Apparatus and method for brick blending

Claim 2

Apparatus for blending a layered stack of bricks having a central core section of lesser hardness and lighter color than in the surrounding outer shell section, said apparatus comprising: means for unloading the stack into layers which each include a corresponding core section and shell section, means for rearranging the bricks in each alternate layer by placing bricks from the normally occurring core section areas into the normally occurring shell section areas and from the normally occurring shell section areas into the normally occurring core section areas, said means comprising means for gripping the bricks in a first half as a first group, means for gripping the bricks in the remaining half as a second group, and means for moving the gripped first and second halves relative to one another to reverse their respective relative positions, and means for restacking all the layers into a blended stack.

Claim 3

Apparatus for blending a layered stack of bricks having a central core section of lesser hardness and lighter color than in the surrounding outer shell section, said apparatus comprising: means for unloading the stack into layers which each include a corresponding core section and shell section, means for rearranging the bricks in each alternate layer by placing bricks from the normally occurring core section areas into the normally occurring shell section areas and from the normally occurring shell section areas into the normally occurring core section areas, said means comprising first means for gripping a first group of bricks in the layer as a group, second means for gripping a second group of bricks in the layer as a group, and means for rotating said first and second means by substantially 180°, and means for restacking all the layers into a blended stack.

Claim 4

Apparatus for blending a layered stack of bricks having a central core section of lesser hardness and lighter color than in the surrounding outer shell section, said apparatus comprising: means for unloading the stack into layers which each include a corresponding core section and shell section, means for rearranging the bricks in each alternate layer by placing bricks from the normally occurring core section areas into the normally occurring shell section areas and from the normally occurring shell section areas into the normally occurring core section areas, said means comprising first means for gripping a first group of bricks in the layer as a group, second means for gripping a second group of bricks in the layer as a group, and means for rotating said first and second means by substantially 180°, and means for restacking all the layers into a blended stack.

Claim 5

Apparatus as in claim 2 further comprising means for moving said first and second means apart after the first and second groups of bricks have been gripped and for moving said first and second means back together again after they have been rotated by 180°.

Claim 6

Apparatus for blending a stack of bricks comprising a plurality of vertically superimposed layers, each layer comprising a plurality of bricks, said stack having a central core section of lesser hardness and lighter color than in the surrounding outer shell section thereof, said apparatus comprising means for unstacking an entire first layer of bricks from said stack, said layer including a corresponding core section and shell section, and for unstacking an entire second layer of bricks from said stack, said layer including a corresponding core section and shell section, means for transporting said second layer to a rearranging position, means for rearranging bricks within said second layer with respect to each other, to place bricks from the normally occurring core section areas into the normally occurring shell section areas and vice versa, means for transporting said first and second layers to a restacking position, means for restacking said first and second layers of bricks with other layers to form a new stack having increased uniformity in the spatial distribution of bricks having different hardness and color characteristics.

Claim 7

Apparatus for blending a stack of bricks comprising a plurality of vertically superimposed layers, each layer comprising a plurality of bricks, said stack having a central core section of lesser hardness and lighter color than in the surrounding outer shell section thereof, said apparatus comprising means for unstacking an entire first layer of bricks from said stack, said layer including a corresponding core section and shell section, and for unstacking an entire second layer of bricks from said stack, said layer including a corresponding core section and shell section, means for transporting said second layer to a rearranging position, means for rearranging bricks within said second layer with respect to each other, to place bricks from the normally occurring core section areas into the normally occurring shell section areas and vice versa, means for transporting said first and second layers to a restacking position, means for restacking said first and second layers of bricks with other layers to form a new stack having increased uniformity in the spatial distribution of bricks having different hardness and color characteristics.

Claim 8

Apparatus as recited in claim 4 wherein said means for rearranging bricks within said second layer with respect to each other comprises means for rotating a plurality of bricks within said layer with respect to other bricks in said layer about a vertical axis.

Claim 9

Apparatus as recited in claim 5 wherein said means for rearranging bricks within said second layer further comprises means for rotating bricks in a first half of said second layer 180° about said vertical axis, and rotating bricks in a second half of said second layer 180° about said vertical axis.

Claim 10

Apparatus as recited in claim 4 wherein said first and second layers are each only one brick high.

Claim 11

Apparatus as recited in claim 4 wherein said means for transporting said second layer to a rearranging position also is a means for transporting said first layer to a rearranging position, and wherein said means for rearranging bricks within said second layer also comprises means for rearranging bricks within said first layer with respect to each other to place bricks from the normally occurring core section areas thereof into the normally occurring shell section areas and vice versa.

Claim 12

Apparatus as recited in claim 8 wherein said means for rearranging bricks within said respective layers comprises means for transposing predetermined groups of bricks within each said first and second layers.

Claim 13

Apparatus as recited in claim 4 wherein said means for rearranging bricks within said second layer comprises means for transposing predetermined groups within said second layer.

Claim 14

Apparatus as recited in claim 4 wherein each of said first and second layers is two bricks high, being a double layer, and wherein said apparatus further comprises means for changing said double layer to a single layer.

Claim 15

Apparatus as recited in claim 11 further comprising means for rotating the top layer of a said double layer after it has been separated from its bottom layer 180° about a horizontal axis.