Abstract: A foil applicator for particle board and the like has a stack of foils positioned above the transport path for the boards and provided with a suction feeder which delivers the foils to a platform from which the foils are fed by belt feeders to the upper surface of the board. At the upstream of the stack, a further platform is provided and receives foil sheets from the stack and feeds those foil sheets to a suction belt inverter which delivers the sheets in an inverted form to the conveyor for application to the top or bottom of the board.

Abstract: A press has at least two rigid and generally planar platens normally brought together to hot-press a panel workpiece. Each platen is formed with a plurality of parallel longitudinally throughgoing bores having ends open at edges of the platen, an array of orifices opening at at least one face of the platen and communicating with the bores between the ends thereof, at least one manifold passage extending transversely in the platen adjacent at least one of the edges and intersecting the bores, and a heat-exchange passage offset from the bores and manifold passage. A heat-exchange liquid is passed through the heat-exchange passages. The ends of the bores are closed, and a treatment vapor is injected under superatmospheric pressure into or withdrawn by subatmospheric pressure from the manifold passages so as to expel the vapor from the platens via the orifices or suck vapor from the platens in through the orifices.

Abstract: A method for producing pressed board deforms the mat with compression and decompression between heated plates upstream of the platens.

Abstract: A roller sifting or dispersing machine for the classification or dispersing of wood chips, fibers, or similar materials and to the utilization of an above-described roller sifting or dispersing machine. The roller sifting machine includes annular grooves and annular crosspieces. An outer sheathing surface of each annular crosspiece is provided with adjoining teeth in the circumference direction. The front tooth-side in the direction of rotation is steeper than the adjoining tooth back-side. The crosspiece and teeth of a roller also form a gradient that is opposed to the adjacent roller but has the same gradient height. The leading tooth sides of the circulating teeth create a pitching effect on the particles of the material to be sifted so that clogging of the roller set are avoided and an accelerated movement towards the exit end is achieved. By the continuous opposing movement of the teeth, clogging of these openings for the passage of chips is avoided.

Abstract: A press has a fixed platen, a movable platen displaceable toward and away from the fixed platen, a plurality of low-pressure cylinders braced against the movable platen and pressurizable to move it toward the fixed platen, and a plurality of medium-pressure cylinders braced against the movable platen and pressurizable to move it toward the fixed platen. A low-pressure accumulator holding a body of hydraulic fluid and a head of nitrogen and a medium-pressure accumulator holding a body of hydraulic fluid and a head of nitrogen are connected via respective conduits with the low- and medium-pressure cylinders. a nitrogen supply connects the accumulators above the respective fluid bodies together in a closed system. A controller feeds the fluid therefrom to the respective cylinders.

Abstract: Foil sheets are removed from two stacks located one above the other on a stack rack by a swingable transfer assembly having a transfer platform along the sides of which guide rails carry a suction beam which, as the transfer assembly is swung up and down, can engage the uppermost foil sheet on one or the other stack. The suction beam draws the foil sheets onto the transfer platform where the foil sheet is oriented or aligned and from which the foil sheet is drawn onto a deposition station which can have belts carrying the laminate or in a direction orthogonal to the destacking transfer direction.

Abstract: A laminate-making system has a housing forming a tunnel extending in a transport direction and having a downstream end at an assembly station, a press-plate feeder for conveying a succession of press plates along a path through the tunnel to the assembly station, respective upper and lower supports holding respective upper and lower coils of metallic foil above and below the path at the assembly station, and a core-plate feeder for conveying a succession of core plates to a lay-up station adjacent the assembly station. Respective upper and lower foil feeders pull the foils off the respective coils and apply them to upper and lower faces of the press plates at the assembly station. A gripper beam engages leading ends of the foils and of the press plate in the assembly station for pulling the press plate and the foils from the assembly station into the lay-up station and depositing the press plate and foils atop the core plate therein.

Abstract: A press for pressing a mat into a thin panel has a press frame, upper and lower press plates on the frame, upper and lower press belts having confronting lower and upper stretches defining a press gap extending in a horizontal and longitudinal transport direction and respectively running below and above the upper and lower press plates, respective arrays of rollers between each press plate and the respective stretch, and upper and lower flexible intake plates juxtaposed respectively above and below upstream ends of the lower and upper stretches of the belts and defining therewith an intake mouth flaring upstream. An array of spaced differential hydraulic actuators is braced between at least one of the intake plates and the frame and is operable to deform the one intake plate and thereby change the spacings of the belts at the mouth. A controller connected to the actuators can therefore steplessly change the shape and position of the belts at the mouth.

Abstract: A continuous press for pressing a thick mat into a thin panel has a press frame, upper and lower press belts having confronting lower and upper stretches defining a press gap extending in a horizontal transport direction, upper and lower flexible intake plates juxtaposed respectively above and below upstream ends of the lower and upper stretches of the belts and defining therewith an intake mouth flaring upstream, and a plurality of hydraulic actuators braced between at least one of the intake plates and the frame and operable to deform the one intake plate and thereby change the spacing of the belts at the mouth. A desired shape of the one intake plate at the mouth is established in accordance with the thickness of the mat, the density of the mat, and the thickness of the panel.

Abstract: A press for pressing a mat into a thin panel has a press frame, upper and lower press plates on the frame, upper and lower press belts having confronting lower and upper stretches defining a press gap extending in a horizontal and longitudinal transport direction and respectively running below and above the upper and lower press plates, and upper and lower flexible intake plates juxtaposed respectively above and below upstream ends of the lower and upper stretches of the belts and defining therewith an intake mouth flaring upstream. An array of spaced fluid-powered actuators carried on the frame each have outer ends juxtaposed with one of the intake plates. Thermal insulation is provided between the actuator outer ends and the one intake plate to protect the actuators from the heat of the intake plates. Swivel joints, normally ball joints, are provided between the actuator outer ends and the one intake plate.

Abstract: An apparatus for continuously produced pressed board has a structuring belt in the form of a metal wire screen which is fed with a respectively endless steel belt and the wood-based mat passing through a continuous press whose heated upper and lower press platens have the belts guided therealong via rollers displaceable along closed paths. The wire mesh configuration of the structuring belt is continuously impressed into the pressed board strand which is produced.

Abstract: Shaped bodies such as board can be made from a mixture of comminuted vegetable matter and an isocyanate binder by forming the mixture with a moisture content in excess of that required to cure the binder, then coating a support for the mixture with a layer of a liquid parting agent, depositing the mixture on the support, coating the mixture with another film of the parting agent and hot pressing the mixture to form the board.

Abstract: In order to preheat a particle mat having upper and lower faces and edges to a predetermined desired temperature for pressing into a pressed board air is conditioned to a temperature below 100.degree. C. and a moisture content together imparting to the conditioned air a dew point generally equal to the desired temperature. This conditioned air is simultaneously introduced from above and below at the same rate into the respective faces of the mat to produce in the mat a pair of horizontal and vertically approaching fronts at which moisture condenses out of the conditioned air. Introduction of the conditioned air into the mat is ended when condensed moisture and the conditioned air are forced out of the edges of the mat.

Abstract: A particle mat for pressing into a pressed board is heated by concurrently passing through the mat treatment air coming from an air-conditioning system and having a predetermined moisture content and dew point, heating the treatment air passing through the mat to a temperature which is greater by a dew-point differential than the dew point of the treatment air, and controlling the volume rate of flow of the treatment air and the moisture content of the treatment air such that the mat is preheated to a predetermined temperature while liquid in the treatment air is allowed to condense in the mat to at most a maximum liquid content.

Abstract: A continuous press for a compressible wood-product strand has a row of longitudinally spaced open frames, upper and lower heated press plates extending in a longitudinal direction through and supported by the frames, and respective upper and lower sheet-steel belts having respective lower and upper stretches extending longitudinally parallel to each other through the row of frames between the plates from the upstream to the downstream ends and defining a longitudinally extending passage having an upstream end, a downstream end, and a center between the ends. A drive advances the stretches longitudinally downstream and thereby draws in the wood-product strand longitudinally and compresses it transversely. Two sets of transversely displaceable downstream pressing elements transversely oppositely engageable between the center and the downstream end with the strand between the belts are displaceable longitudinally downstream synchronously with the strand.

Abstract: A continuous press for the production of pressed board comprises an inlet mouth of the steel belts, between which the comminuted material is pressed, which has its contour adjustable by imparting a bending moment to a cantilevered tongue of the respective press platen. The positions of the tongue are set by shifting a slider on the respective press beam to allow a step of a respective abutment staircase to engage a counter bar. The slide has a piston and cylinder setting drive.

Abstract: A continuous belt press has a frame having horizontally extending and vertically spaced upper and lower plates defining a horizontally extending gap having an upstream end and a downstream end and vertically spaced upper and lower upstream drums rotatable on the frame about respective horizontal drum rotation axes at the upstream end. Vertically spaced upper and lower downstream drums are rotatable on the frame about respective horizontal drum rotation axes at the downstream end and upper and lower endless steel belts are spanned over the respective upper and lower drums and each have a working stretch lying between the plates and a return stretch. Upper and lower sets of rollers are engaged between the working stretches and the respective plates. The drums are driven to advance the belts to move the working stretches horizontally in a transport direction to displace a workpiece in the direction through the gap.

Abstract: A press for making pressed board has a plurality of longitudinally spaced rigid frames, a lower press plate extending longitudinally through and secured to the frames, and a normally planar upper press plate extending longitudinally above the lower plate through the frames and defining with the lower press plate a longitudinally throughgoing press gap. A plurality of vertically effective double-acting hydraulic cylinders carried on the frames above the upper plate each have a back compartment and a front compartment, are connected to the upper plate, and support the upper plate on the frames. Respective upper and lower endless belts have respective lower and upper stretches extending through the gap immediately below and above the respective upper and lower plates and respective upper and lower rollers advance the stretches longitudinally through the frames. Sensors connected to the lower plate produce an output corresponding to the size of the gap.

Abstract: A plurality of webs drawn from respective supply rolls forms a core stack which is passed through a single-level press to press boards from the press stack formed by applying cover foils to the core band. Once the pressed board forming part of the band is advanced from the press, the pressed board can be cut and trimmed from the band. The apparatus has a separating web insertion station for selectively inserting a separating web between core forming layers as part of the band so that, when one or more separating layers are inserted, each press cycle simultaneously forms two boards, but when no separating layer is inserted, only a single board is formed at each press cycle and separating operation.

Abstract: A plurality of webs drawn from respective supply rolls forms a core stack which is passed through a single-level press to press boards from the press stack formed by applying cover foils to the core, the latter extending over and forming part of a transport belt that becomes part of the boards. Once the pressed board forming part of the belt is advanced from the press, the pressed board can be cut and trimmed from the belt.