CEMENT TILE MACHINES Cement tile have abundantly demonstrated their efficiency and durability for drainage pur poses. Their permeability is a feature that can be controlled by the manufacturer. Tile can be made porous so as to give effective drainage throughout their length; or they can be made water-tight so as to admit water only at the joints, like ordinary clay tile. If properly made of well-selected material, they grow stronger with age. Concrete sewer pipe laid in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, were found intact after twenty years of service; and similar results have been noted in London, England, where con crete pipe and tile laid underground have been found in perfect condition after forty years of service. In many cities, concrete sewers are replacing brick sewers on account of the more satisfactory wearing qualities of the former. When properly cured, cement tile will withstand alternate freezing and thawing without injury, even when partially immersed in water. In the construction of a county ditch near Emmetsburg, Iowa, nearly a mile of cement tile lay stretched out through a swamp for eighteen months, or through two winters, before placing in the work. Some of these tile were entirely submerged, others partially, and some were entirely out of water. They were subjected to freezing and thawing, and yet remained in perfect condition.
On account of their thin walls, cement pipe and tile are not so easily made as cement blocks.
- Tile machines, however, are now made with all the skill and ingenuity embodied in block ma chines, and with perfectly efficient adaptation to their purpose.
Tile are made with different types of joints— ordinary butt joints, tongued-and-grooved joints, and bell-end joints, the last-named being made either "bell up" or "bell down." The "Crescent" Cement Tile Machine, of which an example is shown in Plate 24 (upper right figure), is a portable outfit capable of being operated by one man, and adapted to making tile with any of the types of joint mentioned, simply by altering the interchangeable attachments. The particular machine shown is intended for making "bell-end" joints. When made "up," the regular pallet (shown at the right) is used. When making the bell "down," another form of pallet (not shown in the figure) is used for forming the socket. The main parts of the machine are the outer casing or shell (consisting of two hinged parts), and the inner, mechanic ally collapsible core.
Special machines are also made for the manu facture of Y-sewer pipe and T-sewer pipe and drain-tile connections.
In the type of machine known as the "Easy Mould;" the collapsible core used in the larger sizes—for 20 to 40-inch tile—consists of three parts separately removable.
In order to insure the uniform density so essential throughout all portions of the cement tile, a type of machine has been developed, hav ing a mechanical device called a packer or packer head, which, by a revolving motion, forces the mixed concrete into shape within the form or casing provided for this purpose. Types of such machines are the "Schenk," the "Bald win," the "Miracle" (Plate 24, at left), and the "Ferguson" (Plate 25). These machines are automatic, and their capacity is from 3,000 to 6,000 tile per day. After the concrete is fed to the machine—which may be done by a continu ous mixer—the only hand labor required is in removing the casings from the finished tile, placing the latter on cars or trucks to be carried away to be cured, and replacing the empty cas ings on the moving platform which automatic ally brings them in succession under the packer head to repeat the process. The exact quantity of concrete required for a tile is automatically measured and dumped by an elevator device into the empty casing just as the packer starts to build it up into the shape of a tile. The casings are of metal, constructed and held in place by a lock device, which, on being loosened, releases the finished tile. In the "Schenk," "Baldwin," and "Miracle" machines, the moving platform revolves around a central post, by successive steps. In the "Ferguson" machine (see Plate 25), the platform moves vertically and hori zontally in succession.
The packer heads in these machines are made in two parts, each with a different motion. One part, revolving much more rapidly than the other, presses the soft concrete outwardly against the casing, troweling it smooth and tamping and packing it with uniform density. In the "Schenk," "Baldwin," and "Miracle" machines, the packer rises as it performs its work; in the "Ferguson" machine, the same relative motion takes place, but by the down ward vertical motion of the platform, which, when it reaches its lowest point, shifts auto matically to one side so that the jacket, with its encased tile, may be carried to the curing room, where the jacket may at once be removed and returned to the machine.
Among other important types of pipe and tile machines on the market, are the "Besser," the "Sioux City," and the "Hoosier."