Composite roofing product and apparatus and method for cleaning vulcanized rubber and for making a composite roofing product

Abstract

An apparatus and method for making a composite roofing material includes a reel support for reels of each of a vulcanized rubber sheet, a polymeric film and a fleece matting and pinch rollers which advance the rubber sheet from its reel through a path including a cleaning and scrubbing vat, a stretcher, and a heater. In the cleaning and scrubbing vat, counter-rotating brush cylinders with special abrasive bristles effectively remove the non-stick talc coating from the vulcanized rubber. Once the rubber sheet is heated, polymer film and fleece matting from separate rollers are sandwiched with the rubber sheet and passed through a pair of compression pinch rollers where the polymeric film is melted. The melted film acts as an adhesive to cause the fleece matting to adhere to the vulcanized rubber sheet as the rubber sheet, the polymeric film and the fleece matting are compressed together by the compression pinch rollers to yield a composite sheet with selvedges left along one or both sides of the roofing material. The composite sheet is then flipped 180 degrees and a layer of a roof covering granules with a bonding agent is deposited across the width of the remaining side of the rubber sheet. The sheet is then reheated, melting the bonding agent particles and adhering the roof covering granules to the composite sheet.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.