New industrial application of natural rock and part derived from said application

Abstract

 The invention consists of making use of natural rock residues, particularly of marble, generated in traditional manufacture of large, thin sheets, consisting of both small blocks created in quarry explosions and residues obtained in the later cutting phase when obtaining the sheets. With these residues small parts (1) are obtained similar in configuration and size to a conventional ceramic brick but made of stone, which may be used in construction as structural elements for walls and the like.

Description

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates a new industrial application of natural rock, particularly marble and similar rocks, achieving a double goal, on one hand to use this material as structural components and also to use residual quarry material, thus considerably reducing its amount with the ensuing ecological consequences.

[0002] The invention also includes the parts derived from this new industrial application of the rock.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] As is well known, natural rock and particularly marble is obtained in quarries by blasting land into large blocks, which are later subjected to cutting processes in order to obtain sheets which are mainly used in construction as lining elements for floors or walls, always with decorative purposes.

[0004] During the quarry process of obtaining such blocks a great number of fragments are generated, which because of their small size cannot be used to obtain sheets as described above, presently resulting in residues which on one hand imply a considerable waste of raw material and furthermore pollute the environment.

[0005] Naturally, since the rock blocks obtained by the blasts are irregularly shaped the cutting process also generates fragments which are now wasted, becoming further residual matter as mentioned above.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0006] The invention intends to make use of these residues, specifically in order to obtain solid "bricks" of similar size and shape as conventional bricks but differing from these in their nature, as they are made from natural rock instead of mud, clay, etc.

[0007] The small size of said bricks naturally allow to use the aforementioned residues generated in producing sheets which are generally between 2 and 4 cm. thick and large sized.

[0008] This implies that instead of the decorative or lining application generally used for natural rock, this raw material may be used as a structural element in construction of walls or any other practical application which presently uses ceramic bricks.

[0009] The piece which is derived from this new industrial application of natural rock shall be identical in size and shape to conventional brick, except in that one of its face shall have a mould, groove or depression which improves grip between these pieces, with the corresponding traditional middle mortar layer in construction of the wall or element involved.

[0010] Thus, the object of the invention achieves use of a material which is hitherto wasted and furthermore, considerable improvement of aesthetic features of structural elements such as walls and the like obtained with the part derived from this new industrial application of natural rock.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] Further characteristics of the present invention will become apparent in view of the accompanying drawings where, according to an example of a preferred embodiment of the invention and for purposes of illustration only and in no way meant to define the limits of the invention, the following is shown:

Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a piece of marble or any other natural rock derived from the new industrial application of these materials which constitutes the object of the present invention.

Figure 2 shows an enlarged view of a cross-section of the piece of the previous figure.

Figure 4 shows in a perspective view similar to figure 1 an alternative embodiment of the piece where it is provided with several grooves in one of its faces.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

[0012] In view of these figures it can be seen that the invention consists of a block (1) preferably in the shape of a rectangular prism with similar dimensions to a conventional brick and which as the latter may assume any other form, except that in this case it is solid and obtained from natural rock, such as marble, duly sawed.

[0013] The piece obtained in this manner can be used instead of conventional bricks as a structural element in construction of walls or any other type of structure.

[0014] Because of its size said piece is obtained from small rock parts which due to their size are presently unused in obtaining the sheets required by the construction industry and which are used solely as lining materials with purely decorative purposes.

[0015] Nevertheless, the aforementioned natural rock piece (1), which as mentioned above is obtained by sawing residual marble blocks or any other similar sawed materials, shall be provided in on of its bases with one or more grooves (2) obtained by milling or any other means, in order to insert in it the mortar used to join the rows of pieces, as mentioned previously.

[0016] Naturally, this groove (2) may be provided on one or both bases of piece (1), as a rule wherever required, and its size, shape and location may also vary as a function of construction criteria. In the example of a preferred embodiment of figure 3 one of these multiple possibilities is shown in which groove (2) of figure 1 is replaced by three parallel slots (3) open on their ends.

[0017] This description is not extended in the understanding that any expert in the field would understand the scope of the invention and the advantages derived thereof.

[0018] The terms used in this memory must be understood in a wide and non-limiting sense.

Claims

1. New industrial application of natural rock, particularly marble and similar ones, ultimately meant for the field of construction, characterised in that said rock is conceived as a structural element, replacing conventional ceramic bricks in order to obtain walls and the like, using as raw material the residues obtained in quarries and similar places in conventional processes of obtaining large, thin sheets which are presently used as lining material, and which take the form of small discardable blocks.

2. Piece derived from the new industrial application of natural rock claimed in claim 1, characterised in that it consists of a solid block (1) with a rectangular prism shape or any other, and similar in size to the conventional ceramic brick which it is meant to replace.

3. Natural rock piece, as claimed in claim 2, characterised in that it is provided in at least one of its bases with a mould, groove or depression (2) which is suitable in shape, position and size to receive the concrete mass used to join pieces (1) when constructing a wall or the like.

Drawing