The invention relates to a method and a plant for the continuous production of engineered stone slabs. In the method, raw materials comprising at least one mineral filler and one organic binder are mixed, applied to a lower belt of a dual-belt press, or a conveying means mounted upstream of the lower belt, and subsequently continuously pressed, and the binder is cured. A continuously-obtained material strand is separated into individual engineered stone slabs. It is provided that the mixing operation of the raw materials is carried out at staggered times in a batch mixing operation by means of at least two separate mixing devices. The mixed raw materials from the mixing devices are transferred into one, or multiple, spreading device(s) at staggered times and are applied continuously and without interruption to the lower belt, or the conveying means mounted upstream of the lower belt, by means of the spreading device(s).

A multi-zone cementitious product, which includes a base zone made of a first cementitious material composition and forming a portion of the product. At least one facing zone is adjacent to and bonded to the base zone, the facing zone made of a second cementitious material composition and forming at least one exterior face of said product which is visible when the product is installed. A disrupted boundary layer is between the facing zone and the base zone, and includes material from both the facing zone and the base zone. The disrupted boundary layer bonds the facing zone to the base zone. The facing zone has a thickness sufficient to prevent the base zone from being visible when the product is installed.

A plant for manufacturing ceramic articles comprising two feeding devices each of which is configured to contain a powder material of a respective type and feed this powder material to a conveyor assembly. The plant further comprises an operating device, which is configured to allow the powder material to exit selectively from zones of the feeding devicesarranged in succession crosswise to the movement direction moving vertically and independently from one another a plurality of transfer moving parts, each provided with a transit channel (through which the powder material moves to reach the conveyor assembly.

A method and a plant (i.e., system or assembly) for manufacturing ceramic products comprising the steps of feeding a mixture of ceramic powders so as to obtain a powder material strip; compacting the powder material strip so as to obtain a compacted powder layer; acquiring a surface image of the compacted powder layer that reproduces the respective surface chromatic effects; processing said surface image so as to obtain a graphic decoration to be applied on the surface of the compacted powder layer that is coordinated with the respective chromatic effects in the thickness; and printing the graphic decoration on the surface of the compacted powder layer.

The present invention is directed to a fiber cement felt comprising repeat units, each of which includes top, middle, and bottom machine direction yarns and cross-machine direction yarns interwoven with the top, middle, and bottom machine direction yarns in a predetermined weave pattern. The top, middle, and bottom machine direction yarns may comprise effect yarns and linear yarns without the need for a batt layer.

A material distribution apparatus and preparing an artificial stone plate using the material distribution apparatus includes a belt material distribution device including a material distribution hopper and a conveying belt. The conveying belt is located at a lower portion of the material distribution hopper. An upper surface of the conveying belt is inclined. The material distribution hopper has a first wall and a second wall. The first wall is an inclined wall with an upper end away from the second wall. A discharge outlet is provided below the second wall. An upper portion of the second wall is vertically mounted, and a lower portion of the second wall has a circular arc portion and a discharge portion which forms the discharge outlet with a surface of the conveying belt therebetween.

An interlayer mixing apparatus for texturing man-made stone slabs has a pressing assembly, a coloring component, a stirring assembly, a moving assembly, and a control system. A conveyor belt sequentially conveys a slab to working areas of the pressing assembly, the coloring component, and the stirring assembly which are separately connected to the control system. The pressing assembly presses the slab before the pigment and the slab are stirred, so that the texture boundary on the final product is clearer and more complete. The control system moves the moving assembly to position the stirring assembly according to a texture route, while the stirring assembly performs stirring on a part of the surface of the slab, to stir a pigment layer with a raw material layer on the slab.

Process for the production of a hydrophobic thermal-insulation moulding, where a hydrophilic thermal-insulation moulding is brought into contact with a hydrophobizing agent in vapour form with formation of a thermal-insulation moulding coated with hydrophobizing agent, and this is then subjected to a press process and during the press process and/or after the press process is reacted with the hydrophobizing agent with formation of the hydrophobic thermal-insulation moulding, where a) the density of the hydrophobic thermal-insulation moulding after the press process and after the reaction with the hydrophobizing agent is from 100 to 250 kg/m.sup.3, and b) the density of the hydrophilic thermal-insulation moulding on contact with the hydrophobizing agent is from 50% to less than 100% of the density of the hydrophobic thermal-insulation moulding.

A roof tile containing fibers which satisfy the following requirements (1) to (3): (1) to have an average fiber diameter of 50 m or less; (2) to have an aspect ratio of 50 to 2000; and (3) to have three or less buckled portions per fiber.

A machine and method for compacting a powder material comprising ceramic powder; a layer of non-compacted powder material is conveyed to a compacting device, which enables a layer of compacted powder material to be obtained; the machine comprises a conveyor belt for carrying the powder material from an input station, in the area of which a feed assembly feeds the powder material to the conveyor assembly, to the compacting device; a straightening device is envisaged, which is designed for exerting a force to increase the flatness of the conveyor belt at least in the area of the input station.