GB1302188A - - Google Patents

Abstract

1302188 Moulding tiles or slabs ROBERT ABRAHAM Ltd 4 Aug 1970 [6 Aug 1969] 39387/69 Heading B5A Paving slabs or tile articles are moulded by the application of pressure to a settable plastics or concrete layer of material upon platens 10 carried between a pair of endless chains 0 and between each of which platens 10 is provided a transverse plate 13 which is extended from the surface of the platens into the layer subsequent to the compaction. Each platen 10 is provided from a magazine 128 with a steel, iron, or a plastics pallet, which may be of non-planar configuration, on to which concrete is deposited to be pressed either by press plates (which may be vertically reciprocated to produce an embossed tile), when the chains 0 are intermittently driven, or if the chains 0 are continuously driven as in the described embodiment, by a device 6 having pressure rollers 66 which reciprocate in the direction of conveyer movement and act through a moving endless rubber band 18, which is cleaned by a rotary nylon brush 19. In the described embodiment, backing and coloured facing concrete layers are sequentially deposited on to the pallets from hoppers 2, 4 provided at their outlets with compaction rollers 3, 5 which respectively rotate in the same and in the opposite direction to that of the conveyer chains 0. The sides of the article may be defined by plates on the machine along the edges of the platens 10, or by members 11 fixed to the platen sides. Intermediate the hoppers 2 and 4, the 1st layer of concrete is separated between adjacent platens by transverse steel divider plates 13 which are upwardly displaced from a cam track 16, as the upper concrete surface is restrained from displacement by a roller 33. After compaction by the device 6, nailing holes in tiles may be formed by a travelling drilling device 7 which is displaced along with a platen, against a return counterweight bias, by a divider plate 13 which abuts an abutment of the device 7 which, at the end of the drilling (effected by microswitch actuated heads 24 which are spring loaded to drill only the concrete), is cammed against a spring loading out of the path of the plate 13. The device 7 carries a blade 34 which is cam, or pneumatically, lowered to abut a plate 13 to complete separation between the articles on adjacent platens 10, which may then be longitudinally divided by rotary knives 99. Each article is ejected on to a conveyer 8 by push rods 112, carried by the platens and upwardly displaced through platen apertures 12 by inclined surfaces 28.