GB2032485A - Multi-purpose Ceramic Tile - Google Patents

Abstract

A multi-purpose ceramic tile has all four edges equipped with a pair of unobtrusive spacer lugs which define half the grout space between abutting edges of the tiles when the tiles are laid. Two adjacent edges of the tile are glazed so that they can serve either as normal lugged edges for use of the tile within an extensive area of tiling or as border tile or corner tile at the perimeter of such an extensive area of tiling. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Multi-purpose Wall Tile The present invention relates to a multipurpose ceramic wall tile, namely a tile which can be mounted either in the centre of an extensive area of tiling or on the border of an area of tiling, i.e. at an edge or a corner. Such tiles are known as "universal" tiles.

In the past, ceramic tiling required three separate forms of square ceramic tile, namely a first type having spacer lugs along all four edges (the so-called spacer tile), a second type having three planar edges and a glazed rounded edge on the fourth edge (the so-called round edged tile), and a third type having two adjacent edges rounded and glazed and the other two edges planar, the so-called double round edge tile.

Recently there have been proposed designs for a multi-purpose tile, the so-called universal tile, which has the ability to be used either on an edge, or at a corner, or in the centre of an area of tiling.

One form of universal tile has two adjacent edges glazed and devoid of spacer lugs and the other two edges equipped with double thickness spacer lugs (as opposed to the alternative possibility of spacer lugs which are thick enough to occupy only half of the "grout space" between abutting tiles). The disadvantage of this type of universal tile is that when laying tiles in the centre of an extensive area of tiling it is necessary all the time to keep watching that the tiles are all laid in the correct orientation so that at no time are two planar glazed edges laid together. This causes the possibility of error on the part of the tiler and also involves a time penalty when laying the tiles.

Another sort of universal tile uses two adjacent edges equipped with spacer lugs and the other two edges shaped such that the width of the tile is greater at the back face than it is on the front face so that the wider back face of the tile abuts and co-operates with the spacer lugs of another tile to define the "grout space" between the tiles.

This protruding rear face along one edge thus serves a full length spacer. The disadvantage of this latter form of tile is that, by avoiding the conventional separate discrete spacer lugs along two edges of the tile there is a resulting configuration which requires that within an extensive area of tiling all the tiles must be laid with their rear faces exactly planar if the correct spacing is to be achieved.

The tile is glazed such that two adjacent edges are glazed and the other two are unglazed but because of the half-thickness lugs (both long and short) used, it is economically impracticable to reorientate each tile before glazing so it becomes a random selection as to which pair of edges becomes glazed. When tiling at a corner, the tiler must carefully scrutinize the tiles to check that he is using one which has the two long-lugged edges glazed.

In accordance with the present invention we provide a multi-purpose ceramic tile comprising on each of the four edges of the tile a respective pair of discrete spacer lugs with the lugs of each pair disposed symmetrically to either side of the mid-point of that edge; two adjacent edges of the tile, including the spacer lugs thereof, being glazed.

The tile according to this invention has the advantage that all four edges are identical and have similar spacer lugs, and consequently when tiling in the centre of an extensive area of tiling the orientation of each tile is immaterial, subject to any constraints which may arise due to the pattern arrangement on the front face of the tile.

Preferably we employ a spacer lug having a thickness of approximately 0.016 to 0.018 inches (giving an inter-tile gap of 0.032 inches), a depth of 0.08 inches, and length of 1.35 inches. This has the advantage that the lug is barely perceptible after glazing, with the result that the tile has a full complement of spacer lugs to facilitate laying that tile in the centre of an area of tiling, but that it nevertheless has unobtrusive spacer lugs on the glazed edges, thereby presenting what would appear to be a plain or rounded glazed edge devoid of spacer lugs.

In order that the present invention may more readily be understood the following description is given merely by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate one embodiment of a multi-purpose ceramic tile in accordance with the present invention. In the drawings Figure 1 is a top plan view of a tile in accordance with the present invention; and Figure 2 is a side elevational view of the tile of Figure 1.

The tile 1 shown in Figure 1 is a typical six inch square tile and has four sides 2, 3, 4 and 5 which are perpendicular to the general plane of the front face of the tile. In practice, as can be seen from the side elevational view of Figure 2, the glazed coloured front face has a slight rounding at 10 and the unglazed plain underneath face has a shallow chamfer at 11.

The edges 2, 3, 4 and 5 have respective spacer lugs 6a and 6b, 7a and 7b, or 8a and 8b, and 9a and 9b which each occupy half of the intertile gap or "grout space" between tile edges when the tiles are laid edge-to-edge in an extensive area of tiling.

On the six inch tile shown, these spacer lugs are approximately 1.35 inches in length and 0.08 inches in depth, and have an approximate thickness of 0.016 inches. It is preferred that the spacer lug thickness be less than 0.02 inches. The typical spacer lug on present day tiles is slightly greater in thickness, approximately 0.02 to 0.025 inch (giving an inter-tile gap of approximately 0.045 inch), and of substantially the same depth (0.08 inch), but is typically much shorter in length.

One example of commercially available tile employs two different size lugs on a single tile edge, where one lug is 0.75 inches and the other is 0.2 inches in length.

The edges 2 and 3 are glazed so that the tile 1 can be used as a corner tile (with the edges 2 and 3 at the exposed sides of the corner and the edges 4 and 5 abutting other adjacent tiles of the array) or as an edge tile (with either edge 4 or edge 5 exposed). In this border (i.e. edge or corner) situation, it does not matter whether the glazed edges 4 and 5 abut the glazed edges or the unglazed edges of the adjacent tiles, provided of course that the adjacent tile in question abutting edge 5 has one of its glazed edges running collinear with the edge 2 and the other tile, which abuts side 4, has one of its glazed edges running collinearwith edge 3.

This need to orientate the tiles careully at the corners and elsewhere along the border of an area of tiling is always the responsibility of the tiler.

However, the tile in accordance with the present invention offers the advantages that (a) there is no need for careful orientation of the tiles by the tiler when working elsewhere than at the edges of an array of tiling, and (b) every tile can be guaranteed to have a pair of adjacent glazed edges formed to enable them to be exposed at a corner tile of an array of tiling. In one of the prior art universal tiles, the one using the long lug on two adjacent sides, the glazing has been random so that it was necessary not only to orientate the chosen tile correctly at the corners and at the edges of an area of tiling, but also to select that tile carefully before orientation, in order to ensure that the tile which is to be used at the corner is in fact one which has been provided with the two "long-lugged" edges glazed rather than only one long-lugged edge and short-lugged edge.Thus the present invention provides a multi-purpose tile which does not require the tiler to sift through a batch of tiles to ensure that he has a tile which is correctly formed for use at the corners, and also avoids the alternative expedient of meticulous orientation of the tile at the glazing stage in order to ensure that the two long-lugged edges are the glazed edges.

By virtue of the fact that the lugs 6a, 6b, 7a and 7b (preferably at least 1-1/4 inches in length) are much longer than the conventional lug, and of the fact that those lugs are in any case glazed over, it is possible to ensure that the lugs are unobtrusive except on very careful scrutiny and are certainly unobtrusive to an extent which makes it satisfactory for them to be used as border tiles and in particular as corner tiles.

Moreover, they have a shallower thickness (0.016 to 0.018 inch compared with the usual 0.022 to 0.025 inch) than a usual tile and this helps to leave them unobtrusive.

Claims (9)

Claims

1. A multi-purpose ceramic tile comprising on each of the four edges of the tile a respective pair of discrete spacer lugs with the lugs of each pair disposed symmetrically to either side of the midpoint of that edge; two adjacent edges of the tile, including the spacer lugs thereof, being glazed.

2. A tile according to claim 1, wherein each of the four sides of the tile has just one pair of spacer lugs.

3. A tile according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the thickness of each spacer lug is less than 0.02 inch.

4. A tile according to claim 3, wherein each spacer lug has a thickness of substantially 0.016 to 0.018 inch.

5. A tile according to claim 3 or 4, wherein each spacer lug is at least 1-1/4 inches long.

6. A tile according to claim 5, wherein the length of each spacer lug is approximately 1.3 inch.

7. A tile according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the depth of each spacer lug is substantially 0.08 inch.

8. A tile according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the front, glazed face of said tile has a slightly rounded perimeter.

9. A multi-purpose ceramic tile substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, the accompanying drawings.