Patent ID: 7819790

Claim:
In a pressware apparatus for making pressed paperboard articles, the combination comprising: (a) a die set including a punch and a die adapted for reciprocal motion with respect to each other and configured to cooperate in order to form a shaped product from a substantially planar paperboard blank upon pressing thereof; (b) a variable speed blank feeder for controlled insertion of the paperboard blank into the die set including: (i) a pervious feed belt adjacent the die set, the pervious belt having a circumference of from about 2.2 to about 2.8 times the length of the paperboard blank; (ii) a vacuum source communicating with the pervious feed belt, the feed belt and vacuum source being adapted for receiving the paperboard blank and releasably securing it to a surface of the belt; (iii) variable speed drive means suitable for advancing the feed belt in a feeding direction, the drive means being capable of accelerating the belt from a stationary condition between feeds to the die set to an elevated feed belt velocity during a blank feed step as well as decelerating the feed belt during the feed step to a lesser velocity, whereupon the blank is released to the die set at a velocity less than the elevated feed belt velocity.