ITTV20110022A1 - METHOD AND PLANT FOR THE REALIZATION OF WASHBASIN GLASS TOPS WITH INTEGRATED COLLECTION BATH - Google Patents

Description

TITLE: METHOD AND PLANT FOR THE REALIZATION OF GLASS WASHBASINS WITH INTEGRATED WASTE BASIN.

DESCRIPTION

The present application relates to a method and a plant for making glass washbasin tops with an integrated collection tank.

Today the Italian patent 1321827 filed on 15.12.2000 with application B02000A727 is known which describes a method and a plant for the production of glass sink tops with integrated collection tanks to be used for the furnishing of bathrooms and similar.

In the aforementioned patent a method is claimed for the production of glass washbasin tops with integrated collection tanks consisting of a horizontal glass support surface and at least one glass collection tank obtained in one piece on said horizontal support surface, said method including the following steps:

heating at least a predetermined portion of a flat glass sheet of determined thickness until a softening temperature of the glass is reached, in such a way as to locally bring the material into a high viscosity liquid state;

causing the deformation of said at least a predetermined portion of the glass sheet so as to form a respective concavity;

and finally slowly cooling the said glass sheet in such a way as to bring the same sheet back to a determined ambient temperature;

the said method being characterized in that the said deformation step of the said at least a predetermined portion of the glass sheet comprises the step of maintaining for a given time interval a pressure difference of a predetermined value between the air that laps the two faces opposite of said predetermined portion of the glass sheet.

This known solution has many drawbacks, including the need to use redundant containers for the ovens and such as to increase the overall cost of obtaining the product, having to use a considerable power for heating, requiring insulation for the the entire structure constituting the oven and finally requiring an environment of suitable size to house the various ovens used.

The known solution then requires the use of vacuum pumps, since the necessary depression must be created to obtain the basin of the washbasin, as well as means for determining the start-up and disconnection of the pump.

Furthermore, the known solution allows to obtain a single basin which, once formed, requires the immobilization of the oven until the basin has cooled, otherwise it will break due to thermal shock.

Once the oven has cooled down sufficiently, it is opened and the still hot sink is removed which must then be stored separately to cool completely, this requiring further processing, additional space available and being able to run the risk of chipping or breaking. the washbasin during handling.

Finally, in the known art, it takes a long time to complete a working cycle up to the extraction of the sink, still to be completely cooled, about an hour and a half.

The main task of what forms the subject of the present invention is therefore to solve the technical problems highlighted, eliminating the drawbacks of the cited known art and therefore devising a method and a plant which allow to realize, in a very quick and easy way, a glass washbasin with integrated collection tank.

Within the scope of the aforementioned aim, another important object of the invention is to provide a glass washbasin with an integrated collection tank which requires low manufacturing costs.

Another object of the invention is to allow to devise a method and to realize a system which allows to obtain in sequence several glass washbasins with integrated collection tank without requiring a wait for the mold to cool.

Another object is to provide a plant which has small dimensions and therefore requires limited spaces for its dislocation.

Not least object is to obtain a system which is structurally simple and which has low construction and management costs.

The aforementioned task and purposes, as well as others that will appear more clearly later, are achieved by a plant for the construction of glass washbasin tops (1) with integrated collection tank (2) which is characterized by the fact that it includes at least an atmospheric pressure mold (3) composed of an upper mold half (4) and at least one distinct lower mold half (5) defining, respectively, a first seat (6) for heating means (7) and a second seat (11) for a flat glass plate (9) which can be inserted laterally to said mold (3) in the closed condition, at the bottom and for part of said second seat (11) there being a third seat (13) shaped like a tank with at least one recess at the base ( 14).

The aforementioned task and purposes, as well as others that will appear more clearly later, are also achieved by a method for the realization of a glass washbasin top (1) with integrated collection tank (2) which is characterized by understand the following steps:

a) raising to desired temperature of a mold (3), composed of an upper half-mold (4) and a lower half-mold (5), equipped with a reduced internal chamber and a lateral opening (20) for insertion into said chamber, of a flat glass plate (9);

b) interruption of the heating of said mold (3);

c) inserting said flat glass plate (9) into said mold (3) comprising a lower mold half provided with a tub-shaped seat (13) with at least one recess (14) at the base;

d) heating said flat glass plate (9) by conduction until the internal temperature of said chamber drops to about 500 ° C;

e) heating only the zone of said flat glass plate (9) above said tub-shaped seat (13) for its softening and deformation until it is brought close to the base of said tub-shaped seat (13);

f) interruption of heating and removal of said lower half-mold (5) and replacement of the same with a further lower half-mold (5) at room temperature and without a flat glass plate (9) and repetition of the method starting from step c).

Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become clearer from the detailed description of a particular, but not exclusive, embodiment, illustrated by way of non-limiting example in the attached drawings, in which:

fig. 1 illustrates, in an exploded view, some components of the system;

fig. 2 shows, in a top view, the mold making up the implant;

figs. 3, 4 and 5 show, in a section taken according to the plane III-III of fig. 2, the steps of inserting a flat plate into the mold;

fig. 6 is a view taken according to the VI-VI plane of fig. 3;

fig. 7 shows, in a similar view of fig. 5, a step of softening the glass sheet;

fig. 8 shows, in a view similar to the previous one, the glass plate formed to define the washbasin top;

fig. 9 shows the plate in the condition of the previous figure in a view taken along the plane VI-VI of fig. 3,

fig. 10 shows an exploded view of the mold once the basin surface has been formed;

fig. 11 a plurality of lower half-molds stacked for the cooling phase of the washbasin top in the same contents.

In the following embodiments, single characteristics, reported in relation to specific examples, can actually be interchanged with other different characteristics, existing in other embodiments.

Furthermore, it should be noted that everything that in the course of the procedure for obtaining the patent turns out to be already known, is intended not to be claimed and subject to excerpt (disclaimer) from the claims.

With reference to the aforementioned figures, the number (1) indicates a glass washbasin top with integrated collection tank (2).

The plant consists of at least one mold (3) at atmospheric pressure, preferably of a parallelepiped shape with a rectangular base, composed in turn of at least one upper half-mold or lid (4) and one or more distinct lower half-molds (5) , which can be coupled by overlapping each other.

The mold (3) has internally, in the closed condition illustrated in Figure 3, in correspondence with the upper half-mold or lid (4), a first seat (6) for a plurality of heating means (7), such as lamps or resistors, which is powered by means of special electrical connectors (8) protruding externally from the upper half-mold or cover (4).

The first seat (6) defines a heating chamber and the heating means (7) are arranged in such a way as to obtain, as described further on, the thermo-curvature of a flat glass plate (9).

The lower half-mold (5) also forms part of the mold (3) which presents, starting from the upper surface (10) facing the overlying upper half-mold or lid (4), a second seat (11) for the flat glass plate (9).

The second seat (10) has a width approximately equal to that of the flat glass plate (9) but a longer length so as to communicate with the outside at a transverse side (12) of the lower half-mold (5); the flat glass plate (9) can thus be inserted laterally to said mold (3), even in its closed condition, through an opening (20) defined laterally.

Below and for part of said second seat (11) there is a third seat (13) shaped like a basin with at least one recess (14) at the base, preferably having a conical shape.

The recess (14) affects only part of the thickness of the lower mold half (5), resulting in the third seat (13) closed at the bottom.

For the construction of a glass washbasin top (1) with integrated collection tank (2), the following method is used: initially there is a first phase, carried out only once to become fully operational, which involves raising to desired temperature, preferably â ¥ 700 ° C, of the mold (3), closed, in the condition of Figure 3 in which the flat glass plate (9) is external to the mold (3) itself.

Then follows the interruption of the heating of said mold (3) and then the insertion of said flat glass plate (9) into said mold (3) through the opening (20) takes place.

Then the heating by conduction only, with said heating means (7) off, of said flat glass plate (9) takes place until the internal temperature of said chamber drops to about 500 ° C.

Only the zone of said flat glass plate (9) above said third seat (13) is then heated to obtain the thermoforming, and therefore the softening and deformation, of the flat glass plate (9) up to bring it close to said third seat (13) shaped like a tub, so as to obtain the final shape of the glass washbasin top

(1).

The heating is then interrupted and the mold is opened (3) by removing the lower mold half (5), which can be moved and stacked, when the system is fully operational, with others to allow the slow cooling of the glass basin ( 1).

It is therefore possible to replace the hot lower half-mold (5) containing the glass basin (1) with a further lower half-mold (5) at room temperature and without the glass plate.

The method can then be repeated starting from the step of inserting a new flat glass plate (9).

In practice it has been found that the invention has achieved the above mentioned aim and objects, having obtained a method and a plant which allow to realize, in a very quick and easy way, a glass washbasin with integrated collection tank with manufacturing costs. contents.

The method devised and the system obtained allow to obtain in sequence several glass washbasins with integrated collection tank without requiring a wait for the mold to cool, the system having small dimensions and requiring limited space for its dislocation.

The plant is structurally simple and has low construction and management costs.

The materials used as well as the dimensions that constitute the individual components of the invention may of course be more pertinent according to specific requirements. The different means for carrying out certain different functions will certainly not have to coexist only in the illustrated embodiment, but may be present per se in many embodiments, including those not illustrated. The characteristics indicated as advantageous, convenient or the like may also be missing or be replaced by equivalents.

Claims (12)

CLAIMS 1. Plant for the production of glass sink tops (1) with integrated collection tank (2) which is characterized by the fact that it comprises at least one mold (3) at atmospheric pressure composed of an upper half-mold (4) and at least a distinct lower half-mold (5) defining, respectively, a first seat (6) for heating means (7) and a second seat (11) for a flat glass plate (9) which can be inserted laterally to said mold (3) in the condition closed, at the bottom and for part of said second seat (11) there being a third seat (13) shaped like a basin with at least one recess (14) at the base. 2. Method for making a glass washbasin top (1) with integrated collection tank (2) which is characterized by the fact that it includes the following phases: a) raising to desired temperature of a mold (3), composed of an upper half-mold (4) and a lower half-mold (5), equipped with a reduced internal chamber and a lateral opening (20) for insertion into said chamber, of a flat glass plate (9); b) interruption of the heating of said mold (3); c) inserting said flat glass plate (9) into said mold (3) comprising a lower mold half provided with a tub-shaped seat (13) with at least one recess (14) at the base; d) heating said flat glass plate (9) by conduction until the internal temperature of said chamber drops to about 500 ° C; e) heating only the zone of said flat glass plate (9) above said tub-shaped seat (13) for its softening and deformation until it is brought close to the base of said tub-shaped seat (13); f) interruption of heating and removal of said lower half-mold (5) and replacement of the same with a further lower half-mold (5) at room temperature and without a flat glass plate (9) and repetition of the method starting from step c). 3. Plant as in claim 1 which is characterized by the fact that said lower half-mold (5) can be stacked, flat or cut, on other similar lower half-molds (5), after the forming of said glass washbasin top (9 ), for cooling. 4. Plant as in claims 1 and 3 which is characterized by the fact that said at least one mold (3) at atmospheric pressure, of parallelepiped shape with rectangular base, is composed of at least one upper half-mold or lid (4) and one or more distinct lower half-molds (5), which can be coupled by overlapping each other, said mold (3) presenting internally, in the closed condition, in correspondence with said upper half-mold or lid (4), a first seat (6) for a plurality of means heating elements (7), such as lamps or resistors, whose power is supplied by means of special electrical connectors (8) projecting externally from said upper half-mold or cover (4). 5. Plant as in claims 1 and 4 which is characterized in that said first seat (6) defines a heating chamber and said heating means (7) are arranged in such a way as to obtain the thermo curvature of a single flat sheet of glass (9), said lower half-mold (5) presenting, starting from the upper surface (10) facing said overlying upper half-mold or lid (4), a second seat (11) for a single flat glass plate (9). 6. Plant as in claims 1 and 5 which is characterized by the fact that said second seat (10) has a width approximately equal to that of said flat glass plate (9) but a longer length so as to communicate with the outside in correspondence a transverse side (12) of the lower mold half (5); the flat glass plate (9) can thus be inserted laterally to said mold (3), even in its closed condition, through an opening (20) defined laterally. 7. System as per claims 1 and 6 which is characterized by the fact that below and for part of said second seat (11) there is a third seat (13) shaped like a tank with at least one recess (14) at the base, having conical conformation, said recess (14) affecting only part of the thickness of said lower half-mold (5), resulting in said third seat (13) closed at the bottom. 8. Method as in claim 2 which is characterized by the fact that said step of raising to the desired temperature, substantially greater than or equal to 700 ° C, is carried out only a first time in order to reach full capacity with said flat glass plate (9 ) external to said mold (3). 9. Method as in claims 1 and 8 which is characterized by the fact that said flat glass plate (9) is inserted into said mold (3) through said opening (20) and is therefore heated by conduction only, with said heating means (7) turned off, until the internal temperature of said chamber drops to about 500 ° C. 10. Method as in claims 1 and 9 which is characterized in that only the area of said flat glass plate (9) above said third seat (13) shaped like a tank is heated to obtain thermoforming, and therefore the softening and deformation of said flat glass plate (9) until it is brought close to said third seat (13) shaped like a basin, so as to obtain the final shape of the glass washbasin top (1). 11. Method as in claims 1 and 10 which is characterized in that the heating is subsequently interrupted and said mold (3) is opened by removing said lower half-mold (5), which can be moved and stacked, to regime of the system, to another or more lower half-molds (5) in turn stacked to allow the slow cooling of said glass basin (1). 12. Method as per claims 1 and 11 which is characterized by replacing the lower half-mold (5) hot and containing the glass basin (1) with a further lower half-mold (5) at room temperature and without glass plate .