Method of manufacturing particleboard and the like

Abstract

Particleboard is manufactured by scattering an endless mat of chip and binder material on a series of overlapped mat carriers 17 moving on a forming conveyor 2 beneath a scattering station 1. A cut-off saw 5 is then used to separate the endless mat into mat sections 18 each of which is mounted on a respective mat carrier 17. The overlap between the mat carriers is eliminated and the laden mat carriers are removed from the forming conveyor 2 by an accelerating conveyor 6 which simultaneously operates as an intermediate store and a feed unit for a single storey press 8 arranged immediately after the accelerating conveyor 6. The accelerating conveyor 6 introduces the laden mat carrier into the inlet to the press from where it is transported into the press by internal transport devices of the press. After the mat section has been pressed to form a particleboard a pair of driven rollers 9 extract the mat carrier from the press and feed it towards a separating wedge 10. The mat carrier is deflected downwardly onto a conveyor 11 and the pressed board slides over the top surface of the separating wedge through further rollers 15. As soon as the mat carrier is fully located on a guide conveyor 11 beneath the separating wedge 10 the guide conveyor is pivoted downwardly and its direction of rotation is reversed so that the mat carrier can be transferred to a return conveyor 16. The mat carrier is then transferred back onto the forming conveyor from the return conveyor at a feeding station 14 which also serves to overlap the mat carrier with the preceding mat carrier and to turn the mat carriers over prior to them once again passing through the scattering station 1.