Automatic adjustment of veneer lathe nose bar height relative to knife during peeling

Abstract

A veneer lathe apparatus and method are described in which the height of the nose bar roller relative to the knife is automatically adjusted during peeling by a computer control system. In addition, the two veneer exit gaps between the nose bar and the knife and between the nose bar and the knife backing member are automatically maintained substantially the same as or slightly greater than the veneer path width which is equal to the thickness of the veneer plus a clearance space of a predetermined amount. As a result the automatic control positions the nose bar as close as possible to the knife during peeling thereby greatly improving the quality of the veneer. The height of the nose bar is adjusted by moving a moveable wedge along a fixed wedge with a control cylinder in response to a computer generated control signal. A resilient hold-down device is employed for mounting the nose bar carriage to enable its horizontal movement and vertical movement with respect to the main carriages during peeling due to height adjustment and horizontal gap adjustment of the nose bar relative to the knife.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.