Meinan Machinery Works, Inc.

Makoto Isobe

Noriyuki Honda

Yukio Abe

Issaku Okamura

Hiroshige Oda

Akihito Hamaguchi

Nobuhiro Nakata

Yoshioki Nozawa

The present invention is directed to a method of holding a veneer sheet which has been dried to a moisture content lower than the fiber saturation point and also heated to a temperature higher than an ambient temperature of an environment where the veneer sheet is held. The veneer sheet is bent in such way that at least a part of the veneer sheet in the longitudinal section thereof along the grain direction is curved and the same veneer sheet in any transverse section thereof perpendicular to the grain direction is substantially straight. The veneer sheet held bent is held for a predetermined period of time.

Method of holding a veneer sheet

A method and an apparatus of wood pressing usable in manufacturing glued laminated wood such as laminated veneer lumber (LVL) using a number of wood veneer sheets are disclosed. A hot press used for wood pressing includes a pair of heating plates which are disposed one above the other and have pressing surfaces facing each other. The paired heating plates are both movable toward and away from each other. In operation, firstly one of the heating plates is moved toward the other heating plate to a position where the pressing surface of the one heating plate is spaced from a surface to which a veneer sheet is to be glued by a distance corresponding to the thickness of the veneer sheet. Then, the other heating plate is moved toward the one heating plate until a desired pressure is produced pressing.

Method and apparatus of pressing in manufacturing glued laminated wood

A method and apparatus of manufacturing glued laminated wood such as laminated veneer lumber (LVL) are disclosed. The glued laminated wood is made of a number of wood sheets such as veneer sheets which are laminated together by a hot press with a thermosetting adhesive into a continuous length of multiple-layered board of the glued laminated wood wherein wood sheets in each layer of the multiple-layered board are arranged in a staggered relation in the lengthwise direction of the board to wood sheets in an adjacent layer. The hot press has a pair of heating plates arranged substantially in facing relation to each other and an auxiliary heating plate disposed adjacent to one end of each heating plate. The auxiliary heating plate is adapted to press part of wood sheet which extends out beyond the above end of the heating plate.

Method and apparatus of manufacturing glued laminated wood

A method of manufacturing glued laminated wood such as laminated veneer lumber (LVL) is disclosed. The glued laminated wood is made of a number of wood sheets such as veneer sheets which are laminated together by a hot press with a thermosetting adhesive into a continuous length of multiple-layered board wherein the end joints of the wood sheets are disposed in a staggered array. There is provided an initial base material having an end which is shaped in the form of a flight of steps including a series of alternate horizontal surface having a lengthwise dimension smaller than the length of the wood sheet and a vertical surface having a height corresponding to the wood sheet thickness, and the glued laminated wood board is formed extending from the end of such initial base material. The hot press includes a pair of heat plates each having an effective pressing area capable of covering the entire surface of the wood sheet. In hot pressing a wood sheet having on one surface thereof coated with adhesive, a board of the glued laminated wood in progress is placed and maintained for a predetermined length of time at a position where the entire top surface of the wood sheet is kept to be pressed from the top by one of the plates while the entire lower surface of the wood sheet is supported from the bottom by the other plate.

Method of manufacturing glued laminated wood

A veneer-pressing apparatus comprising a pressing device provided with at least three pressing bodies disposed movably from a non-pressing position where the pressing bodies are vertically spaced apart from each other to a pressing position where the pressing bodies are close to each other; endless belts each adapted to be intermittently moved in a direction opposite to that of the neighboring endless belt, thereby forming a forward transfer passage between a pair of facing surfaces of the neighboring endless belts and a backward transfer passage which is opposite in transferring direction to the forward transfer passage; and a pressing member which is capable of rendering the pressing bodies provided with the endless belt to move from a non-pressing position to a pressing position to press a veneer with a predetermined pressure. This apparatus further comprises a first transfer means disposed on an upstream side of the forward transfer passage in the pressing device, a transferring direction thereof being the same as the forward transfer passage; and a second transfer means disposed on an upstream side of the backward transfer passage in the pressing device and capable of being moved in both forward and backward directions as well as in vertical direction.

Veneer-pressing apparatus

A veneer drying apparatus comprises a pair of upper and lower hot plates connected to a heating unit and a plurality of steam escape grooves formed in the opposing press surfaces of the upper and lower hot plates. The apparatus further comprises intermittently driven endless belts and driving and driven rollers on the unloading and loading ends, respectively, of the lower hot plate. The endless belts are trained over the driving and driven rollers for transferring veneer P over the upper surface of the lower hot plate. Each endless belt has numerous apertures formed in the entire surface thereof in a regular pattern. The driving rollers have numerous protrusions formed on the periphery thereof for engaging in the apertures formed in the endless belts. The endless belts are smoothly driven by rotation of the driving rollers due to the protrusion-aperture engagement. Not driven by friction, the endless belts can be relatively thin, so that the entire apparatus can be simplified and made smaller while achieving improved transfer of heat from the belt to veneer P and permitting easy belt replacement.

Veneer heating apparatus using hot plates and steam escape means

An apparatus for regulating a leading end stacked position in a stacker for successively stacking thin sheet materials. The apparatus for regulating leading end stacked positions of thin sheet materials which are introduced into a thin sheet material stacker at high speeds, and are dropped and stacked one upon another, comprises: a retractable damping ruler normally standing by at a stand-by position upstream of a predetermined leading end stacking position, and adapted to preferentially abut the leading end of a thin sheet material each time when the thin sheet material introduced into the stacker is obliquely dropped and then retracted; a stationary ruler always located at the predetermined leading end stacking position, and adapted to finally abut the leading end of the thin sheet material, in place of the damping ruler which is retracted in association with abutting thereof against the thin sheet material; and a restoring mechanism for returning the damping ruler to the stand-by position each time when the sheet material is dropped below the damping ruler.

Leading end stacked position regulating apparatus in thin sheet material

A heating plate is disclosed which is adapted for use in a dryer for drying a sheet of wood veneer by heating said plate at a desired level and placing one surface of the plate on either side thereof in engagement with the veneer sheet. The heating plate, when heated and placed in non-engagement state, is formed such that said one surface is convex shaped.

Heating plate in a veneer dryer

Method of correcting the track of an intermittently-running endless belt in a veneer dryer is disclosed. In a veneer dryer having a pair of intermittently movable endless belts provided under tension so as to form at least one straight passage therebetween through which a veneer sheet is conveyed by the endless belts while being heated by heating plates located above and below the passage, and means disposed adjacent to the opposite lateral edges of the endless belts and movable toward and away from said lateral edges for moving the belts laterally, the tension is released to loosen the belts after a predetermined number of stops of the endless belts and the belts are then moved at the edge thereof on the side corresponding to the direction in which they are displaced, by said means located adjacent to said edge, until an area of normal running track is reached by the belts.

Growing community of inventors

Aichi, Japan

Makoto Isobe