Automatic sawing system
OwnerRonald W. McGeeheeinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automatically-controlled system for ripcutting a cant into a plurality of boards includes the conveyor for advancing the cant transversely along a substantially straight path. Optical scanning stations along the path determine the shape of the usable board area which is fed to a control system. The control system, in turn, directs a mechanism which orients the cant on a sawing table. The cant is held in a fixed position on this table while a plurality of overhead saws make a series of parallel cuts on the board. The wane edges fall away and the resulting cut boards are transferred to an outfeed conveyor.
Claims15
An apparatus capable of ripcutting an elongate cant simultaneously along two parallel, spaced-apart lines to remove the wane edges thereof, said apparatus comprising:
- means for conveying the cant in a direction transverse to its elongate axis and along a substantially straight path;
- means located along the path for holding the cant in a fixed position relative to the path;
- first and second circular saws which are reciprocatably mounted above the means for holding, to cut along parallel, spaced-apart cutting lines which are generally transverse to the direction of the path, the distance between the parallel lines being adjustable;
- means located along the path upstream from the saws for determining a particular combination of (a) the orientation of the cant relative to the saws and (b) the distance between the cutting lines of the saws which results in optimization of a desired parameter;
- and
- means located along the path intermediate to the determining means and the saws for adjusting the orientation of the cant relative to the saws in response to the determining means and for placing the cant on the means for holding.
An apparatus for removing the wane edges from a cant with minimum waste, said apparatus comprising:
- means for conveying the cant along a substantially straight path in a direction which is generally transverse to the elongate axis of said cant;
- a plurality of optical scanning stations spaced-apart along a line transverse to the path, each of said stations including:
- (a) means for directing a first light beam in a substantially vertical plane which is aligned with the path, said first beam being inclined at an angle selected so that said beam is interrupted by passage of one corner of the leading wane edge and restored after passage of one corner of the trailing wane edge;
- (b) means for directing a second beam in said vertical plane, said second beam being inclined at an angle selected so that said beam is interrupted by passage of the other corner of the leading wane edge and restored after passage of the other corner of the trailing wane edge;
- and
- (c) means for observing when said first and second beams are interrupted and for generating an indicative signal;
- a central control apparatus for receiving said indicative signals from each of said stations and determining the optimal cutting pattern for the cant;
- and
- means for cutting the cant in response to said optimal cutting pattern.
An apparatus for ripsawing a cant simultaneously along at least two parallel, spaced-apart lines, said apparatus comprising:
- a central control apparatus;
- an optical scanning table;
- means for feeding individual cants to the optical scanning table as directed by the central control apparatus;
- means for advancing the individual cants along the optical scanning table;
- means for optically scanning the individual cants as they are advanced along the optical scanning table and for transmitting a signal representative of the cant profile to the central control apparatus;
- a saw table;
- means for orienting the individual cants and transferring them to the saw table, after they have been optically scanned, as directed by the central control apparatus in response to the profile signal;
- means for clamping the cant to the saw table;
- at least two circular saws mounted above the saw table and capable of simultaneously sawing along parallel, spaced-apart lines, the distance between the lines determined by the central control apparatus in response to the profile signal;
- and
- means for removing individual cants from the saw table.
A method for ripcutting an elongate cant simultaneously along at least two parallel, spaced-apart lines to remove the wane edges thereof and leave an optimum remaining board area, said method comprising:
- advancing the cant transversely along a path;
- optically scanning the cant at a first location along the path to determine the profile of both wane edges;
- determining the location of parallel lines which will yield the optimum board area free of the wane edges;
- and
- cutting the cant simultaneously along each line while said cant is held firmly in place at a second location along the path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.