Wood veneer strips are butt joined end-to-end for assembly of an indefinite length strip or sheet suitable for reeling. The splicing apparatus clamps the veneer strip ends to be joined in longitudinal planar alignment for trimming by two spaced shear knives having parallel cutting planes. Following the shear cut, a reciprocating carriage for one bed knife to which one veneer strip is clamped is withdrawn from the corresponding cutting plane to permit movement of all shear knife structure from between the carriage and the other, fixed position bed knife without retracting the shear knife edges back past the bed knife edges. The reciprocating carriage is then moved along with its corresponding bed knife and clamped veneer strip into abutment with the fixed position bed knife and respective strip edge where lap splice material is laid across the joint and cured in place under heat and pressure.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field Of The Invention 
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for joining the ends 
of wood veneer strips. 
2. Background Of The Invention 
The objective of wood veneering includes the lamination of a thin slice of 
expensive, furniture grade wood to the face of a structural substrate to 
obtain the esthetic grain and texture surface qualities of the expensive 
wood. Such veneer slices may be as thin as 0.010 inch, in random widths up 
to 24 inches and 8 to 10 feet long. 
Width and length limitations on veneer slices are dictated by the 
characteristics of the tree from which the veneer wood is derived. 
Preferred veneer wood tree species rarely have continuously straight trunk 
sections in excess of 10 feet. Curved portions of a trunk, knots and limb 
sections are unsuitable for veneer shaving. 
As classically applied by individual craftsmen, veneer length limitations 
created little difficulty since the veneer surface was not relied upon for 
structural integrity and the substrate provided a suitable surface against 
which adjacent strips may be butt or finger joined. 
In recent years, veneer usage has been applied to articles of high 
production volume thereby requiring continuous or semi-continuous material 
supply lines. Responsively, veneer strips are lap spliced together with 
fiberglass scrim and hot-melt adhesive to produce continuous length sheets 
or tapes of any desired length which are reeled for shipment, marketing 
and use. 
For a quality product of continuous length veneer, the adjoining edges of 
adjacent strips must exactly match along the common joint line. 
The prior art technique for obtaining such exact joint matches has been to 
lap the ends of two veneer lengths over the cutting edge of a bed knife to 
cut both edges with the same stroke of the same shear knife. 
This technique has proven less than satisfactory due to splintering and 
pulling of the lapped edges during the shear stroke. 
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to disclose a method 
and apparatus capable of shearing the ends of separate veneer strips along 
a precisely matching butt line. 
Another object of the present invention is to disclose a machine that 
shears and joins the butt ends of two veneer strips under positive 
position control. 
SUMMARY 
These and other objects of the invention are accomplished by a machine 
having two, parallel shear knives and respective bed knives for 
simultaneously cutting respective veneer strip edges with a single shear 
stroke. Veneer material clamps are associated with two table surfaces on 
opposite sides of the shear knife cutting planes for firmly securing the 
position of the veneer strips during the shear stroke. One bed knife and 
corresponding clamp is laterally movable to and from the respective shear 
knife plane. Following the shear stroke, the shear knife assembly 
continues to travel below the table level to permit closure of the 
reciprocating bed knife against the fixed bed knife thereby butting the 
respectively sheared veneer edges together. While in abutment, adhesive 
and lap splice material are applied across the butt joint and cured in 
place under a heated pressure plate which swings in the shear plane 
against the joint.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Viewing the overall layout of the invention from FIGS. 1 and 2, the 
operative elements are positionally secured within an open space frame 10 
having table surfaces 11a, 11b and back-fence sections 12a, 12b. In the 
proximity of the shear plane and parallel therewith is a frame bracket 13 
(FIG. 3). 
Coplanar with the top of righthand table surface 11a on the right side of 
the righthand shear plane is a fixed bed knife 14. The cutting edge of 
fixed bed knife 14 defines the righthand shear plane. 
Between the righthand edge of the left table surface 11b and the righthand 
shear plane is a space within which the reciprocating bed knife 21 is 
disposed to shuttle between abutment with the shear plane edge of the 
fixed plane knife 14 and the righthand edge of left table surface 11b. 
Reciprocating bed knife 21 is secured to a shuttle carriage 20 having front 
and back roller plates 22. Four rollers 23 on each plate 22 ride the top 
and bottom surfaces of front and back guide bars 24. Driving the carriage 
20 between the two extreme positions is an appropriate reversible linear 
motor 25 such as a double-acting hydraulic piston/cylinder. 
Also secured to the shuttle carriage 20 on the backside thereof is a hinge 
bracket 28 which pivots a T-bar clamp 29. Engagement of the T-bar clamp 29 
against the face of a veneer strip on table surface of bed knife 21 is 
controlled by a reversible linear motor such as double-acting hydraulic 
piston/cylinder 30. The reaction end of piston/cylinder 30 is secured to a 
hinge bracket 31 mounted on the front side of shuttle carriage 20. 
T-bar clamp 35 serves the righthand table surface 11a. The back end of 
clamp 35 is hinged to bracket 36 and the front end is controlled by 
reversible linear motor 37 pivoted from hinge bracket 38. Both hinge 
brackets 36 and 38 are secured to frame 10. 
As best seen in FIG. 3, shear plate 40 is mounted for vertical plane 
translation by top and bottom link bars 41 and 42. Translation force is 
provided by reversible linear motor 43 which drives the shear plate 40 
between the upper and lower limit positions illustrated by FIGS. 5 and 4 
respectively. 
Within the front and back edges of shear plate 40 are guide slots 44 and 
45. Loosely positioned through the guide slots 44 and 45 are spacer 
buttons 46 and 47. 
Secured to opposite faces of the shear plate 40 along the top edge thereof 
are right and left shear knives 50a and 50b. 
Extending laterally from the front edge of shear plate 40 is a cam plate 51 
to engage the follower arm 52 of limit switch 53 within a predetermined 
arc segment between the shear plate 40 translation limits. The switch 53 
and follower arm 52 are mounted directly to the frame 10. 
Hinged to the frame bracket 13 above the table surface is a swing arm 60 
which carries an electrically heated pressure plate 61 into parallel 
engagement with a veneer strip face positioned on the machine table 
surface. 
Driving the swing arm 60 between the engagement and retraction positions is 
a double-acting linear motor 62 which is hinged at its reaction end to the 
frame bracket 13. The rod end of the motor 62 is hinged to an over-center 
cam latch mechanism 63. As the motor 62 reaches the limit end of its 
out-stroke to position the swing arm down against the table 11, latch hook 
64 is pivoted to engage latch bar 65 which is secured to frame 10. Final 
extension of the motor 62 out-stroke wedges the hook 64 into complete 
engagement to multiply the end-load force of the swing arm 60 against the 
table 11. 
To release the latch and raise the swing arm 60, initial motor 62 in-stroke 
rotates the latch lever 66 about pivot pin 67 thereby shifting the 
position of eccentrically located, oversized wedge bore 69 in latch hook 
64 relative to the wedge journal 68 which extends through the parallel 
bars of the swing arm 60. Such relative shift between journal 68 and bore 
69 releases the wedging force of hook 64 against the latch bar 65. 
Continued motor 62 in-stroke rotates the lever 66 and hook 64 assembly 
about the axis of wedge journal 68 to clear the hook 64 of the latch bar 
65 thereby freeing the front end of swing arm 60 for rotation about and 
away from table 11. 
Control panels 70a and 70b, illustrated only by FIG. 2 for clarity, are 
series connected thereby requiring both of the operator's hands 
simultaneously to engage a machine operation. 
An operational sequence of the above described machine begins with the 
swing arm 60 and shear plate 40, both, in their respective upper limit 
positions thereby positioning the shear knives 50a and 50b above the 
surface of table 11. Both T-bar clamps 29 and 35 are also opened to the up 
position. 
Shuttle carriage 20 is shifted laterally to the right to engage spacer 
buttons 46 and 47 between the micro-adjustable abutment surface 16 on the 
frame 10 under fixed bed knife 14 and the micro-adjustable abutment 
surface 26 under reciprocating bed knife 21. Such abutment positionment 
precisely aligns the reciprocating bed knife 21 relative to the cutting 
plane of left shear knife 50(b). 
In this mechanical state, two strips of veneer to be joined are manually 
positioned on the tables 11a, 11b, parallel aligned against the respective 
fences 12a, 12b and under the T-bar clamps 29, 35 with the ends to be 
sheared over the cutting edge of bed knives 14 and 21. So positioned, the 
T-bar clamps 29, 35 are closed to secure the strips against misaligning 
movement. 
Upon command of the operator, motor 43 strokes the shear plate 40 down to 
cut the veneer strip ends simultaneously between the respective bed knife 
and shear knife edges. Since the spacer buttons 46 and 47 slide freely in 
shear plate slots 44 and 45, the slots being cut to the translational arc 
of the plate 40, no interference is presented. 
As the shear plate 40 approaches that position in its translational arc 
which completes the passage of the shear knives past the bed knives, cam 
plate 51 on the shear plate 40 engages the cam follower arm 52 to close 
limit switch 53. Such switch 53 closure initiates the retraction of 
shuttle motor 43 to withdraw the shuttle and veneer strip secured thereto, 
from the abutting position with the spacer buttons 46 and 47 thereby 
permitting the shear plate 40 to continue its translation down below table 
level. 
As the cam plate 51 moves past the follower arm 52, limit switch 53 reopens 
to initiate extension of the shuttle motor 43 thereby moving the shuttle 
carriage 20 to the right again. With the spacer buttons 46 and 47 now 
removed along with the structure of the entire shear plate 40 assembly, 
the shuttle carries the reciprocating bed knife 21 edge into abutment with 
the cutting edge of fixed bed knife 14. This position also abuts the newly 
cut edges of the respective veneer strips. 
With the parallel cut veneer strip edges in abutting position, the desired 
heat cured lap splice material is positioned over the butt joint, it being 
understood that the strips were positioned facedown on the table 11. 
Hence, the lap splice is laid against the veneer strip backside. 
Several alternative material systems are available for the splice such as 
fiberglass cloth or matt preimpregnated with epoxy or polyester resin. 
Another system is a fiberglass tape coated on one side with hot-melt 
adhesive. In either case, a structurally sound splice across the butt 
joint is obtained within a few seconds under the heat and pressure of the 
plate 61. 
With the adhesive and splice system appropriately positioned, motor 62 is 
actuated to extend the action rod thereby rotating the swing arm down 
against the strip joint. As the pressure plate 61 engages the splice 
surface, torque is transmitted to the lever/hook assembly to rotate the 
hook 64 into engagement with the latch bar 65. Final extension of the 
motor 62 wedges the hook tightly in place and multiplies the pressure 
force on the strips. 
Under the heat and pressure of the pressure plate 61, the splice joint is 
quickly cured and ready for release. 
Swing arm motor 62 is reversed for rod retraction which first, unlatches 
the lever/hook assembly from the latch bar 65. Further motor rod 
retraction rotates the swing arm 60 and pressure plate 61 assembly away 
from the table 11 to release the newly formed splice joint. 
Subsequent release of the T-bar clamps 29 and 35 completely frees the 
veneer strip unit from the machine for further disposition which may 
include a longitudinal reeling of the strip length which grows with each 
added increment. 
Accordingly, the short, 10 feet for example, veneer strip length added from 
the left side of the machine is advanced to the right side until the 
trailing end thereof is clear of the cutting edge of fixed bed knife 14. 
The operator next shifts the shuttle carriage 20 to the left and lifts the 
shear plate assembly 40 to the starting position with the shear knives 50 
poised above the table surface 11. The shuttle carriage 20 is returned to 
the right until the abutment surface 26 thereof engages spacer bottons 46 
and 47 which have returned by gravity to the bottom limits of guide slots 
44 and 45. 
The cycle is now complete and the machine ready for positionment of the 
next veneer strip increment to be added to the growing continuity. 
Having fully described by invention, certain alternatives to mechanical 
details and subcombinations will readily occur to those of ordinary skill 
in the art.