Globe Machine Manufacturing Company

William M Owens

Victor Wayne Croston

A production line for manufacturing wooden I-beams wherein a pair of grooved flanges are conveyed along opposite left and right sides of a train of web members and converged so that the web longitudinal edges are inserted into the flange grooves is disclosed. The flanges are moved along left and right hand chutes of the assembly machine with plural vertical flange drive rolls engaging the wider flange faces for improved traction. These flange drive rolls and the chutes are mounted to the machine base with a lateral adjustment mechanism permitting center justified adjusting movement relative to the machine center line. The lateral adjustment mechanism utilizes a series of lead screws each formed with left and right handed threaded portions engageable with a threaded nut attached to each chute. A pair of web bottom rails are vertically adjustable in elevation with plural vertical column screws connected between the machine base and the support rails. Each of the infeed and outfeed flange drive rolls, and the web drive rolls, are all operated with hydraulic motors which are interconnected through microprocessor control so as to be monitored and adjusted during a production run to achieve substantially constant output speeds with predictable and repeatable drive roll speeds and pinching forces.

Wooden I-beam assembly machine and control system therefor

In a production line for manufacturing wooden I-beams in a chords and webs assembly machine, a vacuum belt conveyor system is provided to sequentially feed bottom web members from beneath a web stack into a web run-up and drive system associated with the machine. The vacuum belt conveyor system features a vacuum supply box mounted between the web support rails through a series of vertical screw adjustment assemblies permitting adjustment of the inclination of the conveyor belt relative to the head drive pulley. A system of vacuum supply holes in the top plate of the vacuum box is utilized to apply a greater amount of vacuum to the leading end of the webs than the trailing end to minimize belt wear.

Growing community of inventors

Tacoma, WA, United States of America

William M Owens