TWO-STAGE LAMINATOR APPARATUS

摘要

A laminator apparatus (10) includes upper and lower belt assemblies (20, 22) which are supported in closely spaced adjacent relation. The lower belt assembly (22) includes a stainless steel belt (30) received around first and second metallic rollers (32, 34), and the upper belt assembly (20) includes a teflon impregnated, fiberglass belt (36) received around third and fourth metallic rollers (38, 40). The belt assemblies (20, 22) are positioned such that the first and third rollers (32, 38) form an input nip, and the second and fourth rollers (34, 40) form an output nip, with the endless belts (30, 36) positioned in facing relation. The first roller (32) is heated by an internal cartridge heater (66) to about 200 DEG C, and a heating platen (68), positioned in abutting relation with an upper portion of the metallic belt adjacent to the first roller, is heated to about 160 DEG C. Fan-cooled heat sinks (72, 74) are positioned in abutting relation adjacent to the output nip for cooling the metallic fiberglass belt passing therebetween. The belts are rotated for transporting thermoplastic sheet (14, 16) materials between the endless belts from the input nip to the output nip, wherein the lower thermoplastic sheet (16) is initially laminated to the upper thermoplastic sheet (14) under the heat and pressure of the input nip rollers (32, 38), and then fully laminated by passage over the heating platen (68). The laminated plastic sheets are thereafter cooled by passage between the fan-cooled heat sinks (72, 74).