Abstract: A method of and apparatus for the bending of metal-sheet section comprises a bending saddle engaging the section at two spaced-apart points and a bending anvil or support engaging the workpiece at two other points disposed outwardly of the first two points. The bending saddle is pressed toward the anvil so that the sheet bends substantially uniformly between the two bearing points of the saddle and the two support points of the anvil with substantially equal bending force components equidistant from the center between the support points. After each bending stroke of the saddle, the workpiece is advanced by an increment less than the length of the uniformly bent section between the two saddle bearing points.

Abstract: A belt-fabrication apparatus for producing belts from layers of vulcanizable material and steel-wire reinforcement includes a coil frame from which the reinforcement wire may be withdrawn, passed through a wire clamp, covered with vulcanizable layers, subjected to pressing in a vulcanizing press, and engaged by a traction and/or clamp device downstream of the press as part of the belt, the latter being taken up on a coil. According to the invention, slack is prevented from forming (or is taken up) in the wire by providing each of the supply coils with a drive sprocket and a slip clutch between this sprocket and the reel, a plurality of such sprockets being engaged by a common chain driven by a motor tending to rotate the reels in senses opposite to the direction of rotation of the reels for paying out the wire.

Abstract: A foil-section feeder in a laminating system includes a slicing assembly which clamps a web at a pair of spaced locations and subsequently cuts the web along a transverse line between the two clamps. A transport device in the form of gripper tongs is inserted into a gap in the slicing assembly to grip a leading end of the web and to draw the web from a roll past the slicing assembly to a predetermined position at a stacking or laminating station.

Abstract: A heating press plate for a multilevel or multistage platen press is formed with passages, traversed by a heating fluid, e.g. superheated steam. According to the invention, these passages are formed by paired parallel bores with the bores of each pair being separated from one another by relatively thin partitions, webs or ribs, and the pairs of bores being separated by relatively thick partitions, walls or ribs, the bores of each pair being traversed by the fluid in the same direction while the bores of adjoining pairs are traversed by fluid in opposite directions. Connecting chambers bridge adjacent pairs of bores and the relatively thin partition is set back from the chamber to provide mixing zones in which the bores of each pair communicate with one another before they open into the respective chambers.

Abstract: A press frame, comprising an upper or head plate, a lower or bed plate and a plurality of posts fitted between the head plate and bed plate of the frame, is provided with tension member, e.g. cables or bands, extending around the frame and lying in successive vertical planes spaced apart horizontally along the frame. According to the invention, the cables or bands, which are slung around the head and bed of the frame and have a U-shaped pattern as they pass therearound, are alternately offset horizontally to one side and to the other so that the tension cross sections within the cables or bands in the respective planes are likewise offset alternately from side to side. The tension elements have their ends connected to stressing units alternately on one side and the other of the press and lying in chambers formed in the posts. The units interconnect ends of the outer tension elements in each chamber.

Abstract: A large rectangular plate is subdivided into small rectangular sections in a system wherein the plate is fed stepwise in a main direction through an upstream shear while the downstream end portion of the plate is seized immediately downstream of the shear with each advanced step. Between the advanced steps the end portions are sheared off and then displaced in the main direction to the upstream end of a conveyor where they are deposited one after the other. The conveyor displaces the sheared-off end portions until each one is positioned above a respective aligner spaced apart in the main direction. The conveyor lowers these sections onto the aligners and the aligners then align them perfectly perpendicular to the main direction. The aligned and sheared-off end portions are then pushed jointly in a transverse direction perpendicular to the main direction stepwise to a downstream shear while they are supported and pneumatically seized at their downstream ends immediately downstream of the downstream shear.

Abstract: A platen press has a pair of platens having respective confronting and parallel pressing surfaces and each having a pair of longitudinal edges. Respective spacer bars are fixed to the longitudinal edges of one of the platens and have respective spacer surfaces parallel to and between the platen surfaces. Respective adjustments bars are secured to the longitudinal edges of the other of the platens and each have an adjustment surface parallel to and confronting the respective spacer surface. Each of these adjustment bars is formed of an outer wedge having a pair of nonparallel faces one of which is the respective bar surface and of an inner wedge having an outer face flatly engaging the other face of the respective outer wedge. The inner and outer wedges can be relatively longitudinally displaced so as to displace the respective abutment face perpendicular to the respective platen surface.

Abstract: A platen press, and a method of operating same, for the planar and parallel pressing of particle board and like materials comprises a press bed and a press plate, one of which is movable and is provided with a hydraulic system for developing the pressing force. A pair of spacer bars are provided on the press bed to flank the particle board and a set of bearing cylinders urges the movable press member to clamp the movable member against the spacers, thereby imparting a bend or distortion to the movable press member. According to the invention, this distortion is measured and the measured value is used to operate the main press cylinders to eliminate the distortion and ensure parallel compression of the particle-board mass.

Abstract: A mat of elongated particles is formed on a horizontal and horizontally displaceable conveyor by a spreading head having an array of parallel interdigitated disks forming longitudinally elongated spaces and rotatable about coplanar axes above the conveyor. The conveyor is continuously displaced in a longitudinal transport direction and generally perpendicular to these axes underneath the spreading head. Elongated particles are fed onto the array of disks while these disks are rotated so that the particles are deposited onto the conveyor as a mat having underneath the array a generally planar upper mat surface forming with the conveyor a deposition angle. The array is supported so that the plane of its axes lies in an acute angle to the upper mat surface.

Abstract: A mat of elongated particles is formed on a horizontal and horizontally displaceable conveyor by a spreading head having an array of parallel interdigitated disks forming longitudinally elongated spaces and rotatable about a coplanar axis above the conveyor. The conveyor is continuously displaced in a longitudinal transport direction and generally perpendicular to these axes underneath the spreading head. Elongated particles are fed onto the array of disks while these disks are rotated so that the particles are deposited onto the conveyor as a mat having underneath the array a generally planar upper mat surface forming with the conveyor a deposition angle. The array is supported so that the plane of its axes lies in an acute angle to the upper mat surface.

Abstract: A hydraulic press assembly for forming a U-profile from a rectangular plate comprises horizontally and vertically reciprocatable press members each having two hydraulic actuating cylinders. The horizontal cylinders are energized by respective variable-displacement pumps provided with servomechanisms operated by an electronic control circuit for selectively varying pumping rates to center a plate prior to a first bending phase in which the pump output ducts are connected to the vertical cylinders. During the first bending phase, synchronization of the action of the vertical cylinders is effectuated via control-circuit adjustment of the pump servomechanisms, while horizontal centering is maintained by means of an additional hydraulic circuit connectable by the control circuit to the horizontal cylinders.

Abstract: A platen press, for the planar and parallel pressing of particle board and like materials comprises a press bed and a press plate, one of which is movable and is provided with a hydraulic system for developing the pressing force. A pair of spacer bars are provided on the press bed to flank the particle board and a set of bearing cylinders urges the movable press member to clamp the movable member against the spacers, thereby imparting a bend or distortion to the movable press member. According to the invention, this distortion is measured and the measured value is used to operate the main press cylinders to eliminate the distortion and ensure parallel compression of the particle-board mass.

Abstract: An apparatus for making a laminate has a rack having upper and lower vertically displaceable platforms adapted to support respective stacks of upper and lower foils and set up so that the uppermost foils of the respective stacks are always positioned at respective upper and lower levels. A central conveyor has an upstream stretch extending horizontally between the upper and lower platforms from a position upstream of these platforms to a position spaced downstream therefrom, so that it can displace a board in a transport direction between these platforms to an assembly location downstream of the platforms.

Abstract: An apparatus for laminating a foil or like web to a substrate in which the foil is guided to a thermal-bonding head via an inclined surface provided with perforations and forming a wall of a plenum chamber which is evacuated. The thermal bonding head, in turn, is formed with a perforated surface connected to the discharge side of a blower whose intake side is connected to the plenum chamber so that the foil is urged against the substrate on a suitable conveyor by the pressure from the blower.

Abstract: A screw press comprising a flywheel rotatable continuously in one direction and a pneumatically operated coupling, selectively operable to couple the flywheel to the screw for a working stroke, wherein the coupling has a pressure chamber supplied by way of a one-way valve and dischargeable by the action of an inertial mass which rotates with the screw during its working stroke and inertially relative to the screw at the end of the working stroke to open a discharge orifice of the pressure chamber. A valve piston is moveable axially of the screw in a cylindrical recess, serving as an input chamber for supply air, which valve piston projects into a second chamber, connected to the atmosphere and having an opening, coverable by the valve piston, for supply and discharge of the pressure chamber.

Abstract: An apparatus for the external calibration (sizing) of tubular elements such as longitudinally welded large-diameter pipes, comprises an outer support ring, a wedging mechanism connected to this ring, and a plurality of pipe-engaging calibrating elements which are closed against the external surface of the pipe as the latter is drawn through the apparatus to impart the desired external diameter thereto. According to the invention, the outer support ring forms a cylinder within which an annular piston is displaceable, the piston being formed with surfaces inclined to the axis of the pipe and acting directly or indirectly upon the pipe-engaging elements.

Abstract: A friction clutch assembly, for a press and especially a screw press, includes: a pair of rotating, coaxial, annular, spaced drive members, at least one of which is axially movable toward and away from the other; an off-drive shaft disposed coaxially with the drive members; a spring plate centrally clamped to the off-drive shaft and extending radially on both sides of the shaft to terminate in outer segments, carrying friction coatings, disposed in the space between the drive members, so that, upon movement of one of the drive members toward the other to actuate, or close, the clutch, the friction coatings are clamped between the drive members, elastically deforming the spring plate to adjust to the reduced spacing and to transmit the requisite high torque through the spring plate required to turn the off-drive shaft.

Abstract: A hydraulic press, especially a sheet-bending press which has a lower beam provided with a press table and a vertically displaceable upper beam having a plunger or ram. The two beams are connected by columns which are formed as piston-and-cylinder arrangements to the upper and lower beams, respectively, by compensating bearings which permit an inclined orientation of the upper beam relative to a normal horizontal position without interfering with the force-transmitting characteristics. The compensating bearings are constituted as transverse bearings having bearing axes which are perpendicular to the longitudinal dimension of the beam and through which the piston-cylinder arrangement is pivotally connected to the upper and lower beams.

Abstract: An apparatus for handling facing sheets for application to pressed board and other laminate stacks adapted to be bonded together comprises a feed device for causing engagement of the uppermost sheet of a pile of facing sheets with a pick-up device of a drum which destacks the sheets individually and advances them to an assembling table at which the laminate stack is formed. The drum is associated with a reversible drive for enabling the trailing end of the sheet to pass a discharge point, whereupon reversal of the direction of rotation of the drum feeds the sheet with its trailing end foremost to the laminate stack thereby enabling the facing sheets to be applied alternately with their top faces turned upwardly or downwardly.