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EP-4540155-B1 - FEEDER

EP4540155B1EP 4540155 B1EP4540155 B1EP 4540155B1EP-4540155-B1

Inventors

  • FRISCH, Clemens

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20230602

Claims (15)

  1. A feeder (1) for feeding sawn wood pieces (2) from an accumulating conveyor (3) to a drag conveyor (4), wherein the feeder (1) comprises at least one wheel (5) with an axis of rotation (6) and at least one control device, wherein a plurality of first clamping elements (7) and a plurality of second clamping elements (8) are fastened to the wheel (5), wherein the feeder (1) is designed to clamp a sawn wood piece (2) in place in a conveying region (9) between the first and the second clamping element (7, 8) when the wheel (5) rotates and to transport it in a clamped state along the conveying region (9), wherein the control device is designed to control the first clamping element (7) independently of the second clamping element (8), wherein the control device comprises a first guide (10) with a first guideway (11) and wherein the first clamping element (7) for clamping the sawn wood piece (2) in place in the conveying region (9) is guided on the first guideway (11) in a first rotation range of the wheel (5), characterized in that the control device comprises a second guide (12) with a second guideway (13) and that the second clamping element (8) for clamping the sawn wood piece (2) in place in the conveying region (9) is guided on the second guideway (13) in a second rotation range of the wheel (5), that the control device comprises a control unit for controlling the orientation and the position of the first and the second guideways (11, 13), and that the first clamping elements (7) are each guided on the first guideway (11) in the first rotation range of the wheel (5) and the second clamping elements (8) are each guided on the second guideway (13) in the second rotation range of the wheel (5).
  2. The feeder (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the first rotation range of the wheel (5) is a maximum of 140 degrees, especially preferably a maximum of 120 degrees, in particular a maximum of 100 degrees.
  3. The feeder (1) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the second rotation range of the wheel (5) is a maximum of 120 degrees, especially preferably a maximum of 100 degrees, in particular a maximum of 80 degrees.
  4. The feeder (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the first clamping element (7) comprises a first roller (17), which first roller (17) is guided on the first guideway (11).
  5. The feeder (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the second clamping element (8) comprises a second roller (18), which second roller (18) is guided on the second guideway (13).
  6. The feeder (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the first clamping element (7) comprises a substantially flat clamping surface (14) for clamping the sawn wood piece (2).
  7. The feeder (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the first clamping element (7) and/or the second clamping element (8) is embodied as an arm and that a pivoting movement of the arm is predetermined by the control device.
  8. A feeding system (15) comprising an accumulating conveyor (3) and a drag conveyor (4), characterized in that a feeder (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 7 is arranged between the accumulating conveyor (3) and the drag conveyor (4) in order to transport a sawn wood piece (2) from the accumulating conveyor (3) to the drag conveyor (4).
  9. The feeding system (15) according to claim 8, characterized in that at least one flight (16) of the drag conveyor (4) moves in a delivery region of the conveying region (9) at a flight speed and that the first clamping element (7) and the second clamping element (8) release the sawn wood piece (2) from the clamped state into the delivery region.
  10. The feeding system (15) according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that the accumulating conveyor (3) comprises a movable accumulating conveyor retaining device in a pick-up region of the conveying region (9).
  11. The feeding system (15) according to any one of claims 8 to 10, characterized in that the accumulating conveyor (3) comprises a sensor that is operatively connected to the feeder (1) for measuring the thickness of the sawn wood piece (2) and that the control device takes the measured thickness of the sawn wood piece (2) into account when controlling the first and second clamping elements (7, 8).
  12. A method for feeding sawn wood pieces (2) from an accumulating conveyor (3) to a drag conveyor (4) with a feeder (1), wherein the feeder (1) comprises at least one wheel (5) with an axis of rotation (6) and at least one control device, wherein a plurality of first clamping elements (7) and a plurality of second clamping elements (8) are fastened to the wheel (5), wherein, when the wheel (5) rotates, a sawn wood piece (2) is clamped in a pick-up region of a conveying region (9) between the first clamping element (7) and the second clamping element (8) and is transported in a clamped state along the conveying region (9), wherein the first clamping element (7) is controlled independently of the second clamping element (8) by the control device, wherein the control device comprises a first guide (10) with a first guideway (11) and wherein the first clamping element (7) for clamping the sawn wood piece (2) in the conveying region (9) in a first rotation range of the wheel (5) is guided on the first guideway (11), characterized in that the control device comprises a second guide (12) with a second guideway (13) and that the second clamping element (8) for clamping the sawn wood piece (2) in the conveying region (9) is guided on the second guideway (13) in a second rotation range of the wheel (5), that the orientation and position of the first and second guideways (11, 13) are controlled by means of a control unit of the control device, and that the first clamping elements (7) are each guided on the first guideway (11) in the first rotation range of the wheel (5) and the second clamping elements (8) are each guided on the second guideway (13) in the second rotation range of the wheel (5).
  13. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that a flight (16) of the drag conveyor (4) moves in a delivery region of the conveying region (9) at a flight speed, that the sawn wood piece (2) in the clamped state is accelerated substantially to the flight speed, and that the sawn wood piece (2) is released by the first clamping element (7) and the second clamping element (8) from the clamped state into the delivery region.
  14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, characterized in that the control device takes into account a thickness of the sawn wood piece (2) when controlling the first and the second clamping element (7, 8).
  15. The method according to claim 14, characterized in that the thickness of the sawn wood piece (2) is measured by a sensor of the accumulating conveyor (3) that is operatively connected to the feeder (1).

Description

The invention relates to a feeder for feeding sawn timber parts from a storage conveyor to a carrier conveyor according to the preamble of claim 1. It is known that in wood processing, sawn timber components are transferred from an untimed conveying system to a timed conveying system. For this purpose, the untimed sawn timber components are usually accumulated and picked up individually by the feeder. The feeder typically transfers the individual sawn timber components to a carrier conveyor, with one sawn timber component being transferred to each carrier. From the WO 2020/014790 A1 A feeder for dispensing sawn timber parts, which can be arranged between a storage conveyor and a drive conveyor, is known, which discloses the features of the preamble of claim 1. The feeder has first and second clamping elements for clamping sawn timber parts, each of which can be controlled by actuators. Furthermore, an embodiment of the feeder shows a reset device for the first clamping elements comprising a guide track. From the US 5 931 287 A and the US 2015/0353296 A1 Other distributors are known, whereby in both distributors the first clamping element cannot be controlled independently of the second clamping element. From the US 4 515 196 A is a sawmill with a support mechanism for logs. A disadvantage of currently known feeders is that if sawn timber is fed unintentionally, the timber pieces must be pushed back against the feeder's direction of travel, causing instability in the accumulated boards. Furthermore, current feeders are designed for a specific size of sawn timber pieces, and feeding pieces with a different size than the set dimension results in limited feeding or no feeding at all without modifications to the feeder. Another disadvantage of current feeders is that they often cannot accelerate the sawn timber pieces sufficiently to ensure proper flow. to be able to transfer directly to a feeder conveyor. This often necessitates the additional use of an acceleration conveyor, which is positioned between the feeder and the feeder conveyor to accelerate the sawn timber pieces to the speed of the feeder conveyor. The object of the invention is therefore to provide a feeder of the type mentioned above, with which the aforementioned disadvantages can be avoided, with which a controlled feeding of sawn timber parts of different thicknesses can be achieved and an unrest in the sawn timber parts can be avoided if feeding is not carried out. According to the invention, this is achieved by the features of claim 1. This offers the advantage that when a piece of lumber is clamped in the accumulation position, the clamping process can be individually adjusted to the thickness of the lumber. This also reduces surface damage to the lumber, allowing lumber of varying thicknesses and widths to be transferred gently and controllably from a non-timed to a timed conveying system without any modifications to the feeder. By controlling the first clamping element independently of the second, disturbances among the accumulated lumber are prevented if no lumber is being fed into the system. This is because the control device allows the lumber to remain in the accumulation position quickly and easily. As a result, if no lumber is being fed into the system, the lumber remains in the accumulation position and does not need to be pushed back against the conveying direction. Furthermore, the independent control of the first and second clamping elements by the control device allows for quick and easy adjustment of the clamping movement, which is performed to clamp the sawn timber between the first and second clamping elements, to accommodate different dimensions of sawn timber. This ensures that the sawn timber is contacted by both clamping elements as simultaneously as possible, thus preventing instability during clamping and consequently also preventing other sawn timber in the stack. This results in an efficient and low-maintenance feeder. which allows sawn timber parts to be transferred from a non-synchronized conveying system to a synchronized conveying system even at a high cycle rate. The invention further relates to a method according to claim 12. The invention therefore further aims to provide a method of the type mentioned at the outset, with which the aforementioned disadvantages can be avoided, with which a controlled allocation of sawn timber parts of different thicknesses can be achieved and an unrest in the sawn timber parts can be avoided if allocation is not carried out. According to the invention, this is achieved by the features of claim 12. The advantages of the method correspond to the advantages of the aforementioned allocator. The dependent claims relate to further advantageous embodiments of the invention. Reference is hereby expressly made to the wording of the patent claims, whereby the patent claims are incorporated into the description at this point by reference and are deemed to be reproduced verbatim. The inve