Pre-cut infeed system
AssigneeUsnr, LLC
InventorPetri Saastamo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Embodiments provide a pre-cut infeed system for a machine center, such as an edger. A pre-cut infeed system may include an infeed, one or more saws arranged along the infeed, and a scanner optimizer system. The scanner optimizer system may scan a workpiece and determine whether greater value can be obtained from the workpiece by cutting the workpiece transversely into two or more pieces upstream of the machine center. If so, the workpiece may be cut transversely by the saw(s) positioned along the infeed, and the cut pieces may be fed sequentially into the machine center.
Claims19
A method of modifying a board edger system having an infeed and an edger downstream of the infeed, the method comprising:
- installing along the infeed at least one cutting device configured to cut a workpiece transversely into at least two pieces upstream of the edger;
- providing downstream of the cutting device a workpiece lift system selectively operable to move the pieces asynchronously onto an outfeed upstream of the edger;
- and
- operatively coupling the workpiece lift system with a computer system programmed with instructions operable, upon execution, to
- determine, based at least on scan data that corresponds to the workpiece, a first cut pattern for the workpiece that defines one or more transverse cut lines to be cut in the workpiece by the at least one cutting device to thereby obtain a first piece and a second piece, and
- control the workpiece lift system to move the first and second pieces asynchronously onto the outfeed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.