US 4,057,150 AGranted

Lumber stacking apparatus

OwnerSidney L. Lundeninventor

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Abstract

A lumber stacking apparatus is described for picking up a course of boards at a course pickup station and moving the course toward to a course stacking station over a stack and depositing the course on the stack. The apparatus includes a general frame having a carriage mounted thereon for reciprocating swinging movement between the two stations. The carriage is movably supported by parallelogram linkage. A crank drive is connected between the frame and the carriage for swinging the carriage back and forth between the station while maintaining the carriage horizontal. The swinging movement of the carriage converts potential energy of the carriage to kinetic energy during the initial portion of the forward and rearward strokes and converts kinetic energy of the moving carriage back to potential energy during the end of the strokes. Such a conversion drastically reduces the peak energy required to drive the carriage.

Claims6

Dependent claims

A lumber stacking apparatus, comprising:

a frame;
a carriage operatively mounted on the frame;
parallelogram linkages interconnecting the carriage and the frame for enabling the carriage to swing back and forth in an arcuate path between a course pick-up station and a course stacking station while maintaining the carriage horizontal during the swinging movement;
carriage drive means operatively connected to the carriage for moving the carriage back and forth between the course pick-up station and the course stacking station;
course support means mounted on the carriage for vertical movement with respect to the carriage for carrying a lumber course from the course pick-up station to the course stacking station;
and
means operatively connected to the course support means for (1)
elevating the course support means at the course pick-up station to pick up a course of lumber, and (2) maintaining the course support means elevated while the carriage is being swung from the course pick-up station to the course stacking station to carry the course of lumber to the course stacking station.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.