A support rack can include a first component comprising a ceramic material and a second component comprising a ceramic material. The first component can intersect at least one wall of the second component and the first and second components can be coupled via a ceramic weld. A method of making a support rack can include providing a first component comprising a sintered ceramic material, providing a second component comprising an un-sintered or partially-sintered ceramic material, arranging the first and second component so that the first component intersects at least one wall of the second component, sinter bonding the first and second components together to form a ceramic weld at the intersection. In an embodiment, the support rack can be a piece of kiln furniture.

A method and plant to handle ceramic articles; the plant comprises a gathering area comprising a plurality of first storage units, each having a group of ceramic articles placed on a first support structure according to a first given arrangement; a handling machine to re-arrange at least part of such ceramic articles on second support structures in such a way that they are placed according to a second given arrangement so that they can be picked up by a holding device, so as to create a plurality of second storage units; at least one first intermediate store to receive at least part of the second storage units; and a forming machine to form an order to be shipped, which is configured to transfer at least one first ceramic article from the second storage unit onto a third support structure so as to obtain a shipment unit.

A movement device for moving roller boxes, comprising: a support frame (10), movable along a vertical direction; conveyor plane (11), solidly constrained to the support frame (10) with respect to the movement in a vertical direction and movable with respect to the support frame (10) along a horizontal transversal direction (X), in which the conveyor plane (11) is predisposed to translate objects (O) along a horizontal conveying direction (Y); three operating arms (21,22,23), solidly constrained to the support frame (10), each of which is provided with spindles (S) rotating about rotation axes which are coplanar, horizontal and perpendicular to the conveying direction (Y). A main arm (21) is provided with motorised spindles (S) and is movable along the transversal direction (X) between a first operating position and a second operating position, to selectively interact with one of two roller boxes (B1,B2).

A workpiece transfer apparatus includes a belt conveyor, a rack, a lift mechanism, a removal mechanism, and a controller. The belt conveyor includes a belt having a transfer surface and is configured to move the belt in a transfer direction. The rack includes two opposing side panels and pairs of support grooves that support two ends of each of workpieces. The controller controls the lift mechanism and the removal mechanism to lift or lower the rack so that whenever one of the workpieces is removed from the rack with the removal mechanism, another one of the workpieces stored in the rack is moved to immediately above the transfer surface.

A method for loading a pallet with different individual packs of a picked order includes a first method step in which the individual packs to be palletized are delivered in a conveyor cart, a second method step in which the individual packs are separated, positioned and prepared for palletizing in such a way that a palletizing station has access to all of the individual packs and a third method step in which the individual packs are picked in a sequence predetermined by the palletizing station and stacked on the pallet. A device for performing the method includes one or more palletizing stations with a storage device for the individual packs and with a continuous conveying loop acting as a conveying path for the conveyor cart.

A method and plant to handle ceramic articles; the plant comprises a gathering area comprising a plurality of first storage units, each having a group of ceramic articles placed on a first support structure according to a first given arrangement; a handling machine to re-arrange at least part of such ceramic articles on second support structures in such a way that they are placed according to a second given arrangement so that they can be picked up by a holding device, so as to create a plurality of second storage units; at least one first intermediate store to receive at least part of the second storage units; and a forming machine to form an order to be shipped, which is configured to transfer at least one first ceramic article from the second storage unit onto a third support structure so as to obtain a shipment unit.