FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND PRIOR ART

This invention is related to a device of the kind defined in the pre- characterising part of the enclosed claim 1. The term "sticker" comprises elongated fillet like members, which as a rule are pre¬ pared from wood although also other materials are conceivable. On stacking of timber, Which later is to be dried, the stickers are often placed between each of the timber layers in the stack. Stickers may also be laid into the timber stack with the primary task to function for holding the stack together during the stacking operation. In the latter case stickers do not have to be introduced between each pair of layers of pieces in the stack.

Provision of stickers involves in practise considerable problems for the designer. This is primarily due to the fact that wood almost without exception is used as material for the stickers. Unfortunately (in the present case) wood is to a great extent a changing material. The relatively slender stickers obtain almost without exception distortions from the originally intended shape. More or less impor¬ tant bends, twistings etc. may be involved. These irregularities with regard to the shape of the stickers involve considerable difficulties to design sticker provision equipment operating acceptably. When there are disturbances in operation as a result of some sticker missing or some sticker having obtained a defective location, great economical values represented by all or parts of the timber in the stack in question may be lost unless the operator observes the de¬ fect in question, interrupts the operation of the device and elimi- nates the defect.

The device presented in the pre-characterising part of the enclosed claim 1 appears from our Swedish patent No. 8306651-4 and has turned out to be very satisfactory in view of the fact that the opera¬ tor obtains improved possibilities to supervise and correct the pro- vision of stickers.

In the course of natural product development, it has, however, been realised that the means for locating the stickers in their readiness position should be possible to be improved in order to increase the capacity of provision of stickers.

Another problem identified in the prior art is that the control of the device preferably could be designed to improve the possibilities to avoid introduction of unacceptable stickers in the timber stack. In this connection it is pointed out that stickers may be unacceptable due to purely mechanical defects, which already has been mean- tioned. Other causes may be that the stickers are too damp, con¬ taminated with for instance mould fungus or otherwise are discol¬ oured. An unacceptably high moisture content, contamination with mould or other discolouring of the stickers, may cause defects of timber pieces in the stack, with associated economical losses.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is primarily to develop the de¬ vice known by the Swedish patent No. 8306651-4 (446 398) so that the operation of the sticker locating means is improved and thereby the capacity may be increased.

This primary object of the invention is achieved by the sticker locat¬ ing means comprising stop members arranged to stop the stickers being under displacement by means of the conveyor in the readi¬ ness position. This solution enables the piece meal feeder to rap¬ idly deliver the stickers to the conveyor during continuous operation thereof, whereupon the stop members then effect stopping of the stickers and, accordingly, location thereof in their readiness posi-

tion. The stickers are then collected from this readiness positions to the stack forming station by means of the sticker transporting means.

A secondary object of the invention is to develop the device so that it becomes well suited for removing, either manually by the opera¬ tor or automatically by means of a detector, unacceptable stickers such that those do not enter the stack. A particularly preferably so¬ lution is to arrange, in accordance with claim 7, a detector for de- tection of undesired properties of the stickers. Particularly pre¬ ferred solutions for eliminating unacceptable stickers without and with respectively such a detector are defined in the appended claims 9 and 12 respectively.

Further preferable developments of the invention are defined in the rest of the dependent claims.

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

With reference to the enclosed drawings, a more specific descrip¬ tion of embodiment examples of the invention follows hereinafter.

In the drawings;

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatical view from above of the device accord¬ ing to the invention;

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatical view as viewed along the line ll-ll in Fig. 1 ;

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatical view illustrating, in perspective, stop members included in the device;

Fig. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the operation of the device according to the invention of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a diagrammatical side view illustrating a possible design of an apparatus for receiving stickers;

Fig. 6 is a view comprising parts of components illustrated in Fig. 2 and also the addition of specific members for removal of unacceptable stickers; and

Fig. 7 is a further block diagram illustrating the operation of the device intended in Fig. 6.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The device according to the invention for stacking elongated timber pieces and provision of stickers so that they become located be- tween superposed layers of pieces in the stack comprises a stack forming station 1 , a first apparatus 2 for supplying timber pieces to said station 1 and a second apparatus 3 for providing, on a layer of timber pieces in the stack, a layer consisting of a number of stick¬ ers 4 extending transversely to the timber pieces.

The stack forming station, which for example may be designed to operate in accordance with the applicant's Swedish patent No. 7905849-1 (420 589) comprises a support apparatus 5 for support¬ ing the timber stack during its formation. The support apparatus 5 is movable vertically in relation to a stand 6 to locate the upper surface of the stack in substantially one and the same level. The supply apparatus 2 comprises (see Figs. 1 and 2) a conveyor 7 for transporting timber pieces 8 transversely to their longitudinal direc¬ tion towards the support apparatus 5 and carrying members 9 in the form of swords or similar, which are advancable, while carrying a layer of timber pieces, to a position above the stack and which on retraction to a position beside the stack co-operate with stops, which pushes the timber pieces off the swords so that the timber pieces arrive on the upper surface of the stack. As the height of the stack increases, the support apparatus 5 is lowered. It is illustrated in Fig. 2 that stickers 4 are introduced between every third layer of

timber pieces in the stack. As has been meantioned, other intro¬ duction methods are possible. The apparatus 3 comprises means 10, 11 , 12 for locating the stickers intended for a layer in the timber stack in a readiness position on that side of the stack forming sta¬ tion which is opposite relative to the apparatus 2 for supplying tim¬ ber pieces, the stickers being located, in said readiness position, substantially transversely to the longitudinal direction of the timber pieces in the stack and in a disposition corresponding to the dis¬ position, which the stickers are intended to assume in the stack.

Furthermore, the apparatus 3 comprises sticker transporting means 13, which are separate from the apparatus 2 and arranged to trans¬ port the stickers from the readiness position to the stack forming station 1. Thus, the stickers 4 are located, in the readiness posi- tion, in a parallel relation at a distance from each other as indicated in Fig. 1 as far as the stickers 4 placed opposite to the timber stack 14 is concerned.

A sticker conveyor 15, which is included in the apparatus 3 and which is arranged for displacement of stickers to their readiness position collectively denoted 16 in Fig. 1 , has a first portion 17 ex¬ tending substantially parallel to the conveyor 7 and a second por¬ tion 18 forming a turn to the sticker readiness position 16 arranged in front of the stack station 1. The sticker conveyor 15 receives stickers fed out from a supply or a collection and these stickers are transported further to a buffer collection 19 located upstream the sticker readiness position 16.

The stickers 4 present in the readiness position 16 are preferably arranged to be directly visible from the place 20 normally assumed by an operator of the device during its operation. Thus, the operator may, from this place, observe that the stickers in their readiness position are in a correct number and location. Furthermore, it is preferred that the operator from this place may observe the stack forming station 1 and its upper side and also the supply apparatus 2.

The sticker locating means comprise a conveyor 10 for displace¬ ment of the stickers and a piece-meal feeder 11 for delivering stickers to the conveyor 10 piece by piece. Furthermore, the sticker locating means comprise stop member 12 adapted to stop the stickers being under displacement by means of the conveyor 10 in their readiness positions 16.

The conveyor 10 is preferably of the band or chain type and de- signed for displacement of the stickers transversely to their longi¬ tudinal direction in the direction of the arrow 21 in Fig. 1. The con¬ veyor 10 is suitably formed by two mutually separated part convey¬ ors 10A and 10B respectively. The diagrammatically indicated piece-meal feeder 11 is adapted to deliver the stickers one by one with regular intervals to the conveyor 10.

As is diagrammatically indicated at 22, an apparatus for locating the ends flush with each other may be present to locate the ends of the stickers in one and the same substantially vertical plane trans- verse relative to the longitudinal directions of the stickers. This ap¬ paratus for obtaining ends flush with each other may in reality have the character of a path for moving the stickers endwise so as to apply the ends of the stickers against a plane 23 for locating the ends flush with each other, said location preferably occurring up- streams of the piece-meal feeder 11.

As appears from Fig. 3, the stop members 12 suitably have the character of elevatable hooks 12. Expressed in other words, these stop members 12 are operable between active sticker stopping positions illustrated in Fig. 3 and inactive positions, in which stick¬ ers under displacement by means of the conveyor 10, only a part 10A of which is illustrated in Fig. 3, may pass the stop members. The stop members 12 are designed to move vertically during the operation between their active and inactive positions. In the em- bodiment the stop members 12 are conceived to be rotatable about an axis 24 by means of a suitable power exerting member 25, such

as for instance a cylinder. In the embodiment the stop members 12 are rigidly secured to a concrete axle 26, which by means of the power member 25 is rotatable reciprocatingly so as to raise and lower the stop members. The stop members 12 are located in the area between the part conveyors 10A and 10B of the conveyor 10.

The stop members 12 may be designed so as to comprise stopping hook portions, which stop the sticker in question by contacting the vertical forward side thereof without in any way influencing the sticker upwardly, which means that the sticker is held back and will slide relative to the conveyor. However, it is also possible for the stop members 12 to comprise, as indicated in Fig. 3, portions 27 adapted to subject the sticker to an elevating influence; the function may be such that the sticker in question is intended to be entirely elevated from the conveyor 10 or possibly only somewhat so that it possibly still remains in some contact with the conveyor. As ap¬ pears from Fig. 3, there may be a further member 28 in the area between the two stop members 12, said further member being op¬ erable together with the stop members 12, although it does not have any stopping function but only a function to lift the sticker 4 from below.

The readiness position 16 for the stickers 4 is arranged in front of the stack forming station 1 (see Fig. 1), i.e. on that side of the sta- tion 1 which is opposite relative to the supply apparatus 2. The means 13 for transporting the stickers are movable substantially parallel transversely to the longitudinal direction of the formed stack 14. The transporting means 13 are movable along one or more guides 29 located in the area above the readiness position 16 for the stickers and the stack forming station 1 and extending sub¬ stantially horizontally and perpendicularly to the longitudinal direc¬ tion of the stack. The means 13 which are arranged one for each of the stickers 4 to be placed on the stack, comprise lower pliers-like gripping members 30 designed to grip the stickers. These gripping members are in their turn arranged on a part 31 , which by means of for instance a cylinder 32 is vertically movable relative to a base

part 33 movable along the guide 29 by means not illustrated more closely. It is preferred that the various transporting means 13 are provided on a common base part 33 movable along the guide 29. It is then preferred that the individual sticker transporting means 13 are adjustable on this base part 33 so as to be adaptable to the desired sticker disposition in the stack.

It is preferred that the sticker transporting means 13 are arranged to grip the stickers present in the readiness positions 16 relatively close to one of the stop members 12 and more specifically in the area between a stop member 12 and the support member 28. Since the sticker 4 in the preferred case is supported from below by the stop member 12 as well as the support member 28, this means that the sticker position will be well defined in the area between the support member 28 and the adjacent stop member 12.

For controlling the operation of the device there is a control unit 34, for instance a computer. As appears from Fig. 4, this control unit 34 is adapted to control the diagrammatically indicated stop members 12 and the piece meal feeder 11 and the conveyor 15 conveying the stickers thereto. Furthermore it appears that the control unit 34 controls the sticker transporting means 13 and stack forming sta¬ tion 1 and the supply apparatus 2 for timber pieces.

The control unit 34 for controlling the operation of the stop mem¬ bers 12 is adapted to relate this control as far as time is concerned to the operation of the piece-meal feeder 11 so that stop members 12 pre-destinated for a specific sticker are activated before the sticker is displaced past these stop members by means of the con- veyor 10 but after the sticker having been displaced past the stop members which are located most closely upstreams thereof and which then are inactivated.

Another embodiment is based upon the device comprising sensing members (Figs. 1 and 4) denoted 35 adapted to sense passage of stickers displaced by the conveyor 10. These sensing members 35

are connected to the control unit 34. The sensing members 35 are adapted to sense passage of the stickers past the stop members 12 and deliver corresponding information to the control unit 34, which by means of such information activates the stop members so that stop members 12 pre-destinated for a sticker 4 in question are acti¬ vated when this sticker in question has passed second stop mem¬ bers located upstreams of said pre-destinated stop members and/or when a sticker preceding said sticker in question has passed the pre-destinated stop members 12. Independently of the control method which is applied, the piece-meal feeder 11 will , ac¬ cordingly, deliver the stickers one by one to the conveyor 10, which displaces them further whereas the stop members 12 are activated to their stopping positions so that the stickers reach their intended pre-determined readiness positions.

A detector 36 is arranged to automatically detect undesired proper¬ ties of the stickers 4 before they arrive to the readiness position 16 and deliver corresponding information to the control unit. This is in turn adapted to control the device to avoid transportation of unac- ceptable stickers to the stack forming station.

The detector 36 may have very different design and properties. It may be designed to detect mechanical defects, for instance in the form of fractures, pitching etc. In such a case the detector could have the character of a camera or similar connected to an assess¬ ment unit suitable for the purpose. The detector 36 may also be ca¬ pable of sensing the moisture of the stickers or presence of mould thereon. Also other discolouring may be sensed by the detector.

As appears from Fig. 4, the device is intended to comprise an op¬ erating member 37 manually actuatable by an operator, said op¬ erating member being connected to the control unit 34 and adapted to be actuated on occurrence of a sticker having such undesired properties that the sticker is unacceptable. The control unit 34 is arranged to control, on such actuation, the device to avoid trans¬ portation of unacceptable stickers to the stack forming station 1.

The control unit 34 may then be arranged to process the signals of the detector 36 and the operating member 37 in parallel so that whenever a signal indicating an unacceptable sticker is obtained from the detector 36 or the operating member 37, the control unit 34 ensures that the sticker in question is not transported to the stack forming station.

The device may then be such that the control unit 34 is adapted to control the stop members 12, on occurrence of an unacceptable sticker amongst the stickers intended for a layer, for the unaccept¬ able sticker and at least the stickers located downstream thereof to be inactivated so that the conveyor 10 displaces the unacceptable sticker and at least those stickers that are located downstream thereof past the readiness position 16. Expressed in other words, the unacceptable sticker and the stickers located downstream thereof in the set which belongs to a layer between timber pieces in the stack will, thus, be moved away from the readiness position 16. As long as the unacceptable sticker is not the one which is located mostly downstream amongst those which are included in the layer in question, this will necessarily mean that one or more stickers ac¬ ceptable per se also will be displaced past the readiness position. For this purpose a sticker receiving apparatus 38 (Figs. 1 , 4 and 5) is arranged at the downstream end of the conveyor 10, said appa- ratus comprising at least two receivers 39, 40, one of which is in¬ tended for unacceptable stickers and the other for the acceptable stickers. This receiving apparatus 38 is co-ordinated with a selector 41 to selectively cause stickers to arrive to one or the other of the receivers 39, 40. The selector 41 , which in Fig. 5 is illustrated as a pivotably arranged guide flap, is, accordingly, controlled by the control unit 34 dependent on information from the detector 36 and/or the operating member 37 so that there will be only unac¬ ceptable stickers in one of the receivers 39, 40 whereas there will be present, in the other receiver, acceptable stickers. The receivers 39, 40 are suitably co-ordinated with conveyors, discharging

equipment or similar to successively or batchwise discharge stick¬ ers from the receiving apparatus 38.

In the variant in Fig. 6, it is illustrated that the device comprises one or more members 42 controlled by the control unit 34, said members being adapted for removal of unacceptable stickers, while the stickers are being held in their readiness positions by the stop members. The sticker removal member 42 comprises, similar to the sticker transporting means 13, pliers-like gripping members 43 for gripping the stickers 4. The gripping member 43 is arranged on a vertically movable part 44, which is operated by means of a suit¬ able power member 45, for instance a cylinder. The sticker removal member 42 is arranged on a base part 46, which is movable along a guide 47 in a direction substantially parallel to the longitudinal di- rection of the stickers in their readiness position. The device may be such that for each of the stickers intended to be in a readiness position, there is a specific sticker removal member 42, these members 42 being operable individually or collectively. In case there is one single sticker removal member 42, the same must be movable transversely to the longitudinal direction of the stickers present in the readiness position in the order to be able to be lo¬ cated in front of the sticker which is unacceptable and therefore should be removed.

The removal members 42 are arranged to move the stickers away from the readiness position 16 in a direction substantially opposite to the direction, in which the stickers are transported to the stack forming station by means of the sticker transporting means 13. In Fig. 6 there is diagrammatically illustrated a receiver 48, on which unacceptable stickers removed from the readiness position 16 are intended to be placed by means of the occurring sticker removal member(-s) 42. The receiver 48 may then consist of or comprise some kind of conveyor, container or similar for continuous or batchwise discharge of the unacceptable stickers.

When an individual sticker or several stickers have been removed from the readiness position 16 in the embodiment according to Fig. 6, the control unit 34 will control the piece-meal feeder 11 and the stop members 12 so that the sticker vacancies obtained are pro- vided with fresh stickers.

The block diagram illustrated in Fig. 7 corresponds to that illus¬ trated in Fig. 4 with the exception that sticker removal members 42 are under control of the control unit 34.

The device illustrated in Figs. 1-5 operates in the following way: timber pieces are transported on the conveyor 7 in a direction to¬ wards the stack forming station 1 and are laid out therein to a stack layer by layer. By a suitable co-ordination of the operation of the apparatus 2 for supply of timber pieces and the apparatus 3 for provision of stickers on the stack, layers of stickers may be ob¬ tained between desired timber layers in the stack. Stickers arrive on the conveyor 15 and are gathered to a buffer store 19 thereon. As soon as stickers present in a readiness position 16 have been gripped, lifted and transported away from the readiness position by means of the transporting means 13, the control unit 34 controls the piece-meal feeder 11 to deliver a number of stickers corresponding to the desired number in the sticker layer with intervals. These stickers are displaced by the conveyor 10 towards their readiness position and are stopped therein by means of the stop members 12. When the sticker transporting means 13 have delivered the stickers in the preceding sticker layer on the timber stack, the sticker trans¬ porting means 13 are returned and they grip the stickers now pre¬ sent in the readiness position and lift the same again. The opera- tion proceeds in this way while the stack is formed. During this op¬ eration the detector 35 operates for detection of undesired proper¬ ties of the stickers. At the same time the operator has the possibil¬ ity to actuate the operating member 37 should he visually register some undesired property of some sticker. If a sticker for a sticker layer would be registered as unacceptable, the control unit 34 will automatically control the stop members 12 so that this sticker and

all stickers located downstream thereof will be displaced further to the receiving apparatus 38 by means of the conveyor 10 at the same time as the control unit 34 controls the piece-meal feeder 11 to deliver to the conveyor 10 an extra number of stickers corre- sponding to the sticker number delivered to the receiving apparatus 38.

The operation in the embodiment according to Figs. 6 and 7 is the corresponding with the exception that here only unacceptable stickers are picked away by means of the sticker removal members 42 and delivered to the receiver 48. The stickers removed are re¬ placed by a corresponding control of the piece-meal feeder 11 and the stop members located upstream of the place for the removed sticker, so that the sticker layer comes complete before the sticker transporting means 13 (not illustrated in Fig. 6) grip, lift and trans¬ port the stickers in the layer to the stack forming station.

The device described may of course be modified in several ways within the scope of the concept of the invention.