Apparatus for handling veneer sheets

Veneer handling apparatus having a feed conveyor for feeding a ribbon of wood veneer, a veneer clipper disposed adjacent one end of said apparatus for clipping said veneer ribbon continuously into cut sheets each having a predetermined size, a detector located upstream of said veneer clipper with respect to the movement of veneer ribbon in the apparatus for detecting any defect in said veneer ribbon, and a veneer stacker located adjacent the other end of said apparatus for stacking veneer sheets in a pile, said apparatus comprising:

• means disposed downstream of said veneer clipper for selectively distributing said cut veneer sheet;
• control means connected to said detector, clipper and distributing means, for judging whether or not each cut veneer sheet is sound having no defective portion in it and also for controlling the distribution of cut sheets by said distributing means according to the judgement by said control means;
• said control means being operable on said distributing means in such a way that those cut sheets which are judged as defective are sorted from those other sheets which are judged as sound and also that such sound veneer sheets are distributed selectively into two ways alternately by said distributing means;
• two layers of conveyors extending at vertically spaced intervals and converging at a position adjacent their downstream ends for receiving alternately one sound cut sheet at a time from said distributing means and for transferring such sheet toward said stacker, the conveyor of one layer being driven to move continuously, and the conveyor of the other layer having means for temporarily stopping a veneer sheet at a predetermined position on the conveyor of the other layer and then allowing the sheet to move again at such a controlled time that the sheet thus allowed to move is combined at said converging position with its succeeding sheet moving therebehind on the conveyor of the one layer into a pair with one sheet placed over the other.