CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS

The present application is a U.S. national stage application under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of PCT Application No. PCT/IB2018/058709, filed Nov. 6, 2018, which claims priority to Italian Patent Application No. 102017000125955, filed Nov. 6, 2017. The disclosures of the aforementioned priority applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This patent application relates to a sink in greified-vitrified ceramic/clay material and to a method of making such sink.

In particular, the present invention relates to the production of a bathroom or kitchen sink preferably of the suspended type, made of grès-stoneware, preferably porcelain grès-stoneware; which the description below will make explicit reference to without detracting from its general application.

BACKGROUND ART

It is known that the significant aesthetic appeal of porcelain grès-stoneware bathroom or kitchen sinks has recently led to a considerable commercial success of the same. Some porcelain grès-stoneware sinks have a box shape and typically comprise a countertop formed by a flat rectangular cross-section slab (or top) provided with a central through opening for housing a water collection and drainage tub. The outer perimeter edge of the top has a structured side to be fixed to the support wall of the bathroom, and three sides that are coupled below to the upper sides of three respective vertical walls, also formed by relative flat slabs with a rectangular cross-section that extend side by side below the countertop and are sized to hide the tub.

A known method for making the box-shaped sinks of the type described above, essentially involves preparing two parallel-shaped wooden support formworks arranged inside each other. A first inner formwork is sized based on the size of the tub, and a second outer formwork is sized based on the dimensions of the outer perimeter edge of the countertop. The method essentially involves coating by gluing the outer surface of the three adjacent walls of the second outer formwork with thin rectangular slabs so as to form the three vertical side walls of the sink. The method also involves positioning the lower surface of the outer perimeter edge of the countertop resting on the second outer formwork and on the three upper edges of the three vertical walls and securing it to them by means of an adhesive material or composition.

The method also involves coating the inner surface of the inner formwork facing the through opening of the countertop with thin rectangular slabs in such a way as to form a parallelepiped tub.

The sink made using the method described above has the limitation of keeping the rectangular edges of the connecting sides visible on the visible surface of the slabs, a condition that affects the aesthetic appeal of the sink. A second limitation of the sink made using the method described above is the fact that the wooden formworks remain incorporated in the sink and being exposed to the high degree of humidity typically present in a bathroom or kitchen, tend to degrade and therefore gradually decompose, determining with the passage of time consequences on the sink both from the point of view of structural stability and from the point of view of hygiene.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

In this regard, the Applicant has therefore conducted an in-depth study aimed at identifying a solution able to overcome technical problems described above.

Such purpose is achieved by the present invention insofar as it relates to a method for making a sink as described in claim1and in the dependent claims.

Such purpose is further achieved by the present invention insofar as it relates to a sink made according to claim8and the dependent claims.

