Electrically activated flexible press for shaping heat softenable sheet material

An apparatus for shaping heat softenable sheet material comprising:

• an upper mold having a sheet shaping surface generally corresponding to a final desired contour of a sheet to be shaped;
• a lower shaping rail vertically aligned below said upper mold, said lower shaping rail having a flexible sheet engaging surface;
• actuators connected to said lower shaping rail to vertically displace selected portions of said lower shaping rail and deform said sheet engaging surface;
• means to support said sheet to be shaped between said upper mold and said lower shaping rail and position selected marginal edge portions of said sheet to be shaped above said lower shaping rail;
• means to move said lower shaping rail from a first position below said means to support said sheet to be shaped and spaced from said sheet to be shaped, to a second position spaced from said upper mold, wherein said sheet engaging surface of said lower shaping rail contacts said selected marginal edge portions and supports said sheet to be shaped;
• a controller to control said vertical displacement of said selected portions of said lower shaping rail by said actuators, wherein said controller controls said actuators to provide said sheet engaging surface with an essentially flat configuration when said lower shaping rail is at said first position and maintain said flat configuration of said sheet engaging surface when said lower shaping rail is moved to said second position and contacts said selected marginal edge portions of said sheet to be shaped, and said controller further controls said actuators to vertically displace said selected portions of said lower shaping rail while said lower shaping rail is spaced from said upper mold, to independently deform said sheet engaging surface from said flat configuration to a shaped configuration generally corresponding to a corresponding portion of said upper mold when said lower shaping rail is at said second position and in contact with said selected marginal edge portions of said sheet to be shaped;
• and
• means to subsequently move said lower shaping rail having said shaped configuration toward said upper mold to press said selected marginal edge portions of said sheet to be shaped against said sheet shaping surface of said upper mold.

A method of shaping heat softenable sheet material comprising:

• securing a plurality of controllable actuators at selected positions along a shaping rail having a flexible sheet engaging surface;
• engaging selected marginal edge portions of a sheet to be shaped with said flexible sheet engaging surface of said shaping rail to support said sheet;
• moving said shaping rail and sheet to be shaped toward an upper shaping mold having a contoured shaping surface generally corresponding to a final desired shape of said sheet to be shaped;
• controlling said actuators to initially provide said flexible sheet engaging surface of said shaping rail with a generally flat configuration during said engaging step and subsequently vertically displace various portions of said shaping rail in varying amounts at each actuator while supporting said sheet to be shaped, to alter said flexible sheet engaging surface of said shaping rail while said shaping rail is spaced from said upper mold, from said generally flat configuration to a curved configuration having a curved elevational contour that generally conforms to a desired shape of said marginal edge portions of said sheet to be shaped prior to said marginal edge portions contacting said contoured shaping surface of said upper shaping mold;
• and
• pressing said marginal edge portions of said sheet to be shaped into contact with said contoured shaping surface of said upper shaping mold, wherein said altering of said flexible sheet engaging surface of said shaping rail from said generally flat configuration to said curved configuration is performed prior to and independent of said marginal edge portions of said sheet to be shaped contacting said contoured shaping surface of said upper shaping mold during said pressing step.