US3673717A

US3673717A - Wood marking tags

Info

Publication number: US3673717A
Application number: US96573A
Authority: US
Inventors: Kajetan Latschbacher
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1967-04-20
Filing date: 1970-12-09
Publication date: 1972-07-04
Anticipated expiration: 1989-07-04
Also published as: DE1761200A1; DE1786608C2; YU31361B; CA938445A; AT289161B; DE1786608B1; DE1761200B2; AR211608A1; FR1577395A; DE1761200C3; CH499842A

Abstract

A wood-marking tag for wood identification purposes printed with or without markings thereon or punched therein, made of soft material, permitting its cutting without damage to the cutter means. The hardness of the tags is less than that of conventional saws made from steel alloys, to a degree avoiding dulling of the saw and optionally also permitting the punching of markings into said discs by means such as pliers and punchers. The material is preferably a glass-fiber reinforced plastic; preferably suitable for injection-molding. Optimum results are accomplished with plastics selected from the group consisting of 6-polyamide and ABS acylic nitrile-butadien-styrene-copolymers. The tag material in one embodiment is magnetically non-permeable, in another it includes metallic particles to make the tag magnetically permeable. The tag is equipped with projections applying it to the lumber such as for driving it into the lumber and/or for retaining the tag applied to the lumber thereon. In one embodiment, the retaining projections comprise retaining clips, optionally with claws. In various embodiments, the tag is provided with indentations in its outer edge, with apertures near its outer rim, with barbs at its outer edge; with tubular projections at at least one side thereof; optionally with barbs on the tubular projection and/or with corrugated projections, optionally provided with barbs. In other embodiments, the tag is separable into two parts having identical markings, by a weakened line of cohesion, or by a perforated line, optionally asymmetrically with one of the parts having the shape of a segment.

Description

United States Patent [151 3,673,717 Latschbacher July 4, 1972 54 WOOD MARKING TAGS FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS l I 999,376 10/1951 France ..40/22 [72] inventor: Kajetan Latschbacher, A 4484 Kronstorf 120, Austria Primary Examiner-Robert W. Michell Assistant Examiner-J. H. Wolff [22] Wed: 1970 Att0rneyOtto John Munz 211 Appl. No.: 96,573

[57] ABSTRACT Related Apphcauon Data A wood-marking tag for wood identification purposes printed [63] Continuation-impart of Ser. No. 722,609, April 19, with or without markings thereon or punched therein, made of 1968, abandoned. soft material, permitting its cutting without damage to the cutter means. The hardness of the tags is less than that of con- [30] Foreign Application Priority Data ventional saws made from steel alloys, to a degree avoiding dullin of the saw and 0 tionall also ermittin the unchin Apr l 20, 1967 Austr a ..3758 of magrkings into Said pdiscs mesns Such pfiers Apr l 20, 1967 Austr a punchers. The material is preferably a glass-fiber reinforced April 20, 1967 Austr a"... plastic; preferably suitable for injection-molding. Optimum NOV. 30, Austria results are accomplished with Plastics Selected from the g p consisting of o-polyamide and ABS acylic nitrile-butadien- [52] U.S.Cl ..40/2, 40/22 styrenwcopolymers' The tag material i one embodiment is [51] Int. Cl. ..G09f3/l2 magnetically nompermeable' in another it includes metallic [58] Field of Search ..40/2, 22; 85/DlG. 2, 13; particles to make the tag magnetically permeable. The tag is 287/2092 L equipped with projections applying it to the lumber such as for driving it into the lumber and/or for retaining the tag applied [56] References Cited to the lumber thereon.

UNITED STATES PATENTS In one embodiment, the retaining projections comprise retainin cli s, o tionall with claws. In various embodiments, the 1,593,522 7/1926 Woods ..40/22 X g is g g K indentations i i ut r edge, with aper- BI'OOkS tures near its outer with barbs at its outer g with tubu Sutin 2 projections at at least one Side thereof; optionally with 3240'869 3/1966 Jute" "85/13 barbs on the tubular projection and/or with corrugated projec- 512,468 [/1894 Grundy 40/2 E tions, optionally provided with barbs. In other embodiments, 178908 6/1876 Clark "40/22 the tag is separable into two parts having identical markings, 2,724,303 11/1955 Holcomb ..85/DIG. 2 by a weakened line of cohesion, or by 3 performed line, 109,430 4/1964 Latschbacher '227/113 tionally asymmetrically with one of the parts having the shape 2,666,201 l/1954 Van Orden 227/147 f segmem 2,936,454 5/1960 Lundeberg ..227/18 3,342,223 9/1967 Reid ..227/ 147 3,589,584 6/1971 Ohlsson et al ..22 7/ 10 10 Claims, 17 Drawing Figures P'A'TENTEDJUL "4 1912 3; 673 7 l 7 ig Fig M INVENTOR KAJETAN LATSCHBACHER 77 76 BY k7 x A ORNEY WOOD MARKING TAGS CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATES APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation-in-part application of the previously copending US. application Ser. No. 722,609, filed Apr. l9, 1968 and now abandoned. Priority of filing date is claimed on common subject matter of Austrian patent application A 3760/ 67 filed on Apr. 20, 1967, and A 10809/67 filed on Nov. 30, 1967.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The field of the art is defined in U. S. class definition of class 40, subclass 2, to be incorporated herein by reference.

2. Description of the Prior Art In the marking of timber, small tags or plates having bent edges or rims are affixed to the face end of a trunk by means of a hammer. The tendency is toward using larger, more visible plates.

Plates made of metal such as hot galvanized sheet iron, must be removed before the wood can be processed because they would damage the sawing and milling tools. They also rust and the rust defaces the markings. The removal of the plates takes so much time that this practice is no longer acceptable, particularly in fully automatic sawmills.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The subject matter of the present invention relates to plates which are made from a soft material, such as plastic, and which may therefore remain on the timber during processing. Optionally, powdered magnetically permeable material is either admixed with the plastic mixture to form the tag or sprayed thereon in an amount only sufficient to make the plate attracted by a magnetic hammer without however damaging the saw.

To retain magnetically non-permeable plates on the hammer before the plates are driven, such plates may be provided on their top face with retaining clips or claws, which are preferably struck out from the plate material. Barbs for preventing a separation from the wood may be provided on the inside of the plate.

Another feature of the invention is to provide the plate on its underside with small projecting tubes, which optionally may be provided with barbs. Notches may be provided in the edge of the plate on both sides of the tubes.

The plates may also have apertures which form passages for claws which are provided on a stacking magazine and which serve to retain and release the plate.

The plates may have corrugated extensions, which are preferably provided with barbs.

According to another feature of the invention, the flanged plates are sub-divided into two portions by a line of weakening so that a preferably segment-shaped part of the plate can be severed for a check, the severable part being provided with the same number or other marking as the part remaining on the wood. Markings such as of consecutive numbers and of the origin of the wood may be impressed or otherwise provided on the plates. There may be some difficulty as regards the grading characteristics of the tree trunk which are not ascertained until shortly before the driving of the plate but are to be indicated on the tree trunk. For this purpose, it was previously required to provide the tree trunks with grade markings of chalk or paint or to drive color plates into the tree trunk. To eliminate the need for a separate worker performing this operation, the invention provides also a process which enables an indication of the grading characteristics on the respective plate immediately before it is driven. According to the invention, this is accomplished by punching these characteristics into the flanged disc or plate, such as in the form of a circular, triangular or other shape aperture, with the aid of punch pliers. Combinations of these apertures may be used to in dicate various characteristics.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Embodiments of the invention are shown by way of example on the drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a plate in accordance with the invention;

FIG. la is an enlarged view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of FIGS. 1 and 3;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view similar to that of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of FIG. 5;

FIG. 5 is another sectional viewv similar to that of FIGS. 1 and 3;

FIG. 6 shows a fourth embodiment in a sectional view taken along different lines on the left and right of FIG. 7;

FIG. 7 is a top plan view of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a bottom view of FIG. 6;

FIGS. 9 and 10 are sectional views taken on lines A and B; respectively, in FIG. 7;

FIGS. 11 and 12 are respectively a longitudinal sectional view and a bottom view showing a fifth embodiment;

FIGS. 13 and 14, and FIGS. 15 and 16 show additional embodiments of plates in top, plan view and sectional view, respectively.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 to 10 the plate 51 which is preferably made of plastic material is in each case provided with two holes 52 and a flange 53, which has a recess 54, except in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3. The embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 have two mutually opposed claws 55. Two pairs of such claws are provided in the embodiment of FIGS. 4 and 5. These pairs of claws serve to secure plates of magnetically non-permeable material to a hammer which is used to drive the plates into the wood. The claws fit into corresponding apertures in the face of the hammer. In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 to 5, the flange 53 is provided with barbs 56 which prevent removal of the plate from the wood.

The plate 57 shown in FIGS. 6 to 10 is provided with four small tubular extensions 58, which have barbs 56 on their outside surfaces. Each tube is adjoined by a notch 59. A claw 60 is provided at each side of the plate.

The plate 75 shown in FIGS. 1 1 and 12 is provided on its underside with corrugated extensions 76, which have hookshaped spikes 77 and holes 78 by which they can be retained on a U-shaped tag stacking magazine.

If the plates are to be attracted by a hammer which has a magnetized head or is provided with a magnet in its face, metallic dust may be sprayed onto the surface of the plate. Such magnetically permeable platesdo not constitute an obstacle to the saw which cuts the wood, and the

claws

55 or 60 may then be omitted. Magnetically permeable metallic dust may alternatively be'admixed to the liquid plastic material before injection molding.

Plates shown in FIG. 13 and 14 are provided on their underside with extensions 96, which have barbs 97. These plates have holes 98 and a transverse line of weakening 99.

Like the plate 95, the plate shown in FIGS. 15 and 16 has holes 108 and extensions 106, which are provided with barbs 107. The plate 105 differs in form from the plate 95 in that it has a flattened contour. The plate 105 further includes grading marks 109 and 110, which are punched out of the plate by punch pliers immediately before the plate is driven into the wood. The extensions 106 do not obstruct the application of the plier jaws.

The material from which the tags are made is selected preferably among plastics to avoid damage to the cutters, which usually are sharp steel circular or crosscut saws running at high speeds; the plastics are chosen for their hardness which is smaller than that of the cutters. An inventive contribution in this respect is the discovery that -polyamide and ABS-acylic nitrile-butadien-styrene copolymers are ideally suitable for the purpose. The use of plastic resins, particularly of the abovementioned type also aids application of the marking when applied to the tags ,by punching in, presses or punching pliers, manually or mechanically, since these materials also have an excellent retention of the shapes imparted to them thereby, in any climate and weather conditions and do not rust. Their removal prior to sawing is not necessary. They may be injection-molded and magnetically permeable metallic dust may be admixed to them in a uniform distribution without undesirable reactions to molding. They accept readily fiberglass reinforcement, which can be problems. These materials also accept surface printing. Marked tags may be made from advancing continuous-strips of these materials byconventional mechanical mass production means. They can be printed by conventional printers and cut by conventional wood cutting machinery, without damage to the cutter.

In addition to the materials described above, the. following materials are also usable, but have various inadequacies: acrylics, primarily methyl-metacrylate; polystyrenes; polyvinyls; polyesters, phenolics, pressed celluloid; synthetic rubber and thin tags of softer metals, primarily of aluminum and of soft metal alloys. The prongsof the tags made from these materials also must have stiffness permitting their penetration and anchorage in the wood to be marked.

Instead of aluminum,,an aluminum chrome alloy for the purposes of thisinvention has proved to have better characteristics of hardness.

The optimum proportions of 6-polyamide with fiberglass admixture were established with 35 percent of fiberglass.

A combination sandwich of a metal foil with a plastic lamina lies also within the scope of the invention.

I claim:

l. A wood-marking tag for permanent attachment to the end face of a log or the like by a magnetized tag-driving device, such as a magnetic tagging hammer and capable of incorporated without production,

being cut by wood processing machinery without blunting the latter, comprising;

a tag body formed of a material which is softer than any ferrous alloy, such as a plastic material; said tag body including a generally flat plate for identifying information; means for permanently anchoring the tag in the log to be marked, the anchoring means being capable of penetrating a distance into the log under the action of said tagdriving device;

a tag retaining means on the tag body for releasably retaining the tag on said tag-driving device;

said tag retaining means comprising magnetically permeable metallic dust, thereby rendering the tag magnetically attractable by said magnetized tag driving device.

2. A wood-marking tag as set forth in claim 1, wherein the tag anchoring means include anchoring protrusions in the form of wall portions depending substantially perpendicularly from the tag plate near the outer rim of the latter, the wall portions including barbs at their outer edges.

3. A wood-marking tag as set forth in claim 1, wherein the tag anchoring means include tubular projections extending prependicularly from the tag plate.

4. A wood marking tag as set forth in claim 3, in which the tubular projections are provided with barbs.

5. A wood-marking tag as set forth in claim 1, wherein the anchoring protrusions are in the'form of corrugated projections.

6. A wood-marking tag as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plate of the tag body comprises two plate portions separated by a substantially straight line of weakening along which one portion can be broken away from the tag body, the identifying information including identical markings on both plate portions, the tag anchoring means including anchoring protrusions on one of the two plate portions.

7. A wood'marking tag as set forth in claim 6, in which said line of weakness is a perforation line.

8. A wood-marking tag as set forth in claim 1, wherein at leasta portion of the tag plate is thin enough to permit the piercing thereof by punch pliers, so that identifying informa-' tion can be applied to the tag plate in the form of punch marks which are punched into the tag plate by means of the punch pliers.

9. A wood-marking tag as claimed in claim 1, said material being reinforced withfibers having a hardness greater than that of said material and less than that of cutting steel.

10. A wood-marking material as claimed in claim 1, said material comprising materials selected from the group consisting of 6-polyamide and ABS-acylic nitrile-butadien-styrenecopolymers.

Claims

1. A wood-marking tag for permanent attachment to the end face of a log or the like by a magnetized tag-driving device, such as a magnetic tagging hammer and capable of being cut by wood processing machinery without blunting the latter, comprising; a tag body formed of a material which is softer than any ferrous alloy, such as a plastic material; said tag body including a generally flat plate for identifying information; means for permanently anchoring the tag in the log to be marked, the anchoring means being capable of penetrating a distance into the log under the action of said tag-driving device; a tag retaining means on the tag body for releasably retaining the tag on said tag-driving device; said tag retaining means comprising magnetically permeable metallic dust, thereby rendering the tag magnetically attractable by said magnetized tag driving device.

5. A wood-marking tag as set forth in claim 1, wherein the anchoring protrusions are in the form of corrugated projections.

7. A wood-marking tag as set forth in claim 6, in which said line of weakness is a perforation line.

8. A wood-marking tag as set forth in claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the tag plate is thin enough to permit the piercing thereof by punch pliers, so that identifying information can be applied to the tag plate in the form of punch marks which are punched into the tag plate by means of the punch pliers.

9. A wood-marking tag as claimed in claim 1, said material being reinforced with fibers having a hardness greater than that of said material and less than that of cutting steel.

10. A wood-marking material as claimed in claim 1, said material comprising materials selected from the group consisting of 6-polyamide and ABS-acylic nitrile-butadien-styrene-copolymers.