Method and apparatus for producing concrete blocks with textured surfaces
AssigneeAllan Block Corporation
InventorTimothy Allen Bott
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for creating decorative patterns on surfaces of cured concrete blocks includes a plurality of texturing elements secured to one or more rotatable shaft via a plurality of flexible support cables. Upon rotation of the shaft, centrifugal force causes the secured texturing elements to radially extend from the shaft. The blocks are preferably positioned such that the rotating texturing elements repeatedly come into contact with particular surfaces of the blocks, thereby forming a textured or antiqued pattern on such block surfaces. In a particular embodiment, the rotatable shaft is reciprocally moved in a direction parallel to the block surfaces to be patterned, whereby an entire block surface is exposed to the rotating texturing elements.
Claims25
The method of creating a decorative textured surface on an outer face of cured concrete block comprising the steps of:
- (a) positioning a block having a surface to be textured in a treatment zone;
- (b) securing one or more texturing elements to a distal end of a support cable, with a,proximal end of said support cable being secured to a support shaft mounted for rotation along an axis;
- (c) rotating said support shaft at a rate sufficient to extend said texturing elements radially outwardly through centrifugal force;
- (d) reciprocally moving said rotary support shaft along a generally horizontal axis substantially parallel to the surface to be textured whereby the centrifugal force causes said texturing elements to repeatedly impact the block surface to be textured.
A method of creating decorative patterns on outer surfaces of cured concrete blocks, comprising:
- (a) positioning the concrete blocks on a movable support structure;
- (b) transporting the blocks to a treatment zone via said movable support structure, said treatment zone including a rotary support shaft having a plurality of texturing elements flexibly secured thereto;
- (c) securing one or more blocks within said treatment zone such that particular block surfaces to be decorated are in contact with rotating said rotatable texturing elements;
- (d) rotating said support shaft at a rate sufficient to extend said texturing elements radially outwardly through centrifugal force;
- and
- (e) reciprocally moving said rotary support shaft along a direction parallel to such block surfaces such that a desired decorative pattern on the surfaces is achieved by a plurality of impacts between said texturing elements and such block surfaces.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.