Abstract: In manufacturing pressed boards, a flowable mixture of thermosetting resinous material and filler is blown through one or more nozzles into a converging throat formed by a pair of relatively inclined perforated conveyor bands in which the mixture is compacted into a continuous, coherent but preferably still pliable web by the application of heat to preset the resinous material thereof. The web may be immediately converted into a rigid board by being led, without intermediate cooling, into a continuously working press for final condensation of the resin; on the way to that press it may be subjected to a finishing operation, as by adhesion of preheated strips of paper or other coverings to its still tacky surfaces.

Abstract: A layer-forming apparatus for making particle-board mats comprises a spreading head adapted to deposit particulate matter upon a mat-forming surface. The distributing head comprises an array of mutually parallel interdigitated disk rollers with the interfitting disks defining progressively increasing interstitial spaces as the particles move from one side of the roller array to the other side thereof.

Abstract: A layer-forming apparatus, particularly for the preparation of particle-board mats adapted to be compressed with heating in a platen or other press to form a coherent structure generally known as particle board, comprises a dispensing unit for metering the particulate matter onto a conveyor to form the layer and, between the dispensing unit and the conveyor, a classifying device for separating fine particles from coarser particles. The conveyor feeds a head which spreads the particles from the layer on a receiving surface. The receiving surface carries the mat and the head is designed to deposit the coarser particles of the layer from the conveyor either before or after the fine particles so that the fine particles form a facing zone on the bottom and/or top of the mat.

Abstract: In manufacturing pressed boards, a flowable mixture of thermosetting resinous material and filler is blown through one or more nozzles into a converging throat formed by a pair of relatively inclined perforated conveyor bands in which the mixture is compacted into a continuous, coherent and self-supporting web by the application of heat to preset the resinous material thereof. The web is transversely cut into individually manipulable sections which are fed by a stack conveyor to a platen press, operating in step with the feeding and cutting mechanisms, for final setting of the resin.

Abstract: A plurality of chutes are spaced downstream of a supply of comminuted material. A first transport band displaces the material upwardly out of the supply and drops the material into the first chute. Some of the material dropped into the first chute is spread by a distributing brush at the bottom of the chute onto the transport band and the balance of the material is picked up by a second transport band extending upwardly out of the first chute and terminating above a second chute so as to drop this material into the second chute whence it is deposited by another distribution brush onto the belt on top of the material deposited from the first chute. Both of the transport bands are inclined at the same angle to the horizontal and are independently driven at different speeds.

Abstract: In assembling a three-layer sandwich for the manufacture of a laminated board, a first sheet designed to form the bottom layer is picked up by a horizontally movable gripper from a repository at one side of a stacking table and is pulled by the gripper across that table while a pronged carrier picks up a second sheet, designed to form the middle layer, from a roller track at the opposite side of the stacking table. As the gripper reaches the end of its transfer stroke, it magnetically links up with the pronged carrier to entrain same across the stacking table during the return stroke of the gripper so as to align the second sheet with the first one. Next, the gripper seizes a third sheet, designed to form the upper layer, at the repository and pulls it over the stacking table where the second sheet is being retained by stripping lugs as the carrier returns to its loading position.

Abstract: A succession of rectangular mats, consisting essentially of asbestos fibers or other filamentary material held together by a wet hydraulic binder such as cement, are conveyed by a series of trays through the gap between a pair of horizontal platens of a press. The upper platen carries a die for trimming the edges of a mat to be compacted, with the tray acting as an anvil. The trays are linked near their leading ends with two parallel, endless conveyor chains and have their trailing ends supported by rollers on rails which parallel the upper and lower runs of the chains and which form ramps for guiding these rollers onto the lower level downstream of the press and onto the upper level upstream of the press whereby each tray runs horizontally through the press between a loading and an unloading station.

Abstract: A stack of sheets is loaded between the platens of a press by an apparatus which grips the stack along its opposite edges flanking a transport direction and holds the stack by these edges as it displaces the stack in the transport direction between the platens. Thereafter one of these edges is released to drop this edge onto the lower platen and, once the one edge is on the platen, the other edge is released so as to drop the rest of the stack on the lower platen. The lower platen is heated so as to slightly adhere the lowermost sheet of the stack to this platen and thereby further prevent shifting of the sheets of the stack relative to one another prior to heat-pressing thereof.

Abstract: A stack of sheets is loaded between the platens of a press by an apparatus which grips the stack along its opposite edges flanking a transport direction and holds the stack by these edges as it displaces the stack in the transport direction between the platens. Thereafter one of these edges is released to drop this edge onto the lower platen and, once the one edge is on the platen, the other edge is released so as to drop the rest of the stack on the lower platen. The lower platen is heated so as to slightly adhere the lowermost sheet of the stack to this platen and thereby further prevent shifting of the sheets of the stack relative to one another prior to hot-pressing thereof.

Abstract: A web of unvulcanized rubber or other curable material moves intermittently in generally horizontal passes through several superposed stages of a multiplaten press by way of a pair of stretching stations flanking the press, each stretching station including a clamp and, with three or more curing stages, at least one deflection roller for the web. Each clamp has at least two jaws which are closable around one or more web passes and, together with the associated deflection roller or rollers, initially hold these passes substantially on the level of the midplanes of the spaces between the open press platens. From this position the jaws and rollers are jointly displaceable in a vertical direction (e.g. downwardly), after a stretching of the web by an outward movement of the clamps and/or the rollers, into a position in which the several passes come to rest simultaneously on the heated platens between movable spacing strips. The platens thereupon successively close in the opposite vertical direction (e.g.

Abstract: A mat of filamentary material is loaded onto a transport tray formed with an array of holes having a predetermined inside diameter. The transport tray is displaced between an upper and lower platen of a press. The upper press platen is provided with an array of downwardly extending pins having an outside diameter much smaller than the inside diameter of the holes in the transport tray, each pin being alignable with a respective transport-tray hole. The lower press platen is formed with an array of upstanding tubular nipples having an outside diameter smaller than the inside diameter of the transport-tray hole and an inside diameter corresponding to the diameter of the pin. Each nipple is arrayed beneath a respective hole in the transport tray and therefore beneath a respective pin so that as the upper platen descends the pin punches a hole in the mat using the nipple as a die. The upper end of each nipples lies in the plane of the upper surface of the transport tray.

Abstract: In order to carry boards or plates between two locations, a rack spanning these locations supports a pair of independently elevatable track structures each comprising a group of parallel rails interleaved with those of the other track structure. The rails of each group are engaged by respective carriages together forming a transport unit, each carriage being provided with several depending suction cups for picking up a workpiece. A transport unit carrying a workpiece moves on a lower level in one direction whereas an idle transport unit returns in the opposite direction on a higher level, thereby avoiding interference of the returning unit with the working unit and its load.

Abstract: A sheet-metal workpiece is clamped in a bending press with its one side lying on a pair of bending beams spaced apart in a transport direction and with a bending roller pressing in a bending direction transverse to the transport direction against the other side of the workpiece between the beams. A first feeler roller is pressed against the one side of the workpiece at the first location opposite the bending roller with a force sufficient to relieve substantially all of the elastic deformation in the workpiece. The workpiece is contacted to each side of the first feeler roller with second and third feeler rollers spaced apart in the transport direction and the spacing between the first feeler roller and the second and third feeler rollers in the bending direction is then measured to ascertain the permanent bend (plastic deformation) of the workpiece.

Abstract: Trays carrying hot-pressed boards, coming from a platen press, are delivered by an input conveyor to a cooling rack comprising an endless vertical transporter with chain-supported radial arms forming peripherally separated tray-receiving stages, the boards being stripped off the oncoming trays and being temporarily retained on the input conveyor as the trays advance into stages then aligned therewith. Upon the loading of each tray into a transporter stage, the board previously stripped therefrom is released and passed by the input conveyor on through a clearance between successive stages on the ascending side of the slowly moving transporter into the nip of a set of feed rollers which drive that board through a similar clearance on the descending side onto an output conveyor.