Continuous press and method of operating same

US6098532A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• G. Siempelkamp GmbH & Co. · DE

Inventors

• Lothar Sebastian · Bochum, DE
• Klaus Schürmann · Jüchen, DE
• Horst Weiss · Wachtendonk, DE
• Werner Gawlitta · Tegelen, NL

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 14, 1998
• Grant date: Aug 8, 2000
• Expiry date: Sep 14, 2018

Classification

• Technology area (CPC B): Performing Operations; Transporting
• CPC primary: B27N3/24
• WIPO field: Machine tools
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

A continuous press for pressing a thick mat into a thin panel has a press frame, upper and lower press belts having confronting lower and upper stretches defining a press gap extending in a horizontal transport direction, 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 an intake mouth flaring upstream, and a plurality of hydraulic actuators braced between at least one of the intake plates and the frame and operable to deform the one intake plate and thereby change the spacing of the belts at the mouth. A desired shape of the one intake plate at the mouth is established in accordance with the thickness of the mat, the density of the mat, and the thickness of the panel. Then an actual shape of the one intake plate is detected by the use of an array of position sensors, the detected actual shape of the one intake plate is compared to the desired shape, any variation between the actual shape and the desired shape is determined, and the actuators are pressurized to impart the desired shape to the one intake plate.