Cae Machinery Ltd.

Douglas C Beer

Michael J Dunne

Horst J Jatzek

Jan Marek

Ritchie P McDonald

An apparatus and method for aligning objects, particularly logs, into a loading region are provided. The apparatus comprises a stationary first side wall and a second side wall having a section that is movable with respect to the first wall. A lower floor section is provided between the two side walls. The side walls and the lower floor co-operate to define a loading region having an inlet and an outlet. The loading region is expandable from an initial minimum width sufficiently narrow to prevent misalignment of logs introduced through the inlet to a maximum width. Movement of the second movable side wall expands the loading region to create a gap between one side wall and aligned logs arranged against the other side wall. The gap is sufficiently narrow to prevent misalignment of logs introduced into the gap to ensure an aligned and ordered stack of logs within the loading region.

Apparatus and method for loading of logs

A ring flaker has a housing with a back opening so that a blade ring mounted to an arbor assembly can be slid backwards away from the housing to allow the blade ring to be replaced without removing the housing. This arrangement reduces the down time generally necessary to replace a blade ring in a ring flaker. The back opening in the housing is of sufficient size to permit the blade ring to be axially withdrawn. The arbor assembly has a slide arrangement on the ring flaker carriage and there is provision to use a hydraulic jack to move the arbor assembly on the slide arrangement for a distance sufficient for the blade ring to be disconnected for removal and replacement.

Method and apparatus for removing blade ring in a ring flaker

A rotatable carrier element has a plurality of elongate slots opening out from a work surface thereof with cutter knives projecting from the slots for slicing wafers off pieces of wood bearing against the work surface with the sides and the grain of the pieces extending substantially parallel to the work surface and the slots when the latter pass the wood. Each cutter knife forms part of a waferizing arrangement in each slot. Each waferizing arrangement includes a reactor guide in the slot positioned relative to the knife so as to be engaged by wafers cut by the knife to break the wafers longitudinally thereof into predetermined widths.

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Bellingham, WA, United States of America

Douglas C Beer