Apparatus and method for reducing wallboard waste during manufacture
AssigneeNational Gypsum Properties, LLC
InventorJohn Benedetti
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus and method for reducing the amount of wallboard wasted during the manufacturing process is disclosed. Wallboard sections that contain a cover paper splice, which sections must go to waste, are reduced in size during the manufacturing process. This is accomplished by determining the optimum location for a cover paper splice to be made and making the splice at or near this location, such that a rotary knife can readily isolate the splice onto a section of wallboard having a reduce length. This function is accomplished using any suitable computer equipment capable of monitoring desired manufacturing conditions and using this data to calculate the optimum location for a splice.
Claims20
A method of reducing unused wallboard, comprising:
- determining an optimum location for a cover paper splice to be made;
- providing the ability to make said cover paper splice at or near said optimum location;
- and
- isolating said cover paper splice onto a specific section of wallboard.
A method of reducing the size of wallboard sections containing a cover paper splice during a wallboard manufacturing process, comprising:
- determining one or more optimum locations for said cover paper splice to be made;
- making said cover paper splice at or substantially near one of said one or more optimum locations;
- communicating the location of said cover paper splice to a rotary knife control mechanism for a rotary knife;
- and
- isolating said cover paper splice onto a shortened specific section of wallboard through controlled use of said rotary knife.
An apparatus, comprising:
- a computer processor programmed to determine one or more optimum locations for a cover paper splice to be made during a continuous wallboard manufacturing process;
- a splice bar that can be controlled to make said cover paper splice at or substantially near one of said one or more optimum locations;
- and
- a rotary knife that can be controlled to cut passing wallboard into sections such that said cover paper splice is isolated onto a specific section of wallboard that is of shorter length than other sections of wallboard.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.