Molding of fiber blanks into three-dimensional fiber block articles
AssigneeIKEA Supply AG
InventorAnders Bergner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fiber block molding apparatus comprising: —a mold having a lower part and an upper part forming between them a cavity for forming a fiber blank into a fiber block article upon closing the mold; —a conveyor system for receiving the fiber blank to be molded at a receiving position, transporting the fiber blank via a heater for activation of a binding agent, and delivering the heated fiber blank into the lower part of the mold at a delivery end of the conveyor system, and —a horizontal position shifting arrangement for shifting the horizontal position of the delivery end of the conveyor system relative to the lower part of the mold between a first and a second position to lay the fiber blank on the lower part of the mold.
Claims20
A fiber block molding apparatus for molding a heated three-dimensional fiber block article from a fiber blank comprising a thermally activated binding agent, the apparatus comprising:
- a mold, the mold having a lower part and an upper part, wherein the lower and the upper parts of the mold form between them a cavity for forming the fiber blank into the fiber block article upon closing the mold;
- a heater for heating the fiber blank before molding it to activate the binding agent;
- a conveyor system for receiving the fiber blank to be molded at a receiving position, transporting the fiber blank via the heater for activation of the binding agent, and delivering the heated fiber blank into the lower part of the mold at a delivery end of the conveyor system, wherein the delivery end is arranged on a vertically higher level than the lower part of the mold and at the opposite side of the heater relative the receiving position;
- a horizontal position shifting arrangement configured to shift the horizontal position of the delivery end of the conveyor system relative to the lower part of the mold between a first and a second position, wherein the delivery end of the conveyor system is, in the first position, located in an area between a distal end and a proximal end of the lower part of the mold, and wherein the delivery end of the conveyor system is, in the second position, located closer to the proximal end than to the distal end of the lower part of the mold and outside of the area, but not between the distal end and the proximal end;
- and
- a fiber blank laying arrangement comprising a processor configured to control the horizontal position shifting arrangement and the conveyor system to feed the heated fiber blank from the conveyor system at the delivery end in co-ordination with the horizontal position shifting arrangement shifting the relative position of the delivery end from the first position to the second position to lay the heated fiber blank on the lower part of the mold.
A fiber block molding process for molding a heated fiber blank, comprising a thermally activated binding agent, into a three-dimensional fiber block article, the process comprising the steps of:
- receiving the fiber blank to be molded at a receiving position of a conveyor system;
- transporting the fiber blank by means of the conveyor system via a heater, thereby heating the fiber blank to activate the binding agent, to a mold, the mold having a lower part and an upper part, wherein the lower and the upper parts of the mold form between them a cavity for forming the fiber blank into the molded article upon closing the mold;
- laying the heated fiber blank on the lower part of the mold,
- wherein;
- a delivery end of the conveyor system is arranged on a vertically higher level than the lower part of the mold in laying the heated fiber blank on the lower part of the mold, and
- the horizontal position of the delivery end of the conveyor system relative the lower part of the mold is shifted from a first position, in which the delivery end of the conveyor system is arranged in an area between a distal end and a proximal end of the lower part of the mold, to a second position, in which the delivery end of the conveyor system is arranged closer to the proximal end than the distal end of the lower part of the mold and outside of the area between the distal end and the proximal distal end, whilst feeding the heated fiber blank to the lower part of the mold, the feeding being coordinated with the shifting from the first to the second position such that the heated fiber blank is laid on the lower part of the mold;
- and
- closing the mold to provide the fiber block article.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.