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.
Claims18
A three-dimensional fiber block article, said three-dimensional fiber block article being obtainable by molding a heated fiber blank, comprising a thermally activated binding agent, into a three-dimensional fiber block article in a fiber block molding process, the fiber block molding 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;
- delivering the heated fiber blank on the lower part of the mold;
- and
- closing the mold to provide the fiber block article.
The three-dimensional fiber block article according to 1, wherein the fiber blank is received in the form of a sheet at the receiving position, and wherein the received sheet once heated is molded into the molded fiber block article.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.