Polymer Processing Research Institute Ltd.

Teruo Kubo

Masahide Yazawa

Kunio Suzuki

In the process where a shaped product of expanded polystyrene is continuously produced by passing preliminarily expanded beads of polystyrene interposed inside a carrying means comprising a circulating steam-permeable single belt or a set of belts of the same nature through a pressurized steam chamber provided with pressure-sealing means at the inlet and the outlet thereof, thereby closely integrating the beads into a sheet through softening and expansion of the beads by steam heating, then cooling the resulting shaped product, and separating the shaped product from the carrying belt or belts, while withdrawing the shaped product to a successive step and returning the carrying belt or belts to the inlet side of the pressurized steam chamber, at least one of the surfaces of the carrying belt(s) is wetted with water before supplying the preliminarily expanded beads onto the belt(s) on the inlet side of the pressurized steam chamber, and thereafter the preliminarily expanded beads are supplied in excess onto the wetted surface(s) of the belt(s), the beads free from the adhering action due to the surface tension of water on the surface(s) of the belt(s) are removed from the belt(s), and the remaining beads attached to the wet belt(s) are fed into the pressurized steam chamber, while being interposed between the belts.

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Teruo Kubo