Method and system for layered wood product production
AssigneeBoise Cascade Corporation
InventorDavid Bolton
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and system for production of layered wood products employs local and independently operating robotic panel assembly cells including one or more veneer handling robots, one or more core handling robots, and one or more glue application robots to produce stacks of layered wood product panels locally near the pressing stations. Consequently, the stacks of layered wood product panels are independently built at, or near, the location of the pressing stations. This eliminates the need for traditional panel conveyors, traditional layered wood product panel assembly layup lines, and stack press delivery lines. This, in turn, eliminates thousands of moving parts and dozens of people from the layered wood product production process.
Claims19
A local robotic panel assembly and pressing station, the local robotic panel assembly and pressing station comprising:
- a robot panel assembly cell, the robot panel assembly cell producing a stack of green layered wood product panels;
- a pre-press, the pre-press pressing the stack of green layered wood product panels to produce pre-pressed layered wood product panels;
- a hot press, the hot press heating and pressing the pre-pressed layered wood product panels to produce cured layered wood product panels;
- and
- a quality analysis and feedback cell, the quality analysis and feedback cell for analyzing the quality of cured layered wood product panels.
A local robotic panel assembly and pressing station, the local robotic panel assembly and pressing station comprising:
- a robot panel assembly cell, the robot panel assembly cell producing a stack of green plywood panels;
- a pre-press, the pre-press pressing the stack of green plywood panels to produce pre-pressed plywood panels;
- a hot press, the hot press heating and pressing the pre-pressed plywood panels to produce cured plywood panels;
- and
- a quality analysis and feedback cell, the quality analysis and feedback cell for analyzing the quality of cured plywood panels.
A local robotic panel assembly and pressing station, the local robotic panel assembly and pressing station comprising:
- one or more veneer handling robots, the one or more veneer handling robots retrieving veneer sheets from a stack of veneer sheets and placing the veneer sheets on a green plywood panel stack in accordance with received control signals;
- one or more core handling robots, the one or more core handling robots retrieving core material from a core material stack and placing the core material on the green plywood panel stack in accordance with received control signals;
- one or more glue application robots, one or more glue application robots applying a layer of glue between sheets of veneer and core material in the green plywood panel stack in accordance with received control signals;
- a control system for controlling the one or more veneer handling robots, the one or more core handling robots, and the one or more glue application robots and directing the one or more veneer handling robots, the one or more core handling robots, and the one or more glue application robots in the construction of the green plywood panel stack via control signals sent to the one or more veneer handling robots, the one or more core handling robots, and the one or more glue application robots;
- a pre-press, the pre-press pressing the stack of green plywood panels to produce pre-pressed plywood panels;
- a hot press, the hot press heating and pressing the pre-pressed plywood panels to produce cured plywood panels;
- and
- a quality analysis and feedback cell, the quality analysis and feedback cell for analyzing the quality of cured plywood panels and adjusting the control signals sent to the one or more veneer handling robots, the one or more core handling robots, and the one or more glue application robots in response to the quality analysis in order to improve the quality of subsequent cured plywood panels.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.