Surface finishing apparatus
AssigneeVoorwood Company
InventorsTheodore Voorhees, William W. Bollinger, Paul L. McDowell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A surface finishing apparatus for finishing the edge surfaces of fiberboards or like substrates. A pair of axially convergent drive wheels impart rotational and radial motion to a board and pushes the board against a foiling head or other surface finishing hardware. The foiling wheel is pushed by a pneumatic cylinder towards the board. An air clamp holds the board down against the drive wheels during operation. A speed indexer computer controls the rotation of the axially convergent drive wheels in inverse relationship to the rotational speed of the foiling head. In an alternative embodiment, a pair of angled hold-down wheels are used to hold the board against the drive wheels.
Claims13
A surface finishing apparatus, comprising:
- (a) a pair of axially convergent drive wheels;
- (b) hold-down means for holding a workpiece against said drive wheels;
- (c) means for finishing the surfaces of a workpiece;
- (d) means for adjusting the angle of the rotational axes of said drive wheels relative to each other;
- and
- (e) speed follower means for controlling the rotational speed of said drive wheels in response to the operating speed of said surface finishing means.
A speed follower for use with a surface finishing machine having a drive assembly and a surface finishing assembly, said speed follower comprising:
- (a) a feed indexer, said feed indexer interfaced with said drive assembly;
- and
- (b) means for sensing the operating speed of said surface finishing assembly, said sensing means interfaced with said feed indexer;
- (c) said feed indexer including means for controlling the operating speed of said drive assembly in response to sensed changes in said operating speed of said surface finishing assembly;
- (d) wherein said feed indexer includes open control programming, said programming performing the operation of calculating said operating speed for said drive assembly in response to said sensed operating speed of said surface finishing assembly, said operating speed for said drive assembly inversely related to said sensed operating speed of said surface finishing assembly.
A speed follower for use with a surface finishing machine having a drive assembly and a surface finishing assembly, said speed follower comprising:
- (a) a feed indexer, said feed indexer interfaced with said drive assembly;
- and
- (b) means for sensing the operating speed of said surface finishing assembly, said sensing means interfaced with said feed indexer, said sensing means comprising a high resolution rotational encoder positioned to monitor rotational movement of a rotating part associated with said surface finishing assembly;
- (c) said feed indexer including means for controlling the operating speed of said drive assembly in response to sensed changes in said operating speed of said surface finishing assembly.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.