Patent ID: 6972103

Claim:
A method for continuously manufacturing films, webs, and sheets of plastics capable of forming optical images, the method comprising the steps of: guiding a melted plastic mass ( 41 ), pre-shaped as a sheet, into a roller gap ( 31 ) of a calender, the roller gap ( 31 ) formed between a shaping engraving cylinder roller ( 11 ) and a smoothing strip ( 29 ) surrounding partially circumferentially the shaping engraving cylinder roller ( 11 ), wherein the roller gap extends circumferentially partially about the engraving cylinder roller; heating the shaping engraving surface of the cylinder roller ( 11 ) to melting temperature at an intake of the roller gap ( 31 ), wherein the melted plastic mass ( 41 ) is applied directly onto the shaping engraving surface of the heated cylinder roller ( 11 ); providing a profiling by cooling the melted plastic mass ( 41 ) in the roller gap ( 31 ) downstream of the intake by heat removal on a side of the melted plastic mass ( 41 ) facing the shaping engraving surface; wherein in the step of providing a profiling the heat removal is carried out in a controlled fashion along the path of the melted plastic mass ( 41 ) about the cylinder roller ( 11 ) such that on the side of the solidifying melted plastic mass facing the shaping engraving surface more heat is removed than on the smooth side facing the smoothing strip ( 29 ) and the melted plastic mass is hardened in top edges ( 4 ) of prisms of the profiling before the material strip exits from an exit gap ( 39 ) of the calender as a finished product ( 19 ); and wherein the melting temperature is present not within the entire rotating mass of the cylinder roller ( 11 ) but only within a stationary heating zone ( 18 ) of the cylinder roller ( 11 ), the method further comprising the step of preventing an increase of the heat in the cylinder roller mass by providing a cooling device ( 24 , 25 , 26 ; 27 , 28 ) inside the cylinder roller or external to the cylinder roller at a location where the smoothing strip ( 29 ) surrounds partially circumferentially the cylinder roller and passing the melted plastic mass ( 41 ) through the cooling device temporally after the introduction into the intake of the roller gap ( 31 ).