Abstract: A molded wood composite article man-made from wood fibers or wood particles on at least an upper, molded surface of the article, and a method of manufacturing the article to include a relatively uniform density, detailed design contours and textured aesthetics on one or more molded depression-interior inclined surfaces, while preventing embrittlement, softness and blistering of the article along the depression-interior inclined surfaces. These attributes are achieved by molding one or more depressions into an initially planar layer of cellulosic material, wherein the molded depressions have one or more inclined walls that have upper surfaces, along essentially an entire inclined span, that include detailed design contours, including adjacent curved and planar portions, e.g., bead and cove.

Abstract: The manufacture of sag-resistant, lightweight structural mineral panels on a foraminous support wire is accomplished by forming a dilute aqueous dispersion of mineral fiber and/or aggregate and an anionically stabilized latex binder, coupling the binder solids onto the mineral fiber materials by adding a small amount of a flocculant such as a cationic polyacrylamide, and passing the slurry onto a first flooded section of the support wire to form an open, entangled, structural mass having water in interstitial spaces of the entangled mass. Water is stripped from the mass and the mass dried without collapse of the open structure by passing heated dry air through the open entangled structure.

Abstract: Low density mineral wool structural panels are manufactured by frothing a dilute aqueous dispersion of mineral wool, lightweight aggregate, binder and a small amount of amine-based cationic surfactant onto a non-woven scrim cover sheet, dewatering the mass and drying it. The froth is a mass of weakly resilient bubbles that rapidly dewater and burst to concentrate the solids in the mass. The bubbles are readily broken without loss of the voided structural configuration by a first application of brief pulses of high vacuum followed by further dewatering under vacuum and rapid drying by passing large volumes of air through the voided mass without collapse of the structure to result in lightweight structural mineral wool panels.

Abstract: A method for the manufacture of very low density mineral wool structural panels on a moving foraminous support wire by frothing a dilute aqueous dispersion of mineral wool is disclosed. The forth, a mass of delicate, non-resilient and non-uniform bubbles among the entangled mineral wool fibers readily breaks, is stripped of water and dried without substantial loss of the highly open, porous structural configuration by a first controlled rate of maturation dewatering followed by brief pulses of high vacuum. Then the open structure is rapidly stripped of remaining water and dried by passing high volumes of heated dry air through the structure with continued vacuum. The drainage water may be recycled in the process to maintain a low level of binder and any frothing aid additions.

Abstract: A tough, flexible, sheet-like matrix for a bas-relief pattern is made by casting a reinforced resin on a mold of the pattern and submerging a perforated plate in the liquid resin so that the plate is parallel to a substantially flat plane generated by the lowest points of the pattern. The matrix, exclusive of the peaks and valleys of the pattern, has a uniform thickness and has a multitude of studs integral with and dependent from the sheet. A porous matrix is useful for the wet-end texturing of fiberboard at the final suction press roll of a Fourdrinier fiberboard machine.

Abstract: A fiber-reinforced cementitious sheet is formed by first co-mixing in an air current reinforcing fibers such as glass fibers, and cementitious mineral materials in finely particulate form such as calcium sulfate hemihydrate, both in substantially dry form, depositing the mixture on a moving foraminous surface by means of the air current to form a sheet, applying water as by spraying in at least an amount which is stoichiometrically sufficiently to hydrate the calcium sulfate hemihydrate to the dihydrate form and to provide the necessary degree of plasticity to the mixture, densifying the sheet by compression, and setting and drying the sheet. A pair of sheets may be utilized as face sheets and, prior to setting, combined with a core formed of for example a calcium sulfate hemihydrate slurry, and the sheets and core then set and dried to form a paper-free gypsum board having excellent strength, surface hardness, and fire-resistant properties.

Abstract: A fiber-reinforced cementitious sheet is formed by first co-mixing in an air current reinforcing fibers such as glass fibers, and cementitious mineral materials in finely particulate form such as calcium sulfate hemihydrate, both in substantially dry form, depositing the mixture on a moving foraminous surface by means of the air current to form a sheet, applying water as by spraying in at least an amount which is stoichiometrically sufficient to hydrate the calcium sulfate hemihydrate to the dihydrate form and to provide the necessary degree of plasticity to the mixture, densifying the sheet by compression, and setting and drying the sheet. A pair of sheets may be utilized as face sheets and, prior to setting, combined with a core formed of for example a calcium sulfate hemihydrate slurry, and the sheets and core then set and dried to form a paper-free gypsum board having excellent strength, surface hardness, and fire-resistant properties.