Method and apparatus for making expanded wood veneer products

An apparatus for incising wood veneer sheets to produce cross grain expansion of the sheets, said apparatus comprising:

• (a) first and second opposed platen;
• (b) a plurality of incising blades mounted on one of said platen and projecting toward the other of said platen, said blades being arranged in a preset pattern, with the blades in one portion of said platen having a longer axial dimension than the blades on adjacent portions of said platen flanking said one portion;
• (c) the other of said platen having a plurality of recesses for telescopingly receiving said incising blades;
• and
• (d) ram means for moving one of said platen toward the other whereby said incising blades will form a predetermined pattern of through incisions in a wood veneer sheet positioned between said platen, and said incising blades will enter said recesses.

An apparatus for incising wood veneer sheets to produce cross grain expansion of said sheets, said apparatus comprising:

• (a) an elongated first platen having an array of blades projecting therefrom, said blades being aligned generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of said first platen, with the projecting length of the blades progressively decreasing with the respective distances of said blades from the longitudinal axis of said first platen;
• (b) a second platen having an array of recesses conforming to said array of blades for telescopingly receiving said blades;
• (c) ram means for moving one of said platens toward the other said platens;
• and
• (d) means for heating said apparatus, whereby when said sheet is placed on said second platen with the grain thereof aligned generally parallel to the recesses, movement of said platens toward one another by said ram means causes said blades to progressively incise and expand said sheet in the cross grain direction, and whereby the means for heating said sheet in its expanded condition.

A method for forming an expanded sheet of wood veneer, said method comprising the steps of:

• providing a sheet of green wood veneer;
• providing a first platen having a plurality of substantially parallel knife blades extending from one surface thereof;
• providing a second platen having a plurality of substantially parallel slots extending into one surface thereof, said slots being dimensioned and located to receive said blades when said platens are moved toward one another;
• placing said sheet of green wood veneer on said second platen such that the grain of said sheet is aligned generally parallel to said slots;
• moving said first platen toward the second platen such that said knife blades pass through said sheet and into the slots a sufficient distance to cause said first platen to be in face-to-face contact with said sheet, said knife blades passing through said sheet progressively in the cross grain direction from the longitudinal axis of said veneer towards the opposite edges thereof, such that said sheet is free to expand in the cross grain direction until substantially the entirety of said veneer has been incised;
• applying heat to said first and second platens to dry said sheet;
• separating said first platen from said sheet;
• and
• removing said sheet from said second platen.