Method & apparatus for cutting mosaic tile
AssigneeArtaic, LLC
InventorsEDWARD ACWORTH, PAUL HESLINGA, STEPHEN NESTINGER, ALAN ARGONDIZZA
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mosaic tile design and manufacturing system is comprised of a mosaic design application, a network server and a tile cutting apparatus. A mosaic artist can use the mosaic design application to specify the placement, color and shapes of a plurality of mosaic tile comprising a mosaic design. The tile shapes can be a combination of standard and non-standard shapes, and the design tool can generate instructions that can be applied by the server to the tile cutting apparatus to control the cutting apparatus to make custom tile cuts that result in a tile with a non-standard shape.
Claims20
A mosaic tile cutting apparatus, comprising
- a mosaic tile advancement mechanism is controlled to move a mosaic tile stock along a tile stock runner towards a stabilizer and a rotatable cutting head;
- the stabilizer is controlled to secure the mosaic tile stock prior to it being cut by immobilizing two opposing lateral edges of the mosaic tile stock that are proximate to the rotatable cutting head;
- and
- the rotatable cutting head is controlled to cut the mosaic tile stock at other than a ninety degree angle as measured from either of the two opposing lateral edges of the mosaic tile stock.
The apparatus of claim A1, wherein the stabilizer is controlled to immobilize the two opposing lateral edges of the mosaic tile stock, the cutting head is controlled to rotate and cut the mosaic tile stock during substantially the same period of time.
The apparatus of claim A1, wherein the stabilizer is comprised of first and second tile stock gripper arms that are controlled to move in opposite directions to immobilize the two opposing lateral edges of the mosaic tile stock.
The apparatus of claim A3, wherein each of the first and second gripper arms comprise a gripper element each of which contacts one of the opposing two lateral edges of the tile stock when the stabilizer is controlled to secure the mosaic tile stock.
The apparatus of claim A4, wherein each gripper element comprising the gripper arms is composed of a soft, tactile rubber material.
The apparatus of claim A1, wherein the rotatable cutting head is comprised of an upper and a lower cutting element both of which are rotatable around an axis that is at an angle that is ninety degrees with respect to a plane comprising the top surface of the mosaic tile stock.
The apparatus of claim A6, wherein the upper and lower cutting elements are rotatable around the vertical axis such that their positions with respect to the axis running along the central, top surface length of the mosaic tile stock do not change when the cutting head is rotated.
The apparatus of claim A6, wherein the upper cutting element is connected to an upper cutting arm and the lower cutting element is connected to a lower cutting arm.
The apparatus of claim A8, wherein the upper and lower cutting arms are pivotally mounted between a first and a second carrier elements that are rotatably connected to a mosaic tile cutting apparatus base.
A mosaic tile cutting system, comprising:
- a mosaic design application operating to generate information relating to an optimal position and a geometric shape for each one of a plurality of non-standard mosaic tiles comprising a free-form mosaic tile design;
- the mosaic design application operating on the geometric shape information, corresponding to each one of the plurality of the non-standard tiles, to calculate one or more tile stock advancement distances and one or more associated tile stock cutting angles, and compiling the calculated tile stock advancement distances and associated cutting angles into a series of computer instructions comprising a tile cutting program;
- a computational device, linked to a mosaic tile cutting apparatus, operating on the series of computer instructions comprising the tile cutting program to control the mosaic tile cutting apparatus to advance the tile stock the calculated distance and to make one or more cuts to the tile stock at the calculated cutting angle to form each one of the one or more non-standard tiles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.