A calender belt for the compliant calendering of a paper web includes an endless base substrate, a staple fiber batt attached to at least the outside of the endless base substrate, and a polymeric resin material totally impregnating the fiber/base composite structure comprising the endless base substrate and the staple fiber batt to a substantially uniform depth. That depth may be such that the polymeric resin material does not reach the base substrate, or partly or completely impregnates the base substrate. A layer of polymeric resin material is built up upon the staple fiber material to a predetermined thickness. Once the polymeric resin material is cured, it is ground to a desired smoothness without exposing any fiber on the ground surface. That the penetration of the polymeric resin material into the staple fiber batt, and possibly into the base substrate, is to a uniform depth enables the calender belt to provide a uniform pressure pulse as it passes with a paper web through the nip in a compliant calender.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This is a continuation-in-part (CIP) of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/851,966, filed May 6, 1997 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,027,615.
A calender arrangement for calendering a material web, in particular a paper web, having a shoe roll and a mating roll, between which an extended nip is formed, through which the material web can be guided. The shoe roll includes a revolving shell, which is fixed to two rotatably mounted terminating elements arranged at the ends and can be loaded in the direction of the mating roll via a press shoe matched to the outside of the mating roll. The shell includes a radially inner base layer and an adjacent, radially outer functional layer. The base layer includes a resilient matrix material reinforced by embedded fibers, and the functional layer includes a matrix material with a lower fiber content than the base layer.
