Patent ID: 7108030

Claim:
A combination gang saw and edger system for processing cants and flitches into boards, comprising: an infeed conveyor; means for scanning a flitch or cant as the flitch or cant passes lengthwise along the infeed conveyor to produce a lengthwise cross-sectional profile of the flitch or cant; an optimizer responsive to the lengthwise cross-sectional profile of the flitch or cant that determines: whether the profile is a flitch or a cant, and if a flitch, one of multiple ways to cut the flitch; means for selectably cutting flitches or cants lengthwise into boards responsive to the optimizer; and an outfeed conveyor; the means for selectable cutting flitches or cants into boards including: a first set of saws positionable as a cluster for cutting cants and having a plurality of saws set at a predefined spacing to cut boards of equal thickness from a cant; a second set of saws configured for cutting flitches, the second set including two or more independently positionable edging saws; and, a control means for selecting one of the first and second set of saws responsive to the determination by the optimizer whether the piece is a cant or flitch so as to position the selected one of the first or second set of saws across the infeed direction and, in the case of a flitch, controlling individually the position of the two or more edging saws of the second set to cut one or more boards of varying width from the flitch.