Process and apparatus for continuously manufacturing sandwich elements

In a process for continuously manufacturing sandwich elements having a foam core between two facings, comprising:

• i) continuously advancing a top facing and a bottom facing in the same direction,
• ii) introducing a foam-producing reaction mixture between said top and bottom facings, and allowing said mixture to expand between said facings and to cure to thereby produce a continuous sandwich run,
• iii) cutting said continuous run to form a sandwich element of a desired length by means of a cross cutter carried on a first carriage which travels along at the same rate as the sandwich run,
• iv) accelerating said sandwich element away from said continuous run to form a gap between said continuous run and said sandwich element, said acceleration being performed by a transport carriage, and
• v) passing a cleaning brush through said gap before the sandwich element is transported away,
• the improvement wherein after the passing of said cleaning brush through said gap, said transport carriage is returned to the first carriage to pick up the next sandwich element which as been cut to length, is braked there and is then re-accelerated in the production direction to a speed which is slightly higher than the rate of the sandwich run until it has reached a desired distance from the first carriage, whereupon it is moved on at the same rate as the sandwich run.