Unit tile pack manufacturing apparatus

Claim 1

Unit tile pack manufacturing apparatus comprising: a tile pack conveying passage having a tile pack supplying section at one end and a unit tile pack delivering section at the other end; a plurality of pallets each having tile receiving pockets for holding a plurality of tiles in a relatively loose fashion and being conveyed along said tile pack conveying passage; a combination tile pack forming unit having a classifying device for classifying a plurality of tiles of different tones of the same color or a plurality of different colors into a plurality of groups by tone or plurality of groups by color, a delivery device for delivering tiles from each group to a feeding device in order according to a predetermined program, an assembling and arranging device for arranging a predetermined number of delivered tiles in a unit tile pack so that the tiles delivered from a plurality of tiles of different tone of the same color or a plurality of tiles of different color are arranged side by side in lines and rows; a joint correcting unit having longitudinal and transverse joint correcting devices for aligning a plurality of tiles of a tile pack to form longitudinal and transverse joints each having a fixed width between said tiles, said longitudinal joint correcting device comprise stationary friction members and said transverse joint correcting devices comprise transversely movable friction members; an adhesive dropping unit having a plurality of adhesive dropping nozzles disposed at a predetermined interval from the upper surface of the tiles and intermittently dropping a proper quality of liquid adhesive on the upper surface of each of said tiles at each of positions close to the sides adjacent to those of the adjacent tiles; and a connecting sheet supplying and pressing unit having an air box which shuttles between connecting sheet stock cases and the tile pack conveying passage for supplying connecting sheets sucked from connecting sheet stock cases so that the connecting sheets are placed at positions where the adhesive is dropped, so as to interconnect the adjacent tiles respectively, and for blowing compressed air adjacent to the connecting sheets placed on said tiles to remove air existing between the tiles and the connecting sheets in order to securely interconnect said tiles; wherein said combination tile pack forming unit, said joint correcting unit, said adhesive dropping unit, and said connecting sheet supplying and pressing unit are disposed sequentially, one after another, from said tile pack supplying section to said tile pack delivering section along said tile pack conveying passage.