Stone working – Miscellaneous
Patent
1991-11-01
1993-05-18
Kisliuk, Bruce M.
Stone working
Miscellaneous
21912139, 21912144, 175 14, 175 16, 299 14, B28D 100, C04B 4153
Patent
active
052111563
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for treating the surface of a body of natural rock or artificial stone-like material, to give to the latter surface an attractive finish. The method and apparatus use for that purpose a high temperature jet of plasma and a high speed jet of cooling fluid.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
A method which is presently widely used to treat surfaces of natural rocks, in particular granite, consists in heating the surface of granite to cause bursting of the crystals at the said surface to give to the latter a glossy and attractive finish. Actually, exploitation on an industrial scale of the above method makes use of a flame obtained through combustion of natural gas or other combustible fuel to heat the granite surface in order to carry out the desired treatment. U.S. Pat. No. 2,655,909 (R. B. Aitchison et al.) issued on Oct. 20, 1953, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,251,394 (M. L. Thorpe et al.) issued on May 17, 1986, both describe a treatment method of this type. Such a method is not only expensive, but is also slow whereby a treated slab of granite is heated throughout its thickness. Important stresses are thereby imposed to the granite material, which stresses frequently cause fissuring and cracking of the processed slab. This drawback considerably increases the minimum thickness of slabs of which the surface can be treated without risk of deep fissuring, breaking or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,781,754 (R. B. Aitchison et al.) issued on Feb. 19, 1957, relates to the thermal texturing of a surface of natural rocks by means of a flame produced through an oxy-fuel gas blowpipe. The slab of rock is immersed in water to minimize heating thereof. This texturing method is also restricted to thick slab of rock, the minimum thickness being of about 1.91 cm (3/4").
U.S. Pat. No. 3,704,914 granted to Ralph Andrew Fletcher Jr. on Dec. 5, 1972 describes a method of cutting rock by means of a flame. The flame impinges upon a surface to be cut and material at the surface is rapidly heated by the flame to a state of massive incandescence. As heat penetrates and the heat front advances, there is also produced beneath the zone of incandescence a substrate of thermally fractured material. A jet of water is applied to the incandesced surface at an angle enabling it to penetrate the thermally fractured substrate. Obviously, the method of Fletcher Jr. heats deeply the rock material to result in the above discussed drawback.
French patent No. 2,251,178 granted to Humphreys Corporation and published on Jun. 6, 1975, proposes a method for producing deep grooves in a body of rock. The rock is dielectrically heated by means of an arc transferred between a jet of plasma and an auxiliary electrode, made of graphite, or between two jets of plasma. The method disclosed in French patent No. 2,251,179, capable of cutting deep grooves in a body of rock, is obviously not adapted to treat the surface of a thin slab of natural rock or artificial stone-like material.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a method and an apparatus for treating a surface of hard material constituted by natural rock and/or artificial stone-like material which eliminate the above discussed drawbacks of the prior art.
An other object of the present invention is to use a high temperature jet of plasma to treat the surface of natural rock or artificial stone-like material.
A further object of the subject invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for treating a surface of natural rock or artificial stone-like material which present the advantages of being fast and economical, and of enabling treatment of the surface of slabs as thin as 0.95 cm (3/8").
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To achieve the above objects, the invention uses a high temperature jet of plasma projected onto the surface to be treated during a short period of time whereby only a thin layer of natural rock or artificial stone-like material is heated
REFERENCES:
patent: 1025029 (1912-04-01), Sutton
patent: 2655909 (1953-10-01), Aitchison et al.
patent: 2781754 (1957-02-01), Aitchison et al.
patent: 3004137 (1961-10-01), Karlovitz
patent: 3103251 (1963-10-01), Browning
patent: 3122212 (1964-02-01), Karlovitz
patent: 3211242 (1965-10-01), Browning
patent: 3245721 (1966-04-01), Margiloff
patent: 3251394 (1966-05-01), Thorpe et al.
patent: 3476194 (1969-11-01), Browning
patent: 3556600 (1971-01-01), Shoupi et al.
patent: 3589351 (1971-06-01), Shoupp et al.
patent: 3704914 (1972-12-01), Fletcher, Jr.
patent: 3725633 (1973-04-01), Schumacher et al.
patent: 3788703 (1974-01-01), Thorpe
"Chemical Abstracts", vol. 105, No. 6, Aug. 1986, (Colombus, Ohio, U.S.A.) p. 294, Abstract No. 65216 f and JP-A-6 195 839 (Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.) May 14, 1986.
Boulos Maher
Jurewicz Jerzy
Roy Clermont
Kisliuk Bruce M.
Marlott John A.
Universite de Sherbrooke
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