Patent ID: 6998077

Claim:
Process for manufacturing a continuous latex foam layer, to be subdivided into single pieces, said process comprising the following steps of: moving continuously a foam laying surface between two stations, respectively first and second; laying near the first station, the latex foam on the moving laying surface, up to a predetermined height and forming a continuous layer delimited by a first face touching said laying surface, a second face opposite to the first one, and by two sides; vulcanizing the latex foam between said two stations; wherein the process includes: a) moving towards the continuous layer before the vulcanization step a plurality of upper moulding plates, kept apart from one another, each of them having at least a bottom surface provided with moulding means for impressing upper figures with predetermined outline and size; b) lowering in a moulding station each plate kept apart from other plates towards the laying surface, to impress said moulding means on said continuous foam layer; c) applying hermetically between each other the ends of the moulding plates adjacent on the continuous layer; d) supporting the weight of the moulding plates by means of thrusts directed from the foam laying surface towards the top, keeping unchanged said predetermined size of the moulding means inside the foam layer; e) associating the moulding plates to the foam laying surface; f) advancing the moulding plates together with the foam laying surface from the moulding position to an extraction position upstream of the second station; g) removing one at a time the plates from the foam layer in an extraction station upstream the second station.