Personal Products Company

Philip Joseph Marbach

Michael J Menard

A method and apparatus for heat sealing a thin porous facing sheet onto the perimeter of a flexible ethylene-containing foam shell having a non-planar face surface. In the method, the facing sheet is applied to the non-planar surface of the foam shell attached to a foam sheet, and the facing sheet is clamped by a die assembly and rapidly heated and sealed onto the shell perimeter by a plug containing a heating element shaped to the shell perimeter being clamped onto the facing sheet and shell. To provide a close non-wrinkled fit of the facing sheet onto the foam shell, the facing sheet is first slit at spaced intervals transverse to the sheet length dimension and intermediate the foam shells before being clamped and heat sealed onto the formed shell perimeter. Apparatus for transversely slitting the facing sheet and for heat sealing it onto the formed shells is also disclosed.

Method for heat sealing a facing sheet onto a plastic foam shell

An improved method and apparatus for rapidly forming plastic foam shells from a flexible foam sheet. The foam sheet is intermittently passed through a radiant heating unit and is rapidly heated on both sides to 130.degree.-250.degree. F. to soften the foam. The heated foam sheet is immediately passed through a forming die unit in which the foam sheet is deformed partly into the die cavity by withdrawal of air from the cavity, and a die plug descends and final forms a shell while rapidly cooling the foam shell to below its plastic deformation temperature. By this forming method and apparatus, ethylene-containing foam shells having a depth 10-25 times the foam sheet initial thickness are rapidly formed at 10-30 cycles/minute.

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Doylestown, PA, United States of America

Philip Joseph Marbach