Vacuum pressure forming apparatus and vacuum pressure forming method

Abstract

A vacuum pressure forming apparatus which is capable of uniformly heating a sheet member and preventing the occurrence of wrinkles or rain drops in the sheet member. The apparatus is equipped with an endless belt having a number of air holes and is stretched between a heating drum and a cooling drum. After preheating, the sheet member is placed closely into contact with a surface of the endless belt through the use of a pressing roller and the sheet member is clamped between the endless belt and a metal pattern having a plurality of cavities formed therein. The apparatus further includes a pressure difference producing device which supplies pressurized air from a rear surface side of the endless belt toward the sheet member such that pressure on an upper surface of the sheet member becomes higher than pressure on a lower surface thereof. Consequently, the sheet member is formed into configurations corresponding to the configurations of the cavities of the metal pattern.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.