Method and apparatus for producing engineered wood flakes, wafers or strands

• US 4,681,146 A
• Filed: 04/29/1985
• Issued: 07/21/1987
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/1984
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Frank F. Liska, Frank T. Liska
• Original Assignee: Frank F. Liska, Frank T. Liska
• Inventors: Liska, Frank T., Liska, Frank F.
• Primary Examiner(s): BRAY, WAYMOND D
• Application Number:
  US06/728,482
• Time in Patent Office: 813 Days
• Field of Search: 144/3 R, 144/43, 144/162 R, 144/162 A, 144/163, 144/172, 144/174, 144/176, 144/367, 144/369, 144/373, 144/380, 430/945, 241/296, 241/278 R
• US Class Current: 144/369
• CPC Class Codes: B27L 11/00 Manufacture of wood shavings, chips, powder, or the like disintegrating in general B02C; edge trimming sawing blades or sawing tools combined with means to disintegrate waste B27B33/20; obtaining fibres for spinning D01B1/00; wet methods D21B1/12; Tools therefor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 430/146 Laser beam

Abstract

Square or rectangular clean cut flakes, wafers or strands of a uniform thickness, width and length, with edges extending at right, acute or obtuse angles to the surfaces are produced by an apparatus in four distinct operations, comprising the veneer slicing, cutting of the veneer sheets into veneer strips, chemical or laser beam treatment and flake cutting. The chemical or laser beam treatment is applied to the edges of the veneer strips which run transversally to the direction of wood fiber and the application takes place before the veneer strips are cut into flakes. The treatment may be introduced for the purpose of sealing of the opened ends of wood fiber against water or water vapour absorption or to fortify and strengthen the flakes, wafers or strands against breakage along the wood fiber, to enhance the properties of the flakes, wafers or strands for the purpose of effective orientation in an electrostatic field or in other means of orientation in the production of agglomerated structural boards and lumber, to enhance the detectability of the position and degree of orientation of the flakes for the purpose of quality control, to color-code the flakes, wafers or strands for aesthetical, decorative or other reasons dictated by the manufacturing process or by the market. The moisture content and the mass of the flakes produced may be accurately monitored and the measurements processed in a computer and used for an effective control of the drying process.

Claims

1. A method for producing square or rectangular wood flakes from logs of predetermined length, said flakes being square or elongated in the direction of the wood fibers and having clean cut faces and edges, said flakes being of generally uniform predetermined thickness, uniform predetermined width and uniform predetermined length, the edges parallel to the wood fibers forming right, obtuse or acute angles with the face of said flakes and the edges transverse to the wood fibers forming right, obtuse or acute angles with the face of said flakes, the method comprising:

aligning said logs on a log infeed chain conveyor with the fibers of said logs extending transverse to the feed motion,

feeding said logs into a log infeed pocket,

confining said logs tightly in said pocket with three sets of log feeding chains, said chains preventing rolling and lengthwise shifting of said logs and imparting feeding motion to said chains, said chains all moving at the same speed,

presenting the bottom logs confined in said log infeed pocket to the top of a rotary veneer slicing tool containing at least one slicing blade with doublesurfaced nosebars for successive slicing of veneer sheets,

imparting a continual rotary slicing motion to said slicing tool and producing relative feed motion between said log feeding chains and said slicing tool,

compressing the wood fiber of the bottom logs fed by said log feeding chains against the top of said slicing tool, the degree of compression varying gradually from a high compression at the center of rotation of said slicing tool to a low compression at the circumference of said slicing tool,

slicing a veneer sheet from the bottom log during each pass of the slicing blade under said pile of logs, said slicing blade being substantially parallel to the direction of the wood fiber of the log being sliced and the slicing motion direction being substantially transverse to the wood fiber of said logs during the veneer slicing process,

compressing the veneer during slicing from said bottom logs, the degree of compression varying gradually, from a high compression at the center of rotation of said slicing tool to a low compression at the circumference of said slicing tool,

letting the veneers sliced from said logs pass through a recess in the slicing tool and drop onto a rotary veneer assembly drum rotating against the direction of the slicing motion of said slicing tool, towards the veneer strip cutting apparatus, said drum communicating with a source of suction, said veneers being directed by jets of pressurized air and held temporarily on the surface of said veneer assembly drum by the suction in said drum and the pressure exerted by the jets of pressurized air,

imparting motion to said veneer sheets in the direction of the veneer strip cutting apparatus, the wood fiber of said veneer sheets extending parallel to the logs being sliced, parallel to the axis of said veneer assembly drum and transverse to the direction of veneer motion,

transferring said veneer sheets from the veneer assembly drum to a veneer strip cutting apparatus on a set of belts running at a speed corresponding to the circumferential speed of said veneer assembly drum,

holding down the veneer sheets on said set of belts during the transfer to the veneer strip cutting apparatus;

feeding said veneer sheets into a veneer strip cutting apparatus at a speed corresponding to the circumferential speed of said veneer assembly drum,

cutting said veneer sheets transverse to the wood fiber into at least a single veneer strip

continually moving said veneer strips through an edge sealing treatment apparatus at a speed corresponding to the circumferential speed of said veneer assembly drum,

further, continually moving said veneer strips at the speed corresponding to the circumferential speed of said veneer assembly drum through a moisture content and wood mass measuring apparatus towards a rotary flake cutting tool,

imparting cutting motion to said rotary flake cutting tool for successive cutting of the flakes by a plurality of circumferentially distributed cutting blades, the cutting direction extending substantially downwardly, transverse to the direction of travel of said veneer strips, parallel to the fiber of wood.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said logs aligned on the log infeed chain conveyor are shifted so as to move slidingly towards the circumferential set of feeding chains disposed in said log infeed pocket.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein rolling of logs confined in said log infeed pocket is prevented by pressure acting transverse to the fiber of said logs, said pressure being exerted by two sets of feeding chains disposed in said log infeed pocket.

4. A method according to claim 3 wherein said lengthwise shifting of logs confined in said log infeed pocket is prevented by a third set of chains disposed in the wall of said log infeed pocket at the circumference of said slicing tool.

5. A method according to claim 1 wherein the veneer sheets drop successively onto the surface of the rotary veneer assembly drum in a single layer.

6. A method according to claim 1 including treating the edge of said veneer strips transverse to wood fiber by a process selected from the group consisting of treatment with an organic chemical, treatment with an inorganic chemical and treatment with a laser.

7. Apparatus for producing square or rectangular flakes from wood logs of predetermined length, said flakes being square in shape like wafers or elongated in the direction of wood fiber like strands, comprising:

a rotary substantially disk shaped veneer slicing tool provided with at least one but preferably several slicing blades with corresponding doublesurfaced nosebars,

means for imparting rotation to said slicing tool,

log infeed pocket disposed above said slicing tool and having means for holding tightly a pile or a single file stack of wood logs and means for presenting the bottommost logs to the top side of said veneer slicing tool, fiber of said logs being extended substantially transversally to the direction of rotation of said rotary veneer slicing tool,

means for conveying and aligning said wood logs before entering said log infeed pocket,

means for producing relative feed motion between said holding means and said rotary veneer slicing tool for causing the latter to slice successive veneer sheets from the bottom of said wood logs and to drop said veneers onto the surface of the hollow rotary veneer assembly drum disposed under said veneer slicing tool and having the axis of said drum extended substantially parallel to the direction of wood fiber of said logs,

means for guiding sliced veneer sheets with jets of pressurized air towards the surface of said veneer assembly drum, said means for guiding being disposed under said veneer slicing tool, above said veneer assembly drum,

means for exerting temporary suction pressure to the surface of said veneers dropped onto the surface of said veneer assembly drum, said suction pressure acting in the direction towards the axis of said veneer assembly drum,

means for cancelling of said negative pressure, separating veneers from the surface of said veneer assembly drum and conveying the veneer sheets towards the veneer strip cutting apparatus,

means for imparting acceleration and conveying motion to said veneers towards said veneer strip cutting apparatus, said motion so correlated to the circumferential speed of said veneer slicing tool as to allow said veneers to follow each other in close succession or in an overlapping mode,

veneer strip cutting apparatus containing rotary veneer strip cutting tools with multiplicity of shearing cutting blades, cutting direction being transversal to wood fiber of said veneers,

means for imparting rotation to said rotary veneer strip cutting tools,

moisture content and wood mass measuring apparatus,

flake cutting apparatus containing rotary flake cutting tool with a plurality of circumferentially distributed cutting edges extending substantially parallel to the axis of said flake cutting tool, mounted to perform cutting motion substantially transversally to the motion of advancing veneer strips and substantially parallel to the wood fiber of said veneer strips,

means for imparting cutting motion to said flake cutting tool, cutting being substantially in downward direction.

8. Apparatus according to claim 7 including means to seal said veneer edge, said means being selected from the group consisting of means to treat with an organic chemical, means to treat with an inorganic chemical and means to treat with a laser.

9. Apparatus according to claim 7 wherein said rotary disk shaped veneer slicing tool rotates in horizontal plane.

10. Apparatus according to claim 7 wherein said rotary disk shaped veneer slicing tool rotates in a plane at an angle to the horizontal plane.