초록 ▼

An article having non-planar portions, such as a material handling pallet, including a substantially flat deck member and a plurality of hollow leg members projecting integrally from the deck member, is molded as a one-piece unit from a loosely-felted mat formed from a mixture of resinous particle b

An article having non-planar portions, such as a material handling pallet, including a substantially flat deck member and a plurality of hollow leg members projecting integrally from the deck member, is molded as a one-piece unit from a loosely-felted mat formed from a mixture of resinous particle board binder and flake-like wood particles. The leg members are preformed in a separate preform mold or the article forming mold and the mat is deposited on the female die over mold cavities containing the preforms. When the article forming mold is closed, the mat and preforms are compressed into substantially the desired shape and size under temperature and pressure conditions which bond the wood particles of the mat and the preforms together to form a unitary structure.

대표청구항 ▼

A method for forming an article having a major plane and at least one non-planar portion displaced from the major plane, said method including the steps of: (a) admixing a resinous particle board binder with flake-like wood particles to produce a preform furnish; (b) forming a preform of only said n

A method for forming an article having a major plane and at least one non-planar portion displaced from the major plane, said method including the steps of: (a) admixing a resinous particle board binder with flake-like wood particles to produce a preform furnish; (b) forming a preform of only said non-planar portion from said preform furnish; (c) admixing a resinous particle board binder with flake-like particles to produce a mat furnish; (d) with said preform located in a cavity in an open part of an article-forming mold including separable parts defining a mold chamber having the shape of the article, depositing a loosely-felted mat formed from said mat furnish on the open part of the article-forming mold and over the cavity in which said preform is located; and (e) closing the article-forming mold and applying sufficient heat and pressure on said mat and said preform to compress them into substantially the desired shape and size of the article and to bond the wood particles of said mat and said preform together to form a unitary structure. A method for molding a material handling pallet having a deck and a plurality of hollow leg members projecting integrally from the deck member, each leg member having a bottom wall spaced from the deck member and side walls integrally connecting the bottom wall to the deck, said method including the steps of: (a) admixing a resinous particle board binder with flake-like wood particles to produce a preform furnish; (b) forming preforms of said leg members from said preform furnish; (c) admixing a resinous particle board binder with flake-like wood particles to produce a mat furnish; (d) with said leg member preforms located in leg member-forming cavities in a pallet-forming mold including separable male and female dies defining a mold chamber having the shape of the pallet, depositing a loosely-felted mat formed from said mat furnish on the female die and covering the cavities containing said preforms; and (d) closing the pallet-forming mold and applying sufficient heat and pressure on said mat and said preforms to compress them into substantially desired shape and size of the pallet and to bond the wood particles of said mat and said preforms together to form a unitary structure.