Patent ID: 7458317

Claim:
A press for pressing a mat into a thin panel, the press comprising: a press frame; upper and lower press plates on the frame; upper and lower press belts having confronting lower and upper stretches defining a press gap extending in a horizontal and longitudinal transport direction and respectively running below and above the upper and lower press plates; respective arrays of roller rods between each press plate and the respective stretch; upper and lower flexible intake plates juxtaposed respectively above and below upstream ends of the lower and upper stretches of the belts and defining therewith a downstream portion of an intake mouth flaring upstream; a plurality of the upper rollers braced against the lower stretch at an upstream portion of the intake mount immediately upstream of the downstream portion of the intake mouth; a single lower roller braced against the upper stretch at the upstream portion of the intake mouth; means including actuators connected to the rollers for setting a shape of the upstream portion of the intake mouth; a conveyor having a downstream end extending into the mouth for feeding the mat into the mouth; and means for horizontally displacing the conveyor downstream end in the direction in accordance with mat thickness.