Method and apparatus assembling and nailing boards together

A board nailing machine comprising, automatically actuated conveyors conveying inner boards into nailing position,

• automatically actuated feeding means feeding outer boards into nailing position on opposite sides of said inner boards to produce an assembly for nailing,
• automatically actuated opposed nailing means on opposite sides of said assembly for simultaneously nailing the outer boards fed into nailing position, said nailing means includes,
• a plurality of opposed pairs of spaced apart nail-driving heads defining a nailing station therebetween,
• the inner board conveyors being constructed and arranged to simultaneously deliver a plurality of spaced apart inner boards to said nailing station,
• said outer board feeding means being constructed and arranged to permit simultaneous feeding of said outer boards into nailing position at said nailing station on both sides of said inner boards and between the opposed pairs of said nail-driving heads, and
• said nailing means including means for automatically feeding nails and driving the nails through the outer boards into the inner boards at said station,
• a base structure,
• a pair of sliding frame structures mounted on opposite sides of said nailing station for adjustable sliding movement on said base structure toward and away from said nailing station and defining a centerline through the nailing station and the inner boards being conveyed,
• said outer board feeding means including a pair of board feeding units and said pairs of nailing heads being respectively mounted on said frame structures for adjustable simultaneous movement with said outer board feeding units, and
• adjustment means for moving said frame structures back and forth in accordance with variations in the dimensions of the boards being nailed to maintain said centerline coincident with center line of the inner boards conveyed to said nailing station.

A pallet maker comprising,

• storage means for storing a supply of stringer boards,
• a plurality of stringer conveyors for delivering stringers from said storage means longitudinally in a first direction along one of the longitudinal edges of the inner boards to a nailing station and said conveyors being arranged in generally horizontal vertically spaced apart relation with the center lines of the stringers being conveyed lying in a common substantially vertical plane,
• a plurality of vertically spaced apart and horizontally spaced apart opposed pairs of nailing head assemblies symmetrically spaced apart on opposite sides of the stringer center line plane and defining the nailing station between said opposed pairs of head assemblies,
• storage means for storing a supply of deck boards,
• means for automatically feeding directly from said storage means in a second direction at right angles to said first direction the deck boards in upright position on one of the ends thereof into vertical nailing position at said nailing station on opposite sides of said stringers,
• programmable means for controlling the number and the positions of the deck boards fed into the respective nailing positions on both sides of said stringers,
• means responsive to the feeding of the deck boards into their nailing positions for actuating the nailing head assemblies to nail the deck boards to the stringers to produce a nailed-together assembly, and
• means for discharging the nailed-together assembly from the nailing position in the first direction.

A pallet maker comprising,

• a programmable control mechanism,
• automatically controlled stringer conveyors actuated in accordance with said control mechanism,
• automatically actuated deck board feeding means for feeding the deck boards into nailing position on opposite sides of said stringers in accordance with the control mechanism to form a stringer and deck board assembly,
• automatically actuated opposed nailing means on opposite sides of the stringer and deck board assembly for nailing the deck boards fed into nailing position and responsive for actuation to the feeding of deck boards into nailing position and to said control mechanism,
• said automatically actuated deck board feeding means including separate feed mechanisms disposed on opposite sides of the stringer conveyors, and
• said programmable control mechanism including separate control means for separately actuating the two deck board feeding mechanisms whereby different relative positions between the deck boards on opposite sides of said stringers can be obtained.

The method for automatically nailing a plurality of boards together comprising,

• automatically conveying in a first direction a plurality of inner boards longitudinally on one of their longitudinal edges from storage means into nailing position at a nailing station,
• automatically feeding in a second direction at right angles to said first direction outer boards while in upright on end position from storage means into nailing position at said nailing station in opposed relationship on opposite sides of said inner boards to produce an assembly for nailing,
• automatically nailing the opposed outer boards to said inner boards simultaneously on both sides of said inner boards to form a nailed-together assembly, and
• discharging in said first direction the nailed together assembly from the nailing position.