings surface and independent of the coloring of the bulk of the claddings.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an integrated machine for manufacturing claddings and coloring their top surface, thus exploiting the advantages of the cladding manufacturing and coloring devices to obtain strong adherence of color to the top surface.

This and other objects and embodiments of the present invention shall become apparent as the description proceeds.

In one non-claimed aspect, the disclosure pertains to a system and a method for coloring pavement and tiles claddings for paving floors and covering walls. The disclosure also pertains to colored pavement and tile claddings, which are made in such method and system. Custom coloring of pavement/tile cladding is done by mixing colorants in the manufacturing system. One or more selected pigments are mixed into a concrete mixture in known amounts to obtain a desired color, hue and color intensity. The way of mixing the pigments in the concrete batch determines the color pattern. The pigment particles cover the particles of the concrete, thus providing the concrete its color. The concrete is then cast onto a template and becoming dense by vibration. Such coloring, however, provides only a limited control on the visible pattern of the color on the top surface of the claddings, and therefore, raises the need to enlarge the variety of possible visible color patterns.

Current manufacturing machines are designed to produce only two layer pavements and tiles. A standard manufacturing system comprises two separate containers that contain the compositions of the base and upper layers, a production plate, a vibration table and a mould that receives the compositions to form the shape of the pavement or tile. One configuration of a current manufacturing machine is schematically illustrated in <FIG>. Every one of the major containers also carries a basket <NUM> at its bottom for letting out the composition it contains in a controlled manner. In this particular configuration, the two containers are positioned above the production plate in opposing relative positions, and travel back and forth above the mould for releasing their respective compositions. In common technology, flooring and tiling products are manufactured with automatic machines that produce one or two layer concrete pavements and tiles, where the second upper layer is visible and made from a slightly different composition than the first base layer. The first base layer imparts the pavement/tile its strength and is embedded in the infrastructure or body of a pavement or wall. The second layer is the upper layer that contains aggregates and sometimes pigments if required and gives the pavement and tile their decorative look. A coloring device or system is, therefore, needed to independently control the visible color pattern on the top surface of the second upper layer but be integrated into the process of manufacturing the claddings.

To achieve this, the present invention provides a color spraying apparatus and integrates it into a cladding manufacturing machine, for example the machine illustrated in <FIG>. Color spraying is done during forward and backward movement of the basket of the concrete upper layer. First, the upper basket moves forwards and discharges the concrete of the top layer. In returning back to the starting point, color guns of the color spraying apparatus spray color onto the upper surface of the fresh top layer according to a selected program that a control system commands to obtain a certain color, hue and color pattern and intensity. A tamper head lowers down on the fresh claddings to cover and press the upper layer in the mould after color spraying is done. As the cladding manufacturing machine vibrates the table, on which the claddings template sits to make the concrete denser, the sprayed color is mixed with the upper surface of the concrete to a limited depth into the top layer and enables the pigment particles to bond to the surface of the particles of the concrete cement. The insertion of the pigment particles is done in the first few millimetres of the top layer of the cladding. Thus, the coloring of the top surface of the top layer may be done with or without the coloring of the entire layer.

In one particular embodiment, the pigments, which are usually used to color the concrete, are oxidants of natural minerals, for example magnetite and hematite (iron oxides) for black and red colors, respectively.

In accordance with the above, the present disclosure provides a color spraying apparatus for coloring the upper surface of claddings, where the apparatus comprises the following parts:.

It is understood that the term "fluid phase color mass" comprises all forms of color pigments, dyes and colorants containing fluids that may be conveyed by spraying. In particular, this term comprises all forms of color pigments, dyes and colorants containing fluids that may be conveyed by the color spraying apparatus of the integrated machine of the invention. For example, such fluids may be suspensions, emulsions or solutions of color pigments, dyes and colorants that are conveyable as spray, particularly by the color spraying apparatus.

In still another aspect, the present invention provides an integrated machine for manufacturing and coloring claddings. In still another embodiment, such machine comprises a color spraying machine as detailed above and illustrated in the drawings and described in the following description and a cladding manufacturing machine as illustrated in <FIG>. An additional advantage of the integrated machine of the present invention for coloring top surfaces of claddings is that it does not require additional post-production processes, but rather completes the manufacturing and top surface coloring of the cladding.

In view of the above, the present invention provides an integrated machine for manufacturing claddings and coloring the top surface of the claddings according to claim <NUM>.

In still another non-claimed aspect, the present disclosure provides a top surface colored multi-layer cladding, paving stones, concrete pavers, concrete stones and concrete claddings. In the following, the term "cladding" will be used as a generic name for all the types of products which may be manufactured by the system and method of the present disclosure and as listed above.

In what follows and in accordance with the previous paragraphs, a detailed description of preferred non-limiting embodiments of the invention is disclosed for the machinery for manufacturing the top surface colored claddings without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

As mentioned above, <FIG> illustrates a cladding manufacturing machine <NUM> that comprises bottom and top layer concrete containers <NUM>, each comprising a hopper <NUM> a funnel <NUM> and a basket <NUM>. The upper hoppers <NUM> are filled with the concrete for the corresponding upper and lower layers of the claddings. A gate between the basket and funnel <NUM> opens and discharges a prescribed quota to the basket <NUM> for filling the cladding template (see element <NUM> in <FIG>) with the base/bottom or upper layer concrete. The cladding template <NUM> is placed on a production board <NUM>, which is placed on a vibrating table (see element <NUM> in <FIG>), and the concrete is discharged from the basket <NUM> into the template. The basket <NUM> returns to its initial place for another cycle for refilling and discharging. Then the gate opens between the funnel <NUM> and basket <NUM> of the concrete for pouring the upper or top layer concrete for the upper layer. After the top layer concrete basket <NUM> is filled with a selected quota, it travels to a point above the template <NUM> and discharges the concrete into the template. It then travels back for the next cycle. A vibrator 230a in the vibrating table (see element <NUM> in <FIG>), vibrates the work table to condense the concrete of the base and top layer after filling the template with the concrete of any of these layers. A tamper head (see element <NUM> in <FIG>) lowers down on the template and closes it. The template moves up and returns to the work table, leaving the concrete claddings on the board for curing.

A color spraying apparatus <NUM> is introduced into the cladding manufacturing machine <NUM> and attached to the hopper of the top layer of the claddings as schematically illustrated in <FIG>. An example of a spray coloring apparatus is schematically illustrated in <FIG>. Such apparatus <NUM> comprises color spraying guns <NUM> attached to the basket <NUM> that discharges the concrete of the upper layer of the claddings; color pumps <NUM> for pumping fluid phase color mass to the guns; a pipe 125a for channelling the fluid color to the guns; color buckets <NUM> for containing the fluid phase color masses; compressed air pump and pipe <NUM> that connects to the color guns for generating color spray; and air pressure controlled and regulated valves for spraying the color mass off of the color spraying guns. Auxiliary compressed air pumps and pipes <NUM> may be provided for further controlling the intensity and color droplet size, which are shot from the color spraying guns.

The color spraying apparatus may further comprise a mixer <NUM> for mixing the color in the buckets <NUM> to maintain a homogeneous fluid phase color. Further, the color spraying apparatus may also comprise back pipes for returning color mass from the guns to the containers, for example color residues or over flown amount of mass. The mixer <NUM> may be any type of mixer for mixing fluids, e.g. mechanical mixer, magnetic mixer.

The spraying of color may wish to achieve a selected design or pattern on the top surface of the upper layer of the claddings. Therefore, the color spraying apparatus may further comprise a control system that controls and synchronizes the speed of the basket for the upper layer, activation, initiation and termination of color spray for every color spraying gun, timing of color spraying and coordinating with forward and backward movement of the basket of the concrete of the upper layer and color droplet size, which is controlled by the air pumps.

<FIG> schematically illustrate the major steps of spraying color on the top surface of claddings in an integrated machine that comprises the cladding manufacturing machine and color spraying apparatus. In <FIG>, the hopper <NUM> of the upper layer of the claddings pours a prescribed quota of concrete into the basket <NUM> through the funnel <NUM>. The basket then travels until positioned over the mould <NUM> and pours the concrete as <FIG> shows. In this step, the color spraying apparatus including the color guns are inactive. Upon retreating of the basket <NUM> to its initial, starting position, the color spraying apparatus initiates a color spraying session on the top surface of the upper layer of the claddings. In both steps, the tamper head <NUM> that presses the concrete in the mould into defined claddings is lifted off of the mould to enable the pouring of the concrete and the spraying of color. <FIG> schematically illustrates the color spraying over the concrete in the mould <NUM> with the color spraying guns <NUM> as the basket <NUM> travels back and exposes the top surface of the concrete in the mould. In this step, the color pumps <NUM> pump a quota of fluid phase mass of color from the color bucket <NUM> and stream it through color channels 125a. Simultaneously with the pumping of color to the color spraying guns, compressed air is driven with an air pump through pipe <NUM>. The fluid phase color and condensed air meet at the outlet of the color spraying guns, where the exits ends of their corresponding pipes, 125a and <NUM>, coincide. As a result, the condensed air introduces into the fluid phase color at high velocity and breaks the continuous fluid phase into small droplets. Air pressure controlled and regulated valves for spraying the color mass off of the color spraying guns enable shooting the droplets down on the top surface of the claddings. Thus the simultaneous release of fluid phase color and air in high velocity breaks the color fluid mass and generates a spraying effect of the color.

To further control the spraying of the color, particularly the size of the color droplets and intensity of spraying, auxiliary compressed air pumps and pipes <NUM> attach to color spraying guns and stream supplemental condensed air to the guns outlet. This further reduces the size of the fluid color droplets and increases the velocity of color spraying. The additional supplemental condensed air provides further control on the spraying process and droplet size, thus drawing finer patterns and designs on the top surface of the claddings.

After the color spraying is completed, the vibrator 230a vibrates the vibrating table <NUM> that vibrates the production table <NUM> of the cladding manufacturing machine to condense the concrete in the mould <NUM>. Such vibration causes the solid particles of the sprayed color to penetrate into the top layer of the claddings. The penetration of the color particles depends on different parameters such as the intensity of vibration and density of the concrete of the top layer, but usually shallow level penetration of about a few millimetres is sufficient for strong adherence of the color particles to the particles of the concrete. Such improved adherence makes the colors and patterns on the top surface of the claddings more resistant to destructive processes such as abrasion, wear, erosion and washing with aqueous and non-aqueous fluids. At the same time, the colors and patterns remain visible with lively long term appearance and a complete pattern.

The manufacturing of the colored claddings is completed with the tamper head <NUM> lowered down on the mould <NUM>, pressing the claddings in the template. <FIG> illustrates this last step as the tamper head <NUM> is down and the basket <NUM> of the top layer retreats to its starting position together with the color spraying guns <NUM>. In this step the guns <NUM> are shut and remain inactive until the basket of the top layer completes starts retreating to its starting point after pouring the concrete it contains into the mould.

The color spraying cycle may be controlled and monitored by a control operation unit, which may be a controller or a computer processing unit. Such control unit may be configured to control and monitor any one of the following operations simultaneously, sequentially or according to any pre-determined or pre-selected program: synchronize the spraying of colors with the travelling back of the basket <NUM> of the top layer; select the colors and color mix to be sprayed according to a selected pattern or design; control the timing of spraying by the color spraying guns of each of the selected colors and color mixes; control the pressure and number of air pumps active in the formation of the color spray, thus control the intensity and spread of the color on the top surface of the upper layer of the claddings; stir the mixer in the color bucket constantly or in any selected time intervals to maintain the fluid phase color mass homogeneous and the suspension stable without precipitates formed at the bottom of the bucket; and synchronize the color spraying with the operation schedule of the cladding manufacturing machine, particularly the initiation and retreat times of the basket of the upper layer of the claddings and its speed.

Accordingly, a user may program the control operation unit to select any particular preset program for color spraying the top surface of the claddings to obtain any design or pattern. Alternatively, the user may set the values of any one of the parameters that determine the operation of the color spraying apparatus, which is integrated in the cladding manufacturing machine to obtain any desired pattern or design on the top surface of the upper layer. These parameters may be defined according to the functions that the color spraying apparatus is configured to do and the control operation unit is configured to control.

Claim 1:
An integrated machine for manufacturing claddings and coloring top surface of said claddings, said integrated machine comprising:
a cladding manufacturing machine (<NUM>) comprising:
at least one basket (<NUM>), funnel (<NUM>) and hopper (<NUM>) for filling, delivering and pouring "dry" concrete, said at least one basket is movable along a selected path;
a mould (<NUM>) for receiving said concrete from said at least one basket (<NUM>);
a vibrating table (<NUM>);
a vibrator (230a) below said vibrating table (<NUM>) and in mechanical contact with said vibrating table (<NUM>);
a production board (<NUM>) that carries said mould (<NUM>) on it and that lies on said vibrating table (<NUM>) and in friction contact with said vibrating table (<NUM>) for vibrating said production board (<NUM>) and mould (<NUM>) and said concrete in said mould (<NUM>); and
a tamper head (<NUM>) for pressing defined cladding units of said concrete in said mould (<NUM>);
and
a color spraying apparatus (<NUM>) comprising:
color spraying guns (<NUM>) attached to said at least one basket (<NUM>) for spraying a fluid phase color mass on the top surface of an upper layer of said claddings; and
means (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, 125a, <NUM>) for containing, mixing, delivering and spraying said fluid phase color mass to said color spraying guns.