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US 10,882,212 B2Granted
Method and plant for manufacturing ceramic products
AssigneeSacmi Cooperativa Meccanici Imola Societa' Cooperativa
InventorsStefano Scardovi, Claudio Ricci, Giovanni Lancieri, Gildo Bosi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and a plant (i.e., system or assembly) for manufacturing ceramic products comprising the steps of feeding a mixture of ceramic powders so as to obtain a powder material strip; compacting the powder material strip so as to obtain a compacted powder layer; acquiring a surface image of the compacted powder layer that reproduces the respective surface chromatic effects; processing said surface image so as to obtain a graphic decoration to be applied on the surface of the compacted powder layer that is coordinated with the respective chromatic effects in the thickness; and printing the graphic decoration on the surface of the compacted powder layer.
Claims11
A method for manufacturing ceramic products comprising;
- a feeding step to feed a mixture of at least two ceramic powders having different features and/or colours from one another so as to obtain a powder material strip;
- a compacting step to compact the powder material strip so as to obtain a compacted powder layer provided with respective surface chromatic effects and with respective chromatic effects in the thickness;
- a printing step to create a graphic decoration on the surface of the compacted powder layer so as to make the compacted powder layer more similar to a natural product;
- the printing step comprises the further steps of:
- acquiring a surface image of the compacted powder layer, which reproduces the respective surface chromatic effects;
- processing said surface image so as to obtain the graphic decoration to be applied on the surface of the compacted powder layer, which is coordinated with the respective chromatic effects in the thickness;
- and
- printing the graphic decoration on the surface of the compacted powder layer the method comprising the further steps of:
- identifying a reference image of the surface image of the compacted powder layer within an archive, where a plurality of reference images are stored, each of the reference images reproducing given surface chromatic effects;
- and
- processing the reference image so as to obtain the graphic decoration to be applied on the surface of the compacted powder layer,
- wherein the step of identifying a reference image of the surface image of the compacted powder layer comprises the further steps of;
- processing the surface image of the compacted powder layer so as to identify the trajectories of the most significant surface chromatic effects to be compared with the reference images contained in said archive;
- and
- identifying, among the reference images contained in said archive, the one that is the most similar to the surface image of the compacted powder layer.
12 more elements
A system for manufacturing ceramic products comprising:
- a feeding assembly to feed a mixture containing at least two ceramic powders having different features and/or colours from one another so as to obtain a powder material strip (CP);
- a pressing unit to press the powder material strip, which is arranged downstream of the feeding assembly so as to obtain a compacted powder layer provided with respective surface chromatic effects and with respective chromatic effects in the thickness;
- and
- a printing device, which is designed to create a graphic decoration on the surface of the compacted powder layer to thereby make the compacted powder layer more similar to a natural product;
- wherein the system comprises an optical detection device, which is arranged upstream of the printing device and is designed to acquire a surface image of the compacted powder layer, which reproduces the respective surface chromatic effects;
- and
- a processing unit, which receives the surface images of the compacted powder layer from the optical detection device and processes them so as to obtain the graphic decoration to be transmitted to the printing device, the processing unit further:
- identifying a reference image of the surface image of the compacted powder layer within an archive, where a plurality of reference images are stored, each of the reference images reproducing given surface chromatic effects;
- and
- processing the reference image so as to obtain the graphic decoration to be applied on the surface of the compacted powder layer,
- wherein the step of identifying a reference image of the surface image of the compacted powder layer comprises the further steps of:
- processing the surface image of the compacted powder layer so as to identify the trajectories of the most significant surface chromatic effects to be compared with the reference images contained in said archive;
- and
- identifying, among the reference images contained in said archive, the one that is the most similar to the surface image of the compacted powder layer,
- wherein the graphic decoration is coordinated with the respective chromatic effects in the thickness of the compacted powder layer.
12 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.