METHOD FOR FABRICATING CONCRETE BLOCKS OR CONCRETE SLABS

PROCEDE DE FABRICATION DE BLOCS DE BETON OU DE DALLES DE BETON

English Abstract

The invention relates to a method for the production of concrete blocks or
concrete slabs of varying formats and sizes, whereby concrete is filled into
moulds (2) for several blocks or slabs, the surface layer of which or the
facing concrete layer (3) of which has a base colour and the surfaces of which
have regions of different colours, the concrete is puddled by means of
vibration and/or tamping and subsequently hardened, whereby, before puddling,
at least one portion of a pigmented and/or variously-pigmented and/or a colour-
and/or various colour-containing finishing material is projected by means of
at least one application device (4).

French Abstract

L'invention concerne un procédé de fabrication de blocs de béton ou de dalles de béton de différents formats et de différentes dimensions, procédé selon lequel du béton est coulé dans des moules (2) destinés à plusieurs blocs ou dalles, dont la couche superficielle ou la couche de béton de parement (3) présente une couleur de base et dont les surfaces contiennent des zones de différentes couleurs, et le béton est compacté par vibration et/ou par estampage puis durci. Ce procédé se caractérise en ce qu'au moins une portion d'un matériau de finissage, teinté et/ou différemment teinté et/ou présentant une couleur et/ou plusieurs couleurs, est projetée sur la couche superficielle ou la couche de béton de parement (3) avant le compactage à l'aide d'au moins un dispositif d'application (4).

Claims

9
Claims
1. A method for fabricating concrete blocks comprising the steps of:
providing a plurality of molds;
charging raw concrete into said molds forming blocks;
applying to each block of said blocks a surface layer wherein said surface
layer
has a fine-grained adapted grain structure not greater than screen cut C4;
throwing at least one portion of a pigmented finishing material on said
surface
layer of said formed blocks by at least one applicator to produce colored
places
simulating natural rock wherein said finishing material has a graded
granulometric
composition having a maximum grain diameter of 2 mm, wherein said applicator
has
at least one centrifugal feeder disk to which said at least one portion of
said finishing
material is supplied;
compacting and vibrating said blocks; and
curing said blocks.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein said finishing material is a pigmented
concrete mix.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein said finishing material contains small rock
grains.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein said finishing material is a rock mixture.
5. The method of claim 3, wherein said finishing material contains
granulations
of at least one material selected from the group consisting of semiprecious
stones,
precious stones, mica, metal chips, plastic particles and glass particles.
6. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein different finishing
materials
are contained in one portion.

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7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein a plurality of portions of
said finishing material are thrown onto the surfaces of said molds.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of portions of said finishing
material are thrown onto the surfaces of said molds in succession.
9. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein said applicator moves
beside said molds during the application of said finishing material.
10. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein said applicator moves
over said molds during the application of said finishing material.
11. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein said applicator moves
over and beside said mold at a different speed.
12. The method of any one of claims 1 to 11, further comprising at least one
additional applicator used with the applicator for one of said molds.
13. The method of any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein said applicator includes
a
guide device.
14. The method of any one of claims 1 to 13, wherein the concrete is a
silicate-
concrete mixture.
15. The method of any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein said surface layer is
plastic-modified.
16. The method of any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein said surface layer
includes rock-grain mixtures blended with an inorganic binder.

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17. The method of any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein an organic agent is
applied to the surfaces of the concrete blocks before curing.
18. The method of any one of claims 1 to 17, wherein edges of the concrete
blocks are treated with brushes after compaction and before curing to remove
projecting edges.
19. A method for fabricating concrete blocks comprising the steps of:
providing a plurality of molds;
charging raw concrete into said molds forming blocks, each of which has a
surface layer wherein said surface layer has a fine-grained adapted grain
structure not
greater than screen cut C4;
throwing at least one portion of a pigmented finishing material on said
surface
layer of said formed blocks by at least one applicator to produce colored
places
simulating natural rock;
compacting said blocks, and;
curing said blocks wherein said applicator has at least one centrifugal feeder
disk to which said at least one portion of said finishing material is supplied
and
wherein said applicator has at least one metering vessel containing the
finishing
material and having a metering strip, said metering vessel being guided over
said
molds.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein vibrations are exerted on said metering
strip.
21. The method of claim 19 or 20, wherein different portions of finishing
material are supplied to said metering strip along its extent.
22. The method of any one of claims 19 to 21, wherein said metering vessel is

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mounted on the front edge of a metering carriage for said surface layer.
23. The method of any one of claims 19 to 22, wherein said applicator has at
least one pipe outlet to which one of a plurality of portions of a finishing
material are
supplied and through which the latter are thrown onto said surface layers of
said
blocks.
24. The method of claim 23, wherein said pipe outlet is equipped with a spring-
loaded piston to define a shooting apparatus.
25. The method of claim 23, wherein ejection of said finishing material is
effected with compressed air.
26. The method of any one of claims 23 to 25, wherein an ejection end of said
pipe outlet is configured as a nozzle.
27. A method for producing concrete blocks or slabs of different formats and
sizes, the method comprising:
pouring concrete into molds for a plurality of the blocks or slabs, a facing
concrete layer of which having a base color; and
compacting the concrete by means of vibration and/or by means of stamping
and subsequent cures;
wherein at least one portion of a material is thrown onto the facing concrete
layer prior to the compacting operation;
wherein the material is a pigmented finishing material which is thrown by
means of at least one application device, the finishing material having a
graduated
particle composition of at most 2 mm particle diameter;
wherein the application device comprises one or more elements selected from
the group consisting of a slinger disc, a bladed wheel, a thrower arm and a
catapult, to
which the at least one portion of the finishing material is fed; and

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wherein the facing concrete layer has a fine-particulate particle structure no
greater than grading limit C4, and surfaces of the facing concrete layer
contain points
having different colors.
28. A method for producing concrete blocks or slabs of different formats and
sizes, the method comprising:
pouring concrete into molds for a plurality of blocks or slabs, a facing
concrete
layer of which has a base color; and
compacting the concrete by means of vibration and/or by means of stamping
and subsequent cures;
wherein at least one portion of a material is thrown onto the facing concrete
layer prior to the compacting operation;
wherein the material is a pigmented finishing material which is thrown by
means of at least one application device, the finishing material having a
graduated
particle composition of at most 2 mm particle diameter;
wherein the application device comprises at least one metering container which
contains the finishing material and which comprises a metering bar, wherein
the
metering container is guided over the mold; and
wherein the facing concrete layer has a fine-particulate particle structure no
greater than grading limit C4, and surfaces of the facing concrete layer
contain points
having different colors.
29. A method for producing concrete blocks or slabs of different formats and
sizes, the method comprising:
pouring concrete into molds for a plurality of blocks or slabs, a facing
concrete
layer of which has a base color; and
compacting the concrete by means of vibration and/or by means of stamping
and subsequent cures;
wherein at least one portion of a material is thrown onto the facing concrete
layer prior to the compacting operation;

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wherein the material is a pigmented finishing material which is thrown by
means of at least one application device, the finishing material having a
graduated
particle composition of at most 2 mm particle diameter;
wherein the application device comprises at least one pipe stub to which the
at
least one portion of finishing material is fed and through which the at least
one portion
is thrown onto the facing concrete layer;
wherein the facing concrete layer has a fine-particulate particle structure no
greater than grading limit C4, and surfaces of the facing concrete layer
contain points
having different colors.
30. The method according to claim 29, wherein the pipe stub is equipped with a
spring-loaded piston to define a shooting apparatus.
31. The method according to claim 29, wherein the material is thrown out by
means of compressed air.
32. The method according to any one of claims 29 to 31, wherein an ejection
end of the pipe stub is configured as a nozzle.
33. The method according to claim 28, wherein vibrations or jolting impacts,
which are designed to be one or more of uniform, non-uniform and intermittent,
are
exerted on the metering bar.
34. The method according to claim 28 or 33, wherein different finishing
materials and/or different portions of the finishing material are fed to the
metering bar
along an extent thereof.
35. The method according to claim 28, 33 or 34, wherein the metering
container is mounted on a front edge of a metering carriage for the facing
concrete.

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36. The method according to any one of claims 27 to 35, wherein the finishing
material is a colored concrete mixture, differently colored concrete mixture,
or a
combination thereof with respect to the facing concrete layer.
37. The method according to claim 36, wherein the facing concrete is polymer-
modified, comprises a silicate-concrete mixture, or a combination thereof.
38. The method according to any one of claims 27 to 37, wherein the finishing
material contains rock particles.
39. The method according to any one of claims 27 to 37, wherein the finishing
material contains a rock mixture.
40. The method according to any one of claims 27 to 37, wherein the finishing
material contains one or more of rock particles, a rock mixture and
granulations,
mixed with a binder.
41. The method according any one of the claims 27 to 37, wherein the finishing
material contains granulations of at least one material selected from the
group
consisting of semiprecious stones, precious stones, mica, metal chips, and
polymer
particles.
42. The method according to any one of claims 27 to 41, wherein different
finishing materials are contained within each portion.
43. The method according to any one of claims 27 to 42, wherein the at least
one portion includes a plurality of portions thrown onto surfaces of the mold.
44. The method according to claim 43, wherein the plurality of portions are
thrown in succession onto the surfaces of the mold.

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45. The method according to any one of claims 27 to 44, wherein the
application device is moved over or next to the mold while the finishing
material is
being applied.
46. The method according to claim 45, wherein the application device is moved
over or next to the mold with one or both of different speeds of movement and
different directions of movement.
47. The method according to any one of claims 27 to 46, wherein the
application device is one of a plurality of application devices used for each
mold.
48. The method according to claim 47, wherein the plurality of application
devices is a plurality of different application devices.
49. The method according to claim 47 or 48, wherein the application devices
comprise guide plates or boundary plates.
50. The method according to any one of claims 27 to 49, wherein an organic or
inorganic agent is applied to surfaces of the concrete blocks or slabs prior
to or after
the compacting operation and prior to or after the subsequent cures.
51. The method according to any one of claims 27 to 49, wherein one or both
of surfaces and edges of the surfaces of the concrete blocks or slabs are
worked with
brushes after the compacting operation and prior to the subsequent cures or to
a
sealing operation, such that one or more of textured, roughened, smoothed and
overhangs at the edges are worked off.

Description

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Method for Fabricating Concrete Blocks or Concrete Slabs
Specification
The invention relates to a method for fabricating concrete blocks or concrete
slabs
of various formats and sizes, in which concrete is charged into molds for a
plurality of
blocks or slabs, its surface layer or its face concrete layer exhibits a
ground color and its
surfaces contain diversely colored places, the concrete is compacted by
vibration and/or
tamping and then cures.
It is common to charge the raw concrete for concrete blocks and concrete slabs
into the molds first, then to charge the face concrete, and then to compact
the concrete
blocks or concrete slabs.
It is also possible, however, to fabricate the concrete blocks or concrete
slabs in a
single-step method without face concrete.
Here, in order to fabricate varicolored concrete blocks or concrete slabs, it
is
known to impart a ground color to the surface layer in the single-step method
or to the
face concrete layer, as desired, which ground color can correspond to the
concrete color
without pigmentation or is pigmented in various colors.
From EP-I 017 554 B1 it is further known to fabricate the concrete mortar
forming the face layer by variously pigmented layers, which are held one above
another
in the supply vessel and move freely downward in the supply vessel, thus
mixing and
passing onto the coarse concrete, guided via baffles,

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in order to form a marbled face layer that is subsequently compacted. This is
a
serviceable method wherein, however, there arise varicolored marbled batches
that are
capable to only a limited degree of satisfying the visual requirements for
concrete blocks
or concrete slabs that are supposed to look similar to natural stones, because
only dot-like
color patterns arise.
It is therefore an object of the invention to furnish a method that yields
surfaces of
concrete blocks or concrete slabs that look very similar to streaked and/or
speckled
natural stones. Here a textured surface is supposed to arise in which oriented
veins and/or
streaks and/or speckles dominate.
The object of the invention is achieved in that at least one portion of a
pigmented
and/or variously pigmented finishing material or of a colored or diversely
colored
finishing material is thrown onto the surface layer or face concrete layer by
at least one
applicator before compaction. In this way it is possible to generate flamed,
veined or
speckled surfaces that look similar to the natural structure of natural
stones. These
surfaces can be generated or varied by varying the applicator, the portion or
portions and
the finishing material. The ground color of the surface layer or face concrete
layer, which
extends from uncolored concrete to varicolored concrete, also plays a role.
The term "throw" in the process-engineering sense also means "sling," "shoot"
or
"blow" the finishing material onto the surface layer or face concrete layer.

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The finishing material is advantageously a pigmented and/or diversely
pigmented
concrete mix that yields the special visual appearance through application to
the surface.
Because the concrete mix is subsequently pressed into the surface or compacted
there, a good bond with the surface layer or the face concrete layer comes
about.
The finishing material can also exhibit or contain small rock grains, so that
various
materials diverse in color, also granulations of semiprecious stones or
precious stones or
mica or metal chips or plastic particles or glass particles, can be introduced
into the
surface layer or face concrete layer. The finishing material can also be an
arbitrary rock
blend. The finishing material preferably has a graded granulometric
composition having a
maximum grain diameter of 2 mm.
The face concrete or the concrete surface layer preferably has a fine-grained
granular structure, finer than or equal to screen cut C4. To an individual
skilled in the art,
C4 denotes fine-grained granular structure with granulations having diameters
between 0
and 4.0 mm. Standardized screen tests with fixed screening machines are
performed for
assessment purposes.
Diverse finishing materials, diversely pigmented concrete mixes including rock
grains or rock mixtures or granulations or chips or particles can be contained
in an
applied portion.
It is also possible, however, to apply a plurality of portions of the same or
diverse
finishing materials portionwise onto the mold, as well as to apply a plurality
of portions
of the finishing material in succession to the surfaces of a mold.

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According to the invention it is proposed that the applicator exhibits at
least one
centrifugal feeder disk or one paddle wheel or one throwing arm or one
catapult, to which
the portion or portions of the finishing material are supplied. These and the
applicators
described in what follows can move over the mold or beside the mold, and
diverse
portions can also be supplied to them at diverse time intervals.
In a further development it is proposed that the applicator exhibits at least
one
metering vessel containing a finishing material and having a metering strip,
the metering
vessel being guided at a uniform or nonuniform speed over the mold.
Here vibrations or vibratory impacts, performed uniformly and/or nonuniformly
and/or intermittently, are preferably exerted on the metering strip.
Diverse finishing materials and/or diverse portions of finishing material can
be
supplied to the metering strip along its extent.
The metering vessel can also be mounted on the front edge of the metering
carriage for the face concrete.
It is further proposed to fashion the applicator as a pipe outlet through
which the
portion or portions of the finishing material are thrown onto the surface
layer or face
concrete layer. An especially good distribution onto the mold is brought about
if the pipe
outlet end is fashioned similarly to a nozzle.
It also contributes to good distribution if ejection is effected with
compressed air.
The ejection of the finishing material can also be effected with

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a prestressed spring-loaded piston whose latching device is suddenly released
for
throwing.
The applicator can preferably move over the mold or beside the mold. It can
exhibit or attain diverse speeds of motion, an abrupt movement possibly being
advantageous as well. Depending on the size of the mold and the color
outfitting of the
applicator with finishing material, a plurality of devices and also diverse
devices can be
utilized for one mold, so that throwing is rendered uniform or a special
characteristic
throwing pattern of the finishing material onto the layers is achieved.
Guiding plates are preferably utilized in the applicators, because such disk
wheels
or throwing arms and also pipe outlets can have a greater scatter.
A plurality of portions of the finishing material can be ejected in succession
by the
applicators, the finishing materials, as already described, possibly being
diverse.
It is further proposed that the pigmented or diversely pigmented concrete mix
or
also the face concrete or the concrete surface layer is plastic-modified
and/or exhibits a
silicate-concrete mixture.
The rock grains or rock-grain mixture or granulations can be blended with an
organic or inorganic binder. The binder is preferably colorless and is mixed
with the rock
grains or rock-grain mixtures or granulations or chips or particles before
application, an
acrylate dispersion being used for example as organic binder and a silicate
for example as
inorganic binder.

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Before, but preferably after, compaction, an organic or inorganic agent, which
is preferably colorless, can be applied to the surfaces of the concrete blocks
or
concrete slabs before, or also after, curing. Enhanced durability and
protection against
staining are achieved and lime blooms are reduced or prevented by this
impregnation,
sealing or coating of the concrete blocks or concrete slabs.
After final compaction and before sealing, the surfaces and/or the edges of
the
surfaces of the concrete blocks or concrete slabs can be treated with brushes
and thus
can be textured and/or roughened and/or smoothed and/or projecting edges can
be
removed.
For further explanation of the invention, reference is made to the Drawings,
in
which an exemplary embodiment of the invention is illustrated in simplified
form.
Figure 1 is a perspective view of a mold board having a mold with concrete
blocks and an applicator.
Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a metering vessel, metering strip and
metering carriage.
In Figure 1, reference character 1 denotes a mold board on which a mold 2 is
arranged. Mold 2 exhibits a larger number of through openings (35 of them in
the
Figure) into which concrete is charged, on which board a face concrete layer 3
is
applied and can be seen. As cannot be interred from the Figure, the face
concrete layer
is pigmented. Further, 4 generally denotes an applicator that contains a
centrifugal
feeder disk 5. The plane of the

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centrifugal feeder disk is aligned roughly parallel to the surface of mold 2
and spaced
some distance away therefrom. Applicator 4 can move along the side arranged in
the
Figure, but also along the other sides of the mold, so that all face concrete
layers 3 can
be reached in arbitrary fashion. Arranged above centrifugal feeder disk 5 is a
hopper 6
into which finishing material (not visible) is charged. At its end facing
toward
centrifugal feeder disk (not visible), hopper 6 has a device for opening and
closing the
hopper discharge so that arbitrary portions of the finishing material can be
conveyed
onto the centrifugal feeder disk. A plurality of hoppers can be arranged above
the
centrifugal feeder disk, in which hoppers diverse finishing materials are
contained, in
order that the surfaces of face concrete layers 3 can be strewn with various
finishing
materials at various metering rates. The rotation speed of centrifugal feeder
disk 5 and
its height relative to mold 2 can be arbitrarily adjusted and varied, even
during the
throwing motion, and likewise the speed of motion along the mold.
Further, reference character 7 denotes a guide device, which prevents the
arbitrary casting of finishing material by the centrifugal feeder disk, in
particular
outside of mold 2, and steers the direction of throwing onto mold 2.
Figure 2 illustrates a metering vessel 10 which supplies material to a
metering
strip 11. A metering carriage 12 transports the metering strip 11. During use
vibrations
are exerted on the metering strip 11.

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List of Reference Characters
1 Mold board
2 Mold
3 Face concrete layers
4 Applicator
Centrifugal feeder disk
6 Hopper
7 Guide device

Representative Drawing