Abstract:
A system for converting wood products into viable base construction materials consisting of a support structure, a central structure consisting of a low speed, high torque, hydraulic motor which drives a central drive shaft to which a planing table is rotatably attached. Four or more feed chutes are radially attached to the outer supports and the logs are sliced over eight blades arranged on the planing table. An alternative embodiment consists of a rotary cutting device where logs are fed to cutting blades rotating below.

Description:
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/168,716, filed Dec. 6, 1999, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/144,281, filed Jul. 1, 1999. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The invention relates to machinery for the conversion of wood products into viable base construction materials and more specifically, the invention relates to a planing machine to convert small diameter, short logs, or split logs into construction materials without generating waste. 
     2. Discussion of the Prior Art 
     Currently available log processing machines, grind, crush, chip, or chop logs, severely degrading their wood fibers and their strength. The methods used in industry to produce veneers is limited to the use of logs of substantial size. Smaller logs are wasted because they cannot be processed with existing machinery. 
     The instant invention is designed to exploit the valuable physical characteristics of veneered wood which is commercially produced by slicing thin veneer sheets from wooden logs. The rotary planing table and feed chutes of the instant invention were designed to slice short, small diameter, split logs into thin sheets of veneer without creating waste. The veneer strips can thereafter be split and cut to uniform shapes for processing into laminated veneer building products, such products are inherently superior to their solid wood counterparts. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention consists of a substantial support structure comprised of four or more outer legs which support a central structure consisting of a low speed, high torque, hydraulic motor, or equivalent, which drives a central drive shaft to which a planing table is rotatably attached to its distal end. Four or more feed chutes are radially attached to the outer supports so that their open bottom ends can guide the logs to be sliced over the eight blades radially arranged on the planing table. The design is such that the planing table rotates beneath the lower ends of the chutes and by so doing causes the cutting blades to cut very thin slices from the logs in the chutes. The slices pass through the planing table by way of narrow slots beneath the cutting edges of the blades and fall to a conveyer belt or other removal means for transfer to other areas for further processing. The capacity of the rotary table planing machine is determined by the number of log feed chutes, the number of planing (veneering) blades built into the rotary planing table, the size of the logs and the rotational speed of the rotary planing table. Output volume is directly related to the thickness of the veneer slats produced. 
     Having only one moving part, the rotating planing table, reliability is maximized and by separating the feeding of logs into the top and the removal of veneer strips from the bottom of the machine, congestion is avoided. Both the feeding of logs and the removal of veneer can be automated. 
     The rotary planing table is simple to operate. The table is turned at a constant pre-selected rate by a variable speed, piston type hydraulic drive motor, or equivalent. An equivalent, alternative embodiment consists of a rotary drum type slicing device whereby wood products, small logs, split logs, bamboo culms, etc. are fed via vertical chutes to the cutting blades rotating below. The drum may be extended to provide additional cutting stations, and additional chutes can be attached radially to further increase output. Slightly offsetting the added cutting station radially and/or using an odd number of cutting blades will reduce cutting torque and machine shock by staggering blade impact forces. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the rotary planing table and its support arms and the blades set into the planing table. 
     FIG. 2 is a front view showing the relationship between the drive motor, the support arms and the rotary planing table. 
     FIG. 3 is a front view, partly in section, showing the inner components of the main drive shaft and the bearing means by which the rotary planing table is revolved. 
     FIG. 4 is a top view of the planing table alone, showing the positions of the cutting blades. 
     FIG. 4 a  is a sectional view of one of the blades showing the cutting edge of the blade and the slot beneath through which veneers can pass through to the conveyer. 
     FIG. 5 is a top view partly in section showing the relationship between the outer support arms, the log chutes, the central drive shaft and the cutting blades. 
     FIG. 6 is a top view illustrating an alternative chute arrangement for the veneering of short logs. 
     FIG. 7 is a top view illustrating an alternative chute arrangement for the veneering of bamboo culms. 
     FIG. 8 is an enlarged sectional view of a cutting blade. 
     FIG. 8 a  is an enlarged sectional view of an alternative cutting blade. 
     FIG. 9 is a side view of the alternative embodiment rotary drum cutter. 
     FIG. 10 is an end view of the same rotary drum cutter. 
     FIG. 11 is an enlarged side view, partly in section, showing the component parts of the rotary cutter as they would appear while in operation. 
     FIG. 12 is an enlarged side view partly in section showing the rotary cutter removing a thin veneer from a log. 
     FIG. 13 is a combination side and top view, partly in section, showing the component parts of the constant depth of cut veneering blade. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring now to the drawings, wherein like numerals designate like and corresponding parts throughout the several views, in FIG. 1 the overall invention is designated by the numeral  10 . Main supports  11  connect to spacers  12  and to central support  15  to position chutes  17  over rotary planing table  14  so that blades  13 , moving in the direction of arrow  60  pass through chute bottom  17   a.  Hydraulic motor  18  provides the rotational force. Conveyer belt  51  collects veneers  52  as they fall through rotary planing table  14 . 
     In FIG. 2, Hydraulic motor  18 , is positioned at the proximal end of central support  15  and is suspended by spacers  12  connected to outer supports  11 . Rotary planing table  14  is positioned at the distal end of central support  15  above conveyer  51 . 
     In FIG. 3 hydraulic motor  18  drives splined shaft  40  to turn main drive shaft  41  which is rotatably supported at its proximal end by bearing  42  and at its distal end by bushing  43 , and which turns rotary table  14  and blades  13 . Chutes  17  are held stationary over rotary planing table  14  by spacers  12  attached to support legs  11 . 
     In FIG. 4, Blades  13  are radially arrayed on the proximal surface of rotary planing table  14 . FIG. 4 a  shows the relative positions of cutting edges  23  and gaps  24  (see also FIG. 8 for enlargement). 
     FIG. 5 shows the relative positions of blades  13 , chutes  17 , central drive shaft  41 , main support  15  and rotary planing table  14 . 
     FIGS. 6 and 7 show an alternative of chutes  30  wherein they hold logs  54  and bamboo culms  50  at different angles against the rotation of rotary planing table  14 . In FIG. 7, the bamboo culms  50  are presented lengthwise to blades  13  to produce thin strips of veneer from along the length of the culms  50 , whereas in FIG. 6, log  54  is presented crosswise to blades  13 . 
     In FIG. 8, rotary planing table  14  holds blade  13  in place. Cutting edge  23  is sharpened back from the face  22  to maintain the cutting edge. Box  21  is where blade  23  can be reinforced with a hardened metal insert. Gap  24  is where veneers pass through rotary planing table  14 . Blade height  20  regulates the depth of cut and is fully adjustable by using alternate blade  23  inserts. 
     The rotary planing table  14  is easy to operate. Rotary planing table  14  is turned by motor  18 . Logs are loaded either manually or automatically into log feed chutes  17  as required. The feed chutes  17  position logs over rotary planing table  14  where the slicing blades  13  cut thin strips  52  from the bottom of the logs which fall to conveyer  51  or through a hole in the floor. Logs automatically feed down towards the cutting blades  13  as each is reduced to veneer. Waste is minimal. Blade  13  life is extended through the use of hardened inserts. Blades  13  are made to cut only one pre-selected thickness of veneer and can be quickly replaced. They are designed to maintain a constant depth of cut even after numerous sharpenings (FIGS. 8,  8 A). By varying blade cutting depths, multiple thicknesses of veneers can be cut simultaneously. Cutting thickness can be varied from as thin as 0.0100 inches. 
     In FIG. 9, rotary drum cutter  61  is shown having chute  66  positioned above rotary drum  64  which is rotatably held by bushings  68  and  69  which are held in place by frame  67  and table  83 . Motor  65  drives drum  64  through chain sprockets  62  and  63  which are connected by drive chain  72 . The effective cutting area of the rotary cutting drum  64  is indicated by arrows  70  while the veneer discharge directions are shown by arrows  71 . 
     FIG. 10 shows the relative positions of feed chute  66 , drive motor  65 , and drive sprockets  62  and  63 . Rotational direction of the cutting drum  64  is indicated by arrow  73  while arrow  74  indicates the direction of feed toward the rotary drum  64 . 
     In FIG. 11, chute wall  66  has serrated teeth  79  to grip log  94  and hold it against the rotation of rotary drum  64 . This view shows an optional slitter blade  77  approximately 0.03 inches wide to slit veneer to the required length as it is stripped from log  94 . Numerals  91 ,  92  and  93  show the different wood products and sizes which can be accommodated by the rotary cutter drum  64 . 
     In FIG. 12, veneer strip  78  is removed by blade  76  from log  94 , again held by serrations  79  against the rotation of cutting drum  64 . The veneer strip  78  falls inside the rotary drum  64  for discharge as described in FIG.  9 . 
     In FIG. 13, depth of cut  90  is set at 0.050, which remains constant regardless of re-sharpening materials loss shown between arrows  82 . Removing the material moves the cutting edge back along the axis of cutting drum  4  but does not alter cutting height  90 . 
     Following is an example of potential production of product by the invention. 
     With four feed chutes and eight cutting blades using logs approximately 12 inches in diameter and 24 inches in length and table rotation is set at 120 revolutions per minute. The volume of a log of those dimensions is 1.57 cubic feet. There are approximately 192 slats of a thickness of 0.0625 in such a log. At 120 R.P.M. it takes approximately 12 seconds to slice through the log and during one minute of operations, five such logs can be processed per chute for a total of 20 logs per machine per minute. This is equivalent to 31.4 cubic feet (0.889 cubic meters) per minute, giving a theoretical output of 53.3 cubic meters per hour, or 426 cubic meters per eight hour shift. 
     Production can be increased by: 
     (1) Increasing the table speed (RPM) 
     (2) Use of twin (side by side) log feed chutes or additional chutes 
     (3) Increase the number of cutting blades, 
     (4) Increase veneer thickness, and 
     (5) Increase the log size and length. 
     The rotary planing table of the invention produces a more valuable product than other means because it produces a veneer sheet in which the wood fiber retains all the structural and physical properties inherent in the original log. The large veneer slats can be readily split and cut to length for processing into a variety of manufactured wood products which are stronger and tougher than their solid wood counterparts. The rotary planing table can convert timber having limited commercial value into useable veneers. 
     The products of this invention are fully interchangeable with current building materials such as dimensional lumber, sheeting, beams, etc. These veneer based products have the additional advantages of uniform quality, are of structural grade, and less costly to produce. 
     This invention also makes possible a new era of “modular” building construction. It will be practical to mass produce standardized, semi finished modules for floors, walls, roofs, ceilings, etc. Veneer sheeting and framing can be bonded efficiently into rigid, low cost, load bearing structures. These modules lend themselves to such construction projects as motels, condominiums, strip malls, school class rooms and utility buildings. 
     The instant invention can thereby affect the future and fortunes of the lumber industry and help it adapt to a “modular” age. Although the invention uses modern machinery and technologies, it has its genesis in the ancient quest to find commercial uses for bamboo. Bamboo grasses are the fastest growing and the strongest plant fibers in the world and now with the rotary planing table machine of the invention, it is economically practical and profitable to process bamboo culms into useful building products. Future advances in plant genetics, cultivation, and mechanized harvesting could make bamboo the construction fiber of the future. 
     Of course, it should be understood that a wide range of changes and modifications can be made to the preferred embodiment described above. It is therefore, intended that the foregoing descriptions be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting, and that it can be understood that it is the following claims, including all equivalents, which are intended to define the scope of the invention.