Continuous molding apparatus with cover belt
AssigneeKornylak Corporation
InventorCharles P. Tabler
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Rigid synthetic foam is expanded, molded and cured in an endless mold formed by opposed spaced horizontal belt conveyors with side dams. To obtain a smooth finish on the products, a top cover belt and a bottom cover belt are employed to span the rigid slats of the conveyors, respectively. The top cover belt is stretched tightly and smoothly when the endless conveyors approach each other at the entrance to the pressure mold, by means of a downwardly depending continuous wedge shaped member along each side margin of the cover belt that cooperates with an upwardly opening correspondingly wedge shaped recess in the side dam. To obtain different thickness products, spacer blocks may be employed between the side dam and the lower conveyor.
Claims12
Apparatus for the continuous molding of a product, comprising:
- a first endless rigid molding conveyor and a second opposed endless rigid molding conveyor having adjacent runs through a molding zone;
- an endless side dam traveling between each side margin respectively, of the molding conveyors along the adjacent runs in the molding zone so as to close the sides of the molding zone and form a moving pressure mold adapted to receive a material to be molded at its entrance end and confine the material within the pressure mold until it is expelled at the exit end of the mold;
- an endless flexible cover belt passing between the first and second rigid conveyors along the adjacent runs so as to overline and separate the product from one of the rigid conveyors, and said cover belt, along one of its longitudinal sides, with respect to the conveying direction, having a first cam means;
- a second cam means carried by the other of said endless conveyors along one of its longitudinal sides in opposition to said first cam means at least along said adjacent runs for engaging said first cam means, moving relatively toward said first cam means and thereby wedging said first cam means laterally outward from the central longitudinal axis of the mold as the endless conveyors approach each other at the entrance of the mold to thereby tightly hold the top cover belt in a fully extended position throughout the molding zone;
- said cover belt, along the other of its longitudinal sides, with respect to the conveying direction, having first fixing means;
- and
- second fixing means carried by at least one of said endless conveyors along the other of its longitudinal sides in opposition to said first fixing means at least along said adjacent runs for engaging said first fixing means as the endless conveyors approach each other at the entrance of the mold to thereby fix the other longitudinal side of said cover belt during the engagement of said first and second cam means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.