US 4,070,985 AGranted

Automatic production apparatus for manufacturing of split tile

AssigneeLingl Corporation

InventorHans Lingl

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Abstract

An apparatus for the continuous and automatic manufacture of both glazed and unglazed split tiles by accepting automatically produced uncured newly cut and/or stamped split tile and thereafter automatically glazing and/or hacking same for kiln firing. A first conveyor system is provided where previously cut unglazed split tiles are placed on a conveying system in a spaced-apart fashion, and moved to a transfer position. Thereafter, a whole row of the unglazed spaced-apart split tiles are transferred to a grouping table where layers for a hack are formed by a plurality of adjacent transferred rows. Each layer is subsequently transferred to a kiln car and oriented 90.degree. with respect to the just previously deposited layer so as to maintain the desired spaced relationship in the final hack. A second alternative conveying system is also provided in the preferred exemplary embodiment which moves unglazed split tiles individually through a glazing area where both sides are glazed. Thereafter, the glazed split tiles are dried and grouped in a spaced-apart fashion similar to the unglazed tiles. When a predetermined row length has been formed, such row is transferred to the same grouping table where hack layers are formed and incorporated within a hack in the same way that unglazed tile are handled.

Claims8

Dependent claims

Apparatus for forming rows of glazed and unglazed split tile lengths into hacks for kiln firing comprising:

first and second conveying systems,
said first conveying system comprising first conveyor means for moving pallets supporting a row of spaced-apart unglazed split tile lengths to a first transfer position,
grouping area means for accumulating a predetermined number of adjacent rows of split tile lengths as a layer,
row transfer means for moving the row of spacedapart split tile lengths from the pallets located at said first transfer position to said grouping area means while maintaining the spacing established between the individual split tile lengths,
layer transfer means for moving layers from said grouping area means to a kiln car,
said second conveying system comprising
first, second and third conveyor means,
feeding means for feeding a palletized row of split tile lengths to said first conveyor means,
said second conveyor means being disposed perpendicularly to said first conveyor means and being adapted to individually receive split tile lengths therefrom in single file formation,
glazing means disposed on at least one side of said second conveyor means for glazing the split tile lengths passing therealong,
said third conveyor means being disposed perpendicularly to said second conveyor means and adapted to receive split tile lengths therefrom one at a time so as to form a row of spaced-apart split tile lengths on the third conveyor means, and
means for transferring thus formed rows to a second transfer position,
said row transfer means also being adapted to move a row of spaced-apart split tile lengths located at said second transfer position to said grouping area means while maintaining the spacing established between the individual split tile lengths.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.