Abstract: The invention concerns variable contour rollers for use in calendering or pressing devices, printing presses and like applications. The rollers include an external element of cylindrical form, for example of cast iron, and in their interior a number of transverse elements which can be made to expand radially by heating. More or less substantial radial expansion provokes directly or indirectly a change in the profile of the exterior generally cylindrical working surface. The interior of the roller may be a shaft carrying heating elements and which is fixed or rotates with the external working surface.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for adjustment of a movable lip of a head-box of a paper-making machine. Tubes mounted on screw-jacks each contain an electrical heating resistor which enables them to increase in length by thermal expansion as a function of the current passed to the electrical resistor. This current is regulated by a computer as a function of continuous measurements of the mass of the sheet of paper produced by the machine.