A METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUSLY PRODUCING DISCRETE EXPANDED THERMOFORMABLE MATERIALS

摘要

A method and apparatus for continuously producing expanded thermoformable materials encompassing the steps: providing raw thermoformable material into an extruder or mold; heating the material in the extruder or mold; extruding or co-extruding molding planar sheet material of suitable engineering performance parameters to a gauge and width; cutting or shearing the material while it is still hot to suitable lengths for expansion in a coreformer; conveying the hot thermoformable sheet material in between forming platens; heating the thermoformable material to a temperature at which the material adhesively bonds to the platens; expanding the cross-section of the thermoformable material; and then cooling the expanded thermoformable material by changing the temperature of the forming platens such that the thermoformable material can maintain its structural integrity and be released from the platens.