Continuous belt-type board press

A press for pressing a mat into a thin panel, the press comprising:

• a press frame;
• upper and lower press plates on the frame;
• upper and lower press belts having confronting lower and upper stretches defining a press gap extending in a horizontal and longitudinal transport direction and respectively running below and above the upper and lower press plates;
• respective arrays of roller rods between each press plate and the respective stretch;
• upper and lower flexible intake plates juxtaposed respectively above and below upstream ends of the lower and upper stretches of the belts and defining therewith a downstream portion of an intake mouth flaring upstream;
• a plurality of the upper rollers braced against the lower stretch at an upstream portion of the intake mount immediately upstream of the downstream portion of the intake mouth;
• a single lower roller braced against the upper stretch at the upstream portion of the intake mouth;
• means including actuators connected to the rollers for setting a shape of the upstream portion of the intake mouth;
• a conveyor having a downstream end extending into the mouth for feeding the mat into the mouth;
• and
• means for horizontally displacing the conveyor downstream end in the direction in accordance with mat thickness.