US 5,685,410 AGranted

Infeed conveyor system

AssigneeU.S. Natural Resources, Inc.

InventorsEdward W. Ritola, Petri Saastamo, Lloyd Booth

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Abstract

A conveyor system incorporating conveyors operating in conjunction for conveying, arranging, positioning and placing boards for feeding boards in an end to end arrangement to a processing station. The system includes a descrambler for feeding boards sequentially in a crosswise orientation onto a lug type conveyor. The lugs of the lug type conveyor conveys the boards through a scanner where the boards are scanned and the data input to a computer. A speed up conveyor cooperates with the lug conveyor to advance the board against a preceding lug of the lug conveyor which restrains the board. A board turner is provided to turn the board over if required. The speed up conveyor conveys the board onto a positioning conveyor and advances the board against a lug which retains the board in a determined position. Positioning pins advance the board onto a longitudinal conveyor which conveys the boards along their longitudinal length. The conveyors are cooperatively arranged to minimize the spacing between boards placed on the longitudinal conveyor.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A conveyor system comprising:

a lateral lumber piece conveyor conveying lumber pieces oriented laterally on the conveyor and in a direction from one end of the conveyor to a second end of the conveyor;
a lengthwise lumber piece conveyor positioned at said second end of the lateral lumber piece conveyor and receiving said lumber pieces oriented longitudinally on the conveyor and conveying the lumber pieces in a direction substantially normal to the direction of conveyance of the lateral lumber piece conveyor;
a transfer mechanism transferring the lumber pieces from said lateral lumber piece conveyor to said lengthwise lumber piece conveyor comprising:
(a) movable positioning lugs selectively positioned in the path of the lumber pieces at the second end of the lateral lumber piece conveyor and selectively holding the lumber pieces until movement thereof onto the lengthwise lumber piece conveyor is desired;
(b) movable placement pins movable between a position behind the lumber pieces held by the movable positioning lug, toward the lengthwise lumber piece conveyor and behind a subsequent lumber piece;
and
(c) a control controlling the positioning lugs and placement pins for positioning each lumber piece in sequence at a desired position short of the lengthwise lumber piece conveyor and for releasing and accelerating the lumber pieces onto the lengthwise lumber piece conveyor as each previous lumber piece is moved by the lengthwise lumber piece conveyor out of the way of the subsequent lumber piece.

4 more elements

A conveyor system comprising:

a first endless conveyor receiving boards in a crosswise orientation at one end and including lugs for engaging and moving the boards along a conveyor path toward an opposite end;
a second endless conveyor joining the first endless conveyor and engaging said boards by friction engagement, said second endless conveyor running faster than said first endless conveyor and moving said boards relative to said first conveyor to the preceding lug on said first conveyor where the board movement is controlled by said first conveyor restraining the movement of the boards;
and
a computer controlling operation of the conveyors.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.