Patent ID: 7785510
Filing Date: 2010-08-31
Classification: B32B,E04D,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A process of making shingle or tile products comprising the steps of: (a) co-extruding heated, unshaped thermoplastic materials from molten states in a co-extruder and discharging those unshaped thermoplastic materials from a mouth of the co-extruder into a formed, continuous shaped extrudate that includes a core material with a capstock product surfacing material on and adhered directly to at least a portion of a major surface of the core material of the continuous shaped extrudate and then directly cutting the extrudate into a plurality of preliminary product shapes while the preliminary product shapes are above a solidification temperature; (b) then delivering the preliminary product shapes serially along a path while allowing the preliminary product shapes to cool an amount that maintains the temperature of the preliminary product shapes above a solidification temperature; (c) then delivering the cooled but still non-solid preliminary, product shapes to a compression mold; (d) molding the preliminary product shapes in the mold by compression molding the preliminary product shapes to substantially their final product dimensions and controlling internal stress development of the product shapes in the mold by having the capstock product surfacing material being at a greater temperature in the mold than the temperature of the core material in the mold; and (e) then discharging the molded products from the mold and allowing the molded products to cool to a solid state; wherein the compression molding step includes causing the capstock product surfacing material to flow over at least one edge of the core material to cover that edge in each molded product.