Orientated strand board (“OSB”), parallel strand board lumber and other engineered wood products are formed by layering strands (flakes) of wood in specific orientations. Such manufactured wood products are typically manufactured in wide mats from cross-orientated layers of thin, rectangular wooden strips compressed and bonded together with wax and resin adhesives (95% wood, 5% wax and resin). These strips are created by shredding wood into strips, which are sifted and then orientated on a belt. The mat is made in forming a bed, the layers are built up with external layers aligned in the panel direction and internal layers randomly positioned. The number of layers placed is set by the required thickness of the finished panel. The mat is then placed in a thermal press system.
As depicted in FIG. 1, current press systems include a pair of opposed platens 40a configured to continuously compress a material 38a into a desired shape. Adjacent each platen 40a is a press belt 37 running on a roller arrangement 35. The belt 37 and roller arrangement 35 combination allows movement of the material 38a through the platens 40a while the platens are continuously applying a compressive force to the material 38a. Although such thermal press systems are effective at forming engineered wood products, they are not without their problems. As a non-limiting example, such systems typically use a single platen. As such, very large sections of the platens must be removed when they must be replaced.
Thus, there exists a need for a press unit for a manufactured wood product press.