Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B44—DECORATIVE ARTS
  • B44C—PRODUCING DECORATIVE EFFECTS; MOSAICS; TARSIA WORK; PAPERHANGING
  • B44C1/00—Processes, not specifically provided for elsewhere, for producing decorative surface effects
  • B44C1/22—Removing surface-material, e.g. by engraving, by etching
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B28—WORKING CEMENT, CLAY, OR STONE
  • B28B—SHAPING CLAY OR OTHER CERAMIC COMPOSITIONS; SHAPING SLAG; SHAPING MIXTURES CONTAINING CEMENTITIOUS MATERIAL, e.g. PLASTER
  • B28B11/00—Apparatus or processes for treating or working the shaped or preshaped articles
  • B28B11/04—Apparatus or processes for treating or working the shaped or preshaped articles for coating or applying engobing layers
  • B28B11/044—Apparatus or processes for treating or working the shaped or preshaped articles for coating or applying engobing layers with glaze or engobe or enamel or varnish
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B28—WORKING CEMENT, CLAY, OR STONE
  • B28B—SHAPING CLAY OR OTHER CERAMIC COMPOSITIONS; SHAPING SLAG; SHAPING MIXTURES CONTAINING CEMENTITIOUS MATERIAL, e.g. PLASTER
  • B28B11/00—Apparatus or processes for treating or working the shaped or preshaped articles
  • B28B11/08—Apparatus or processes for treating or working the shaped or preshaped articles for reshaping the surface, e.g. smoothing, roughening, corrugating, making screw-threads
  • B28B11/0863—Apparatus or processes for treating or working the shaped or preshaped articles for reshaping the surface, e.g. smoothing, roughening, corrugating, making screw-threads for profiling, e.g. making grooves
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B44—DECORATIVE ARTS
  • B44F—SPECIAL DESIGNS OR PICTURES
  • B44F11/00—Designs imitating artistic work
  • B44F11/04—Imitation of mosaic or tarsia-work patterns

Definitions

• pre-composed mosaic panels constituted by tesserae are very commonly made by cutting tiles, which are then grouted in random or predetermined sequence for realising decorations on a support element.
• the support element retains the tesserae, constraining them to form a mosaic panel.
• a further process involves obtaining cuts during the tile pressing, the cuts being made by the die on the unfired tile, which is then glazed and fired. With this process there is difficulty in getting the grout to adhere when laid in the glazed cut-lines, and there is also the problem that the impression of wholeness of the tile is not removed, so the final effect does not look like a mosaic.
• the aim of the invention is to obviate the drawbacks inherent in the prior art by providing a process which enables tiles to be obtained which can reproduce, once assembled with other tiles, the typical effect of a mosaic.
• a further aim of the present invention is to make economies in production of tiles able to realise mosaics which are similar to "real" mosaics i.e. those made by manual laying of single tesserae.
• An advantage of the present invention is to provide a process for creating tiles reproducing mosaics which can reproduce mosaics with tesserae of any shape and size.
• a further advantage of the present invention is to provide a process for creating tiles reproducing mosaics in which the lie of each tessera is not perfectly coplanar with the lie of other tesserae, exactly as happens with mosaics entirely produced by manual laying of the single tesserae.
• the process of the invention aims at realising mosaics made of ceramic material, and in particular realising ceramic tiles which, after laying, faithfully reproduce a mosaic and all the salient characteristics, such as for example the irregularity of the lie of the tesserae and the discontinuity of the decoration due to the different shades and irregularity of the "chromatic veins" of the single tesserae, typical of a mosaic obtained by hand-laying of the single tesserae.
• the process realises tiles which on the in-view surface thereof (the surface opposite the blank, which is the surface of the tile which is grouted to the surface to be decorated when the tiles are laid) there are decorated tesserae which exactly reproduce the tesserae of a mosaic, separated by division lines between the tesserae which are typical of mosaics, and which are in a single body with the tile.
• the process comprises a stage of realising a support in ceramic material, which is preferably obtained in a powder pressing operation, using powders normally used for realising ceramic tiles. This is done by fashioning, on the surface of the tile destined to reproduce the mosaic, not a coplanar surface, as happens with normal tiles, but at least parts of the surfaces which are destined to reproduce the single tesserae with a non-coplanar reciprocal arrangement.
• the various parts which are not coplanar are fashioned such as to be inclined, with respect to an ideal decorated plane of the tile, with inclinations of the order of fractions of degrees, and are differently oriented, i.e. with inclinations oriented in different directions and with positive and negative angles.
• non-coplanarity of the parts destined to reproduce the mosaic tesserae is what best renders the effect of a hand-laid mosaic, although it is obviously possible to create parts which are arranged on parallel planes to the ideal plane decorated by the tile, or to leave parts of the ideal plane decorated by the tile; the latter style, however, would leave a less perceptible effect of hand-laid mosaic.
• the non-coplanarity of the parts destined to reproduce the single tesserae is realised quite simply by using ceramic tile dies in which the punch destined to reproduce the decorated part of the tile has, in negative, the type of non-regular surfaces (with reciprocally non-coplanar parts), which it is desired to obtain on the decorated surface of the tile.
• the support is then preferably fired.
• the support is subjected to a stage of glazing.
• This stage is performed by reproducing, on the support itself, the design of the mosaic to be realised, such as to obtain the design which each tessera is to have and the design of the division line between the various tesserae.
• many "smaller glazes" are obtained on a single tile, which smaller glazes are in a number which is equal to the number of tesserae destined to constitute the mosaic, which are, or can be, different from each other in colour, shade and veining, and which are separated from one another by the dividing lines of the various tesserae.
• These division lines can, though this is not necessary, be glazed for example with a colour reproducing those of the grouts used for grouting mosaics; or, especially in the case of mosaics having regular shapes, for example square, rectangular, rhomboid and the like, they can simply be defined by the separation line between the decoration of a tessera and the decoration of the tesserae in the proximity thereof.
• the stage of glazing is preferably performed using programmable ink-jet decorating devices.
• These devices which are of known type even though they are not frequently used in the ceramic field, have the considerable advantage of being able to realise, differently to usual silk-screening decoration systems which only enable a very limited number of different decoration sequences to be performed, very numerous decoration sequences, all different and the number of which depends only on the complexity of the program set.
• This stage is performed by making incisions which exactly follow the division lines between the tesserae.
• the division lines are straight lines and the cuts of the lines can easily be obtained by cutting blades cutting the decorated surface of the tile in straight division lines between the tesserae.
• the stage of realising the incisions along the irregular lines can be performed by mechanical incision processes, such as, for example, pantograph incisions or laser incisions, using sand or water, which are of known type, which cut the decorated surface of the tile in irregular division lines between the tesserae.
• the edges of the tiles are made at the division lines between the various tesserae, and are rectified.
• the edges will be straight and the tile will be shaped as a normal ceramic tile.
• the design of the mosaic can include straight parts which will coincide with the edges of the tile, or irregularly-edged tiles are made, then to be assembled according to a pre-constituted sequence so that joining them together gives a complete mosaic design.
• the irregular edges can be obtained either during the stage of pressing the support, using dies of the desired shape, or by cutting the tiles along the edges, for example using the same machines which perform the non-through cuts, which in this case will obviously perform through-cuts such as to cut through the whole ceramic support.
• ceramic tiles are obtained on which upper surface thereof mosaic tesserae are reproduced, each having a particular decoration and a particular lie, together on the very support they have been created on.
• ceramic tiles have been obtained which have the same characteristics as ceramic mosaics made from single tesserae and uniting them on a support, for example by grouting them on a cloth or net or in any case on a non-rigid support, destined to keep them connected in order to facilitate laying thereof.
• the described process is, however, as can easily be understood, much more economic during the stage of realising the tiles and provides elements (the tiles) which are much easier to lay than the elements (tesserae grouted onto non-rigid supports) at present used for obtaining ceramic mosaics which are similar to mosaics laid tessera by tessera by hand.
• Laying the tiles is extremely simple.
• the tiles are laid on the surface to be covered, side by side, and then grouted so as to fill the cuts between the various tesserae of the tile as well as the join lines between one tile and another.
• the rectification of the tile edges means that the various tiles can be placed side-by-side such as to exactly reproduce a division line between the tesserae of a mosaic.
• the final effect obtained after laying the tiles is that of a large mosaic, the tesserae of which are singly laid by hand.
• Each tessera of the whole mosaic is geometrically arranged, typical in artisan mosaics, and has its own decoration, which gives the whole mosaic a configuration which is similar to that obtained with a mosaic laid tessera by tessera.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Structural Engineering (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Ceramic Engineering (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Finishing Walls (AREA)

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Citations (5)

• 2007
  • 2007-10-01 EP EP07425607A patent/EP2045097A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2007-10-24 AT AT07425668T patent/ATE537007T1/de active
  • 2007-10-24 EP EP07425668A patent/EP2045098B1/de active Active
  • 2007-10-24 ES ES07425668T patent/ES2378700T3/es active Active

Patent Citations (5)

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