Automatic plant for the drying and fast single-phase firing of ceramic tiles
OwnerPietro Marazziinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention regards an automatic plant to perform continuously and with high yields on an industrial scale, the drying and single-phase firing operations on ceramic tiles used for wall-lining and floor-lining, which comprises an assembly of the type commonly called "tunnel kiln", along the length of which the semifinished products to be treated travel, and is associated with suitable heat sources, so as to establish in the environment defined by the tunnel or gallery of the kiln, the thermal conditions necessary for the development and completion of firing of the tile body as well as of the surface layer of the glaze.
Claims11
An apparatus for firing ceramic tiles by continuously progressively advancing the tiles coated on their upper face with a glaze composition along a horizontal transfer plane through an elongated treatment chamber, comprising an elongated thermally insulated tunnel-like structure defining said treatment chamber having a side wall on each side, a succession of rollers aligned with their axes on a horizontal plane and perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said treatment chamber for supporting and advancing the tiles thereon, support means supporting said rollers adjacent their ends in said side walls and permitting their axial movement, an annular toothed driven member detachably secured to at least one end of said rollers and located outside of said structure, and a toothed drive member disposed along the common side of said rollers and engaged with said tooth driven member to rotate said rollers, said driven member being individually disengageable from said rollers to allow each roller to be individually removed or introduced by motion parallel to its
A ceramic material treatment apparatus comprising at least one firing tunnel unit, a roller conveyor extending centrally through said tunnel unit and including a plurality of cylindrical rollers each having one end rotatably supported in one sude of said tunnel unit and an opposite end extending through the opposite side of said unit and having a roller length extending laterally outside of said tunnel unit, said rollers being axially movable in said associated sides of said tunnerl unit, sealing means sealing said rollers in said tunnerl unit and permitting the rotation thereof, a sleeve removably affixed to said roller length exteriorly of said tunnel unit for positive rotation of said roller with said sleeve, drive sprocket means affixed to each of said sleeves, a drive member connected to each drive spricket means to positively drive and rotate each said sleeve together with each said roller and guide roller means in said tunnel adjacent at least one of said walls providing rotational support for said rollers, a support bar extending along said tunnel unit beneath said drive sprocket means, said drive sprocket means comprising a sprocket affixed to said sleeve, said drive member comprising a chain engaged with each of said sprockets and supported on said bar.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.