GB2151979A - Face veneer manufacturing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus for automatically manufacturing veneer rolls, comprising a feed device (12) that can be driven to feed one sheet of veneer at a time, the feeding device including parallel units so as to enable the synchronous feeding of a number of dimensioned veneer sheets; a regulating device (4) located downflow of the feeding device (12) for lining up the veneer sheet; and a matching device (5) located downflow of the regulating device for matching the edges of the veneer sheets. The veneers that have been matched are carried forward to taping devices (9), (10) where they are bound with adhesive tapes and are subsequently passed through a drying device (11) to finally be rolled-up by a roller device (12). <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Face veneer manufacturing apparatus This invention relates to an apparatus for processing veneer and particularly to an apparatus capable of automatically manufacturing rolled-up face veneer.

Veneer can be produced by peeling, slicing, or sawing logs, bolts, or flitches. The slicing method provides vertical-grain or flat grain veneers, and can be modified to cut a wide variety of highly decorative veneers.

As is known in the field, the logs can be sliced into thin sheets, then be trimmed to uniform size, and in turn be glued together edgewise to create larger sheets with particular patterns. The process of the manufacture is completed by several independant steps, thus the current production is undesireably complicated and the efficiency not very satisfactory.

It is therefore the general object of this invention to provide an apparatus for the automatic manufacturing of continuous, rolled-up face veneer.

According to one aspect of this invention, the apparatus for processing the veneer piece into continuous rolled-up face veneers is comprised of: (1) a means of synchronously feeding a plurality dimensioned veneer pieces from storage; (2) means for lining up the veneers; (3) means for joining the edge of veneers fed at the same time to form a transversely contiguous piece of veneer viewed from the traveling direction of the veneers; (4) means for applying adhesive tape to one surface of the joined veneer; (5) a means for applying adhesive tape to the transverse adjoining edge; and (6) a means for reducing the moisture of the adhesive tape. All the above individual mechanisms are connected by conveyors which carry the material through the manufacturing path.

According to another aspect of the invention, the feeding means includes a press roller which can hold down the veneers not yet fed.

A further feature of preferred embodiments of this invention is the feeding means including a first vacuum sucker which intermittently exerts suction to the top sheet of the stacked veneers, and then draws that sheet veneer out of the holding of the press roller. A second vacuum sucker exerts suction on the lower surface of the veneers immediately preceding the taping mechanism to maintain them adherent on the conveyor so as to facilitate taping.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be more fully understood from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which; Figure 1 is a schematic view of an embodiment of the apparatus for automatically manufacturing rolled-up face veneer according to this invention; Figure 2 is a schematic top view showing the position of adjacent veneers at each of the manufacturing.

Referring now to the Figures, there is illustrated a preferred embodiment of the continuous rolledup veneer manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, which includes a series of processing stations. As is indicated at numeral 1, the veneers are piled into a stack., There are four stacks of veneer sheets which are respectively transversely aligned with one another on a delivery table 12. An one end of the stack, a press roller 23 is mounted to hold down the stacks of veneer. There are four sets of vacuum suckers 3 respectively mounted above the four stacks for applying suction to the top sheet of the stack of veneers so that the top sheet can be drawn out of the holding of the press roller 23 and can be removed from the remaining veneers.It should be noted that the top sheets of the four stacks 1 are synchronuously delivered and carried down through a chute 14 to the first feeding rolls 21, at which point they are carried to the conveyor 41 that terminates in the second feeding rolls 31.

Due to the self-raising function of the delivery table 12, the top sheet veneer will always be in contact with the press roller 23 and will be held down thereby. The self-raising function can be accomplished by any conventional elastic means, such as a spring, mounted under the table 12.

The four sheets or the desired number of sheets are carried forward at the same speed. However, veneer offset or overlapping still may occur, therefore, equipment for lining up the veneers is necessary in order to adjust the direction of each veneer sheet. In this preferred embodiment, this function is achieved by the regulating mechanism 4 consisting of guiding plates 45 which are interposed between every two juxtaposed veneers travelling paths of veneer sheets.

Through the second feeding rolls 31, the veneers are received by an edge joining device 5 provided on an endless cycle belt 51. The joining device 5 draws the juxtaposed veneers into close contact.

The feeding operation is effected automatically and continuously, with the speed being adjustable so that the veneers can travel in sequence with no spacing between every two successive veneers.

Hence, the successive veneers will be joined into a continuous piece with a width four times that of the single veneer after travelling through the joining device.

The second vacuum sucker 6 provided at the end of the belt conveyor 51 is capable of exerting a suction on the joined veneer immediately traveling thereon, thus making the veneer adhere to the belt so that it may be carried to the next station without displacement.

After joining, the longitudinally and tranversely aligned veneers should have been bound into a continuous piece without separation. This step is carried out by the applicator rolls 9 which includes an upper roll 91 and a lower roll 92. Each of these two rolls has a peripheral surface that constitutes a carrier surface and travels at a given speed in a direction contrary to the direction of the belt conveyor 51. In this embodiment, the adhesive tape roll is carried on the lower roll 92. The veneer adheres to the tape immediateiy when passing through the applicator rolls 9 while pressed at the same time by the two rolls 91, 92 so that an exact binding with respect to the tape and veneer will be achieved. The joined veneer thus is received as a bound piece when leaving the rolls 9.

A roller device 7 is provided for detaching the release paper from the back side of the adhesive tape and supplying the adhesive tape to the applicator rolls 9. At the same time, the release paper already detached can be gathered by an additional roller 8.

The next procedure involves taping the adjacent edge of each two juxtaposed veneers. This is carried out by a transverse taping device 10 which can apply an adhesive tapeover the adjacent edges at an interval adjustable to the speed of the travelling veneer.

The station after the transverse taping device is a drying device 11, which embodies therein a pair of heating rolls 101, 102. When the veneer passes through the heating rolls 101, 102, the moisture contained in the tapes can be removed through evaporation caused by an elevated temperature.

As shown in Figure 1, the continuous veneer sheet is guided upwardly to be carried on the upper roll 101, then transferring from the lower surface of the upper roll 101 to the lower roll 102; thus the travelling veneer sheet follows an S path, thereby increasing the area of drying surface.

Through the drying device, the finished face veneer then is drawn to a roller 112 which rolls up the veneer to make the product take the form of a roll.

As stated above, the manufacturing stations in the apparatus of this invention are all built upon endless cycle conveyor belts 41, 51, 71 which link the processing means in such a way that the manufacturing is automatic, thereby lowering the cost of manpower considerably.

Claims (4)

1. An apparatus for continuously manufacturing a face veneer roll, comprising; means for feeding veneer sheet, including a plurality of units for synchronously feeding a corresponding number of veneer sheets; means for conveying said veneers over the path of manufacturing; means for lining up said veneer sheet received from said feeding means; means for matching the veneer sheets edgewise that have already been lined up to form a contiguous piece of veneer; means for applying adhesive tape over one side of the matched veneers; means for applying a transverse adhesive tape on the transverse seams of said matched veneers in the other side; and drying means for reducing the moisture of said adhesive tapes already applied on said matched veneers.

2. An apparatus for continuously manufacturing the face veneer roll as claimed in claim 1, wherein said piurality of units of the feeding means each include a press roller for holding down a veneer stack thereunder.

3. An apparatus for continuously manufacturing the face veneer roll as claimed in claim 2, wherein said feeding means includes a vacuum sucker, located in front of said press roller, which intermittently exerts a suction on the top sheet of said veneer stack to draw it out of the stack held by the press roller and carry it to a feeding roller.

4. Face veneer manufacturing apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.