Modular vacuum press for producing contoured articles using wood laminae and method of compressing wood laminae to produce a contoured article
OwnerRonald J. Battyinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A modular vacuum press adapted to produce contoured articles with a consistent thickness and strength includes a central robot arm that manipulates a vacuum press die to load a perforated top surface of the die with a laminae mat at a wood laminae loading station, unload lose wood laminae from the top surface, move the die to a low-pressure press that compresses the mat into a cohesive article and move the cohesive article to a high-pressure press for compression into the contoured article.
Claims16
A modular vacuum press for producing contoured articles using wood laminae, comprising:
- a central robot arm coupled to a vacuum press die and adapted to control a vacuum source to selectively generate a suction force at a perforated top surface of the vacuum press die;
- a laminae loading station adapted to deposit a predetermined volume of wood laminae mixed with at least one adhesive on the perforated top surface of the vacuum press die to form a laminae mat adhered to the top surface of the vacuum press die by the suction force;
- a heated low-pressure press adapted to receive the vacuum press die coupled to the robot arm, and to press the vacuum press die and the laminae mat to heat and compress the laminae mat to produce a cohesive article during a low-pressure press cycle;
- and
- a heated high-pressure press adapted to receive the cohesive article released by the robot arm from the vacuum press die, and to heat and compress the cohesive article to produce a permanently bonded contoured article during a high-pressure press cycle.
A modular vacuum press for producing contoured articles using wood laminae mixed with at least one adhesive, comprising:
- a central robot arm having a die coupling and adapted to selectively couple the die coupling to a vacuum press die having a perforated top surface, and further adapted to control a vacuum source for generating a suction force at the perforated top surface of the vacuum press die;
- a laminae loading station adapted to load a predetermined volume of the wood laminae on the perforated top surface of the vacuum press die to form a laminae mat when the central robot arm moves the vacuum press die to the laminae loading station and controls the vacuum source to generate the suction force at the perforated top surface of the vacuum press die;
- a heated low-pressure press adapted to receive the vacuum press die coupled to the central robot arm and to compress the laminae mat to produce a cohesive article during a low-pressure press cycle;
- and
- a heated high-pressure press adapted to receive the cohesive article released by the central robot arm from the vacuum press die and to heat and compress the cohesive article to produce a permanently bonded contoured article during a high-pressure press cycle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.