WO2005095070A1

WO2005095070A1 - Mobile lumber mill for sawing tree trunks in situ

Info

Publication number: WO2005095070A1
Application number: PCT/CH2005/000186
Authority: WO
Inventors: Pierre Messerli
Original assignee: Pierre Messerli
Priority date: 2004-03-31
Filing date: 2005-03-31
Publication date: 2005-10-13
Also published as: EP1732741A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a mobile lumber mill, comprising a frame of four vertical struts (1), for erection at the four corners of a rectangle, of which each two on the narrow side of the rectangle are detachably connected by means of two transverse struts (4). The frame further comprises a longitudinal cross-piece (7), for the detachable connection of the vertical struts (1) on one side of the broad side of the rectangle. A carriage (3) may be run along the longitudinal cross-piece (7), supporting a power saw (16). At least three wedges (2), perpendicular to the broad side of the rectangle, serve for the positioning of a tree trunk (5) for machining.

Description

Mobile sawmill for sawing tree trunks on site

This invention relates to a mobile sawmill for sawing logs on site, that is, near where the trees are felled. Previously known mobile sawmills are mostly built on a trailer and are relatively cumbersome. The tree trunks must be hoisted onto the trailer, which requires a crane, a hoist or a suitable hoist. The sawmills set up on trailers need to be brought in and set up over a sufficiently large, flat surface. In the forest, a suitable place must first be provided for this, which is level, sufficiently large and to which access is possible with a vehicle with a trailer. Sometimes a piece of forest has to be cleared first. The clearing as well as the actual relocation and the setting up and operation of such a sawmill on a vehicle or trailer require official approval.

The object of the present invention is to provide a sawmill which eliminates these disadvantages. This sawmill should be quick and easy to set up on site by two men. The access to the sawmill should be easy and the individual parts should be so light and small that they can be brought into pathless areas without any problems, for which a quad as a transport vehicle, on which the parts can be loaded, should be sufficient. If necessary, the mobile sawmill can also be brought to the site by a helicopter. This object is achieved by a mobile sawmill consisting of a frame consisting of four vertical supports to be erected at the four corner points of a rectangle, each of which the two are releasably connected to the narrow sides of the rectangle by means of two cross members, and a longitudinal cross member for releasable connection the vertical supports on one side of the broad side of the rectangle, and a carriage with a chainsaw running along the longitudinal cross member, and at least three wedges lying transversely to the broad side of the rectangle for positioning a tree trunk to be processed.

The figures show an example embodiment of this sawmill and this is described below with reference to these figures and its function is explained.

It shows:

Figure 1: The sawmill with a log, ready for sawing;

Figure 2: The sawmill with pairs of rollers and lever mechanisms for lifting and positioning a log.

The sawmill consists of the following parts, which are visible in Figure 1: There are first four vertical supports 1, which consist of steel tubes. They are placed so that they are on the corner points of a rectangle lying on the floor. Two vertical supports 1 on the narrow side of this rectangle are connected to one another via two cross members 4. In the example shown, each cross-member 4 consists of two profiles or tubes 10, 11 which run parallel to one another and are connected to one another via webs 12, and at the ends of these tubes or profiles 10, 11 each carry a sleeve 8. With these sleeves 8, the two cross-members 4 can be placed over the vertical supports 1, the sleeves 8 being guided on the tubes of the vertical supports 1. A longitudinal cross member 7 is constructed in the same way, that is, it also consists of two profiles or tubes running parallel to one another 13, 14, which are connected to one another via webs 15 and at the ends of which a sleeve 9 is attached.

The sawmill is set up by first defining the rectangle on the floor, ie where the vertical supports 1 are to come to be. Then a crossbar 4 is placed on the floor and a vertical support 1 is inserted into the end sleeves 8. Then one end of the longitudinal cross member 7 with its sleeves 9 is slipped over the one vertical support 1 and afterwards the lower cross member 4 is positioned there at the other end of the longitudinal cross member 7 and the two associated vertical supports 1 are inserted through their sleeves 8. Now the longitudinal cross member 7 is inserted with its sleeves 9 over the corresponding vertical support 1 at the end there. This creates a frame that is pretty stable. Next, the upper cross members 4 are placed over the vertical supports 1 and secured in the upper region of the vertical supports 1. For this purpose, screws can be used, which are guided through the sleeves 8, or split pins, which can be inserted into a series of transverse holes in the vertical supports 1. This forms a U-shaped frame seen from above, which is stabilized on all sides. A carriage 3 is now placed on the longitudinal cross member 7 and can be displaced along this longitudinal cross member 7. It can be roller-mounted or slide-mounted on the longitudinal cross member 7. This carriage 3 carries a chainsaw that can make a horizontal cut. The chain saw can be a chainsaw 16 with a gasoline engine, or a circular saw with a circular toothed saw blade or a band saw with an endlessly toothed metal band as a saw blade. The carriage can be moved back and forth on the longitudinal beam 7 via a separate drive and then has a limit switch on both sides, so that the drive is stopped when the carriage 3 arrives at the end of the longitudinal beam 7. In a simpler embodiment, the carriage 3 can also be pushed back and forth along the longitudinal cross member 7 by hand with the chainsaw 16.

In the free space of the U-shaped, seen from above, standing on a rectangle frame from the free side of the U's three wooden wedges 2 are placed on the floor. The sawmill is now ready for operation. The floor on which this sawmill is installed does not even have to run horizontally. The frame of the sawmill, i.e. the actual machine, hardly needs much more space on the floor than the tree trunk to be sawn. However, the frame is dimensioned such that it is about half a meter longer than the tree trunks to be treated, so that they can be sawn cleanly from the front sides, that is to say that there is enough space to use the saw 16 on the front side of the tree trunk 5 to be cut.

To operate the sawmill, a log 5 is rolled on the wedges 2 into the interior of the frame and then secured on the wedges 2 with counter wedges. It only has to be aligned with the longitudinal cross member 7, that is, parallelism with the longitudinal cross member 7 must be adjusted with respect to its horizontal and vertical direction of travel. This can be easily achieved by positioning the wedges 2 beforehand. Readjustment can be carried out by slightly moving the wedges 2. The logs can be rolled onto the wedges 2 by wrapping a rope around them, which then leads from the top of the log 5 to the sawmill. If this rope is then pulled, the building trunk 5 is pulled against the sawmill while rolling on the wedges 2 and rolls onto the wedges 2. It is then secured against rolling down by means of counter wedges and subsequently fine-adjusted so that it runs in the correct direction with respect to the longitudinal cross member 7. The longitudinal cross member 7 in turn can be moved up and down in height along the vertical supports 1. Instead of bare wedges, pairs of rollers 21 can also be used on bearing blocks, as shown in FIG. 2, so that the trunk to be sawed rests on these pairs of rollers 21 and can be easily rotated thereon. The pedestals can be designed so that they can be individually and continuously adjusted in height by means of a hydraulic lifting device 23 in the manner of a jack. A single tree trunk can then be rolled onto these pairs of rollers 21 by means of the wedges which have been pushed back somewhat. As an alternative, two lever mechanisms 22 can also be used, which function in the manner of a children's swing. The levers are then pushed with the end of their load arm from the side under the tree trunk and the power arm is depressed, whereby the tree trunk is raised and lifted onto the two pairs of rollers 21, after which the height is adjusted with the same. As soon as the tree trunk 5 and the longitudinal cross member 7 are correctly set, the cut can be made by starting the saw 16 and then the cut is made from one front side of the trunk 5 by driving the trolley 3 along the longitudinal cross member 7 becomes. For a next cut, the tree trunk 5 can be rotated further and can be raised and readjusted by rolling off the wedges 2 and repositioning the wedges 2.

If the sawmill is designed for particularly long logs 5, an intermediate support 6 or multiple intermediate supports 6 can be provided, as can be seen in the figure. Such an intermediate support 6 consists of two vertical supports 20, the one (not visible here) being quite short. The other vertical support 20 is visible here. These vertical supports 20 serve to stabilize a cross-member 19 which is guided on the vertical supports 20 by means of the sleeves 17. A support arm is welded to a further, height-adjustable sleeve 18, and this then carries the longitudinal cross member 7 there and gives it additional support if it is particularly long. The longitudinal cross member 7 can also consist of several sections which can be assembled. A sawmill constructed in this way can therefore be used for logs of any length.

[0010] This sawmill is extremely easy to transport. It consists only of handy, light parts. These can all be easily transported by quad, i.e. a four-wheel drive small vehicle, so that no paths or roads to the sawing station are necessary. If necessary, the sawmill can also be carried by people or pack animals and can also be moved to places that are not easily accessible. Transporting the individual parts by helicopter is not a problem and we can do it with a small helicopter. Once on site, the sawmill is set up and ready for operation within a few minutes and can be operated by two workers.

Claims

claims

1.Mobile sawmill, consisting of a frame consisting of four vertical supports (1) to be erected at the four corner points of a rectangle, of which the two are detachably connected on the narrow sides of the rectangle by means of two crossbeams (4), as well as a longitudinal cross member (7) Detachable connection of the vertical supports (1) on one side of the broad side of the rectangle, and a carriage (3) guided along the longitudinal cross member (7) with a chainsaw (16), and at least three wedges (2) lying transversely to the broad side of the rectangle for positioning one tree trunk to be processed (5).

2. Mobile sawmill according to claim 1, characterized in that the crossbeams (4) consist of two mutually parallel profiles or tubes (10, 11) which are connected to one another via webs (12) and have sleeves (8) at their ends into which the vertical supports (1) can be inserted.

3. Mobile sawmill according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the longitudinal cross member (7) consists of two mutually parallel profiles or tubes (13, 14) which are connected to one another via webs (15) and have sleeves (9 ) into which the vertical supports (1) can be inserted.

4. Mobile sawmill according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the carriage (3) with the chainsaw (16) on the longitudinal cross member (7) is roller-mounted.

5. Mobile sawmill according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the carriage (3) with the chain saw (16) on the longitudinal cross member (7) is slidably mounted.

6. Mobile sawmill according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the carriage (3) with the chainsaw (16) on the longitudinal cross member (7) is motor-driven and is equipped with limit switches to stop the drive when reaching the End of the longitudinal beam (7).

7. Mobile sawmill according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the longitudinal crossmember (7) is supported by one or more intermediate supports (6), each of two vertical supports (20), a crossbar (19) and one on the longer vertical support (20) consist of a sleeve (18) height-adjustable support arm.

8. Mobile sawmill according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the chain saw (16) is a gasoline engine chainsaw, a motor-driven circular saw or a motor-driven band saw.

9. Mobile sawmill according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that inside the frame two pairs of rollers (21) are arranged on hydraulically height-adjustable bearing blocks in the manner of a jack (23) for carrying, positioning in height and turning a tree trunk to be sawn ,

10. Mobile sawmill according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it includes two lever mechanisms (22) in the manner of children's swings, for lifting and sawing tree trunk onto the pairs of rollers (21) on the bearing blocks.