Mosaic tile maker
AssigneeGerber Scientific Products, Inc.
InventorDavid J. Gerber
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for automatically creating a simulated mosaic controllably discharges tile pieces onto plate material and secures the tile pieces in place such that the plates with the tile pieces are freestanding permitting the plates themselves to be an ordered arrangement of sections of the mosaic once cemented to the substrate. Many different forms may be had for the plate material, including ones that are pressure or heat activatable to bond with the tile pieces or ones that are mechanically connectable.
Claims24
An apparatus for automatically assembling tile pieces in a predetermined arrangement to create a simulated mosaic made up by an ordered collection of plates containing the tile pieces attached to a material, said apparatus comprising:
- a support surface for providing a base support surface to which a material is supported and onto which material tile pieces are deposited;
- delivery means disposed in a spatial relationship relative to said base support surface for depositing tile pieces at predetermined locations onto the material supported by said base support surface;
- drive means for controllably positioning said base support surface and said delivery means relative to one another to effect positioning of said delivery means relative to said base support surface at said predetermined locations;
- supply means communicating with said delivery means for providing a supply of tile pieces to be deposited on said support surface through the action of said delivery means;
- said supply means including a plurality of cassettes in which are disposed a plurality of tile pieces, each of said cassettes having a central axis and being an elongate tubular member having releasable connecting means formed at its lower end;
- and
- control means connected to said drive means and to said delivery means for controllably positioning said delivery means relative to said base support surface at said predetermined locations and for causing said delivery means to discharge a tile piece at one of said predetermined locations;
- and
- said predetermined locations being defined by control data used by said control means to effect positioning of said delivery means and said support surface relative to one another and to effect discharge of said tile pieces onto the material by said delivery means at said predetermined locations.
An apparatus for automatically assembling tile pieces in a predetermined arrangement to create a simulated mosaic made up by an ordered collection of plates containing the tile pieces attached to a material, said apparatus comprising:
- a support surface for providing a base support surface to which a material is supported and onto which material tile pieces are deposited;
- delivery means disposed in a spatial relationship relative to said base support surface for depositing tile pieces at predetermined locations onto the material supported by said base support surface;
- drive means for controllably positioning said base support surface and said delivery means relative to one another to effect positioning of said delivery means relative to said base support surface at said predetermined locations;
- supply means communicating with said delivery means for providing a supply of tile pieces to be deposited on said support surface through the action of said delivery means, said supply means including means for holding tile pieces of at least two types differing from one another by at least one of size and shape, and further including an apparatus having a drum portion having a central axis extending parallel to its length, said drum portion comprising a plurality of sleeves disposed concentrically about and extending parallel to said central axis, said sleeves being internally sized and shaped to receive correspondingly or compatibly sized and shaped ones of said tiles pieces;
- control means connected to said drive means and to said delivery means for controllably positioning said delivery means relative to said base support surface at said predetermined locations and for causing said delivery means to discharge a tile piece at one of said predetermined locations, said predetermined locations being defined by control data used by said control means to effect positioning of said delivery means and said support surface relative to one another and to effect discharge of said tile pieces onto the material by said delivery means at said predetermined locations;
- and
- input means connected to said control means for providing said control data with a first set of data representing a desired pattern to be presented by said tile pieces and a second set of data derived from said first data set for controlling the movements of said drive means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.