Method and apparatus for automated stacking of sheet material bundles
AssigneeFirestone Building Products Company, LLC
InventorBruce Foster Douglas
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for preparing a bundle of sheet material for transport. The automated apparatus includes a cutting assembly for cutting slats, or spacers, from scrap sheet material, a pick and place assembly for positioning and securing the slats to the underside of a bundle, and a stacking assembly for stacking bundles prior to removal for shipping or storage. The slats, once cut, are automatically placed in guide channels and then positioned beneath the bundle while glue is applied thereto. The glued edges are then automatically pressed against the bundle to secure the slats to the bundle, thereby creating space beneath the bundle to allow a forklift to manipulate the bundles.
Claims18
An automated process of preparing a bundle of sheet material for transport comprising:
- automatically cutting a plurality of slats from a continuously fed piece of material;
- automatically moving at least two of said slats into respective spaced apart guide channels;
- automatically applying glue to each said slat in each said guide channel;
- automatically positioning said slats into aligned pop-up channels under a bundle of sheet material;
- automatically pressing by said pop-up channels the glued surface of each said slat against the bottom of the bundle.
An automated method of preparing stacked sheet material for transport comprising:
- providing pieces of a material, wherein said pieces are any thickness within a predetermined range of thicknesses;
- providing a bundle of stacked sheet material;
- automatically cutting slats from said pieces of a material, wherein said pieces of a material are cut to substantially the same width;
- automatically rotating and placing the cut slats into one of a plurality of guide channels;
- automatically applying glue to an edge of the slats;
- automatically positioning the slats under the bundle from said plurality of guide channels;
- and
- automatically pressing the glued edge of the slat against the bottom of the bundle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.