Laminating travelling press

A laminating travelling press for laminating a pack of boards, comprising presser means including two endless tread belt stretches having substantially continuous planar parallel opposing faces for receiving a pack of boards therebetween and engaging the opposite sides of such board pack, respectively, each stretch being composed of a series of tread members in closely spaced relationship, each tread member including a metal plate having leading and trailing edges hingedly connected, respectively, to the adjacent edges of two adjacent metal plates, and each metal plate having a press block of hard plastic insulating material bonded thereto and forming a face engageable with a pack of boards, two backing means, one for each of said endless tread belt stretches and each having a stationary bearing pressure surface of hard, low-friction dielectric material against which said metal plate of said two endless tread belt stretches slidably bear and yieldable pressure means urging said backing means relatively toward each other, dielectric heating electrodes at opposite sides of and adjacent to the pack of boards, said electrodes being elongated lengthwise of said endless tread belt stretches, extending along the major portion of the length of said endless tread belt stretches, located between the planes of said parallel endless tread belt opposing faces and of a width substantially equal to the width of the pack of boards, the electrical leakage path between each electrode and said metal plates of said endless tread belt stretches being of a length at least sufficient to deter substantial leakage of radio-frequency energy from an electrode to said metal plates, and means for moving said endless tread belt stretches lengthwise synchronously relative to said pressure means for moving the pack of boards lengthwise while sliding said metal plates in pack-compacting pressing engagement with said hard, low-friction dielectric material stationary bearing pressure surface of said backing means.