Patent ID: 8337188

Claim:
Apparatus for making shingle or tile products comprising: (a) co-extruding means for 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 cutting means for then directly cutting the extrudate into a plurality of preliminary product shapes while the preliminary product shapes are above a solidification temperature; (b) delivering means for 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) delivering means for then delivering the cooled but still non-solid preliminary product shapes to a compression mold; (d) compression molding means for molding the preliminary product shapes in the mold by compression molding the preliminary product shapes to substantially their final product dimensions and controlling means for 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) discharging means for then discharging the molded products from the mold and allowing the molded products to cool to a solid state.