APPARATUS FOR FEEDING TREES IN THEIR LONGITUDINAL DIRECTION ALONG THE TREATMENT LINE OF A PROCESSOR

APPAREIL POUR AVANCER DES GRUMES DANS LEUR SENS LONGITUDINAL SUR LA CHAINE DE TRAITEMENT D'UNE INSTALLATION DE PREPARATION

English Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

The invention provides an apparatus for feeding
trees in their longitudinal direction into a processor along
the treatment line. The apparatus may be used for lopping,
measuring, spray-protecting, cutting, sorting, or any other
corresponding operation. The apparatus comprises two
feeding rolls or rollers provided with surfaces of sufficient
adhesive capacity. The feeding rolls are arranged above
and underneath the feeding line of the trees and are mounted
on substantially horizontal axles each of them at an arm of
its own. The arms are pivotable in the vertical direction
and are fastened, by means of articulated joints, at a
vertical distance from each other, to the frame of the
treatment line. A cylinder-piston apparatus is arranged
between the arms of the feeding rolls and produces the
compression force required by the feeding rolls and guarantees
continuous drive by both feeding rolls. The upper feeding
roller is placed somewhat closer to the beginning of the
treatment line than the lower feeding roller.

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive
property ox privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. An apparatus for feeding trees in their longitudinal
direction into a processor along the treatment line for the
purpose of lopping and/or measuring and/or spray-protecting
and/or cutting and/or sorting the trunk and/or for any other
corresponding operation, the apparatus for feeding the trees
comprising two feeding rolls or rollers provided with surfaces
of sufficient adhesive capacity, characterized by the following
combination of constructional details, in which said feeding
rolls are arranged above and underneath the feeding line of
the trees and said feeding rolls are mounted on substantially
horizontal axles each of them at an arm of its own, which arms
are pivotable in the vertical direction and fastened, by
means of articulated joints, at a vertical distance from each
other, to the frame of the treatment line, and that a cylinder-
piston apparatus is arranged between the arms of the feeding
rolls, which apparatus produces the compression force required
by the feeding rolls and guarantees continuous drive by both
feeding rolls and that the upper feeding roller is placed
somewhat closer to the beginning of the treatment line than
the lower feeding roller.



2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized
in that the arm of the upper feeding roller is longer than the
arm of the lower feeding roller.

Description

~4~
The subject of the present invention is an app~ratus
for feeding trees along the treatment line of a processor for
the purpose of lopping and/or measuring and/ox Spray-protecting
and/or cutting and/or sorting the trunk and/or for any other
corresponding operationr the aPParatus for feeding the trees
comprising two feeding rolls or rollers provided with surfaces
of sufficient adhesive capacity and said feeding rolls being
arranged above and underneath the feeding line of the trees
and being mounted on substantially horizontal axles each of
them at an arm of its own, which arms are pivotable in the
vertical direction and fastened, by means of articulated joints,
at a vertical distance from each other, to the frame of the
treatment line. .
The feeding apparatus in accordance with the
present invention is mainly characterized in that a cylinder-
piston apparatus is arranged between the arms of the feeding
rolls, which apparatus produces the compression force
required by the feeding rolls and guarantees continuous drive
by both feeding rollers, and that the upper feeding roller
is placed somewhat closer to the beginning of the treatment
line than the lower feed roller.
The invention comes out more closely from the .
following description and from the attached drawings, wherein:
FIGURE 1 shows the prOCeSSQr as a side view;
FIGURE ~ shows the processor of Figure l as a : ~`
front view; ~ .FIGURES 3 and 4 schematically show the feeding of :
a tree trunk by means of the Eeeding rollers :
as a side view, and
FIGURE 5 shows the pair of drive rollers as viewed
from the direction of feeding.
,. ~ .


~49~
Figures l and 2 show the feeding apparatus 2 in
accordance with the present invention as arranged to the
beginning of the treatment line 1 of a processor.
The feeding apparatus consists of two rollers 3
and 4 rotating around substantially horizontal axles and
provided with surfaces of sufficient adhesive capacity,
the rotating momentum of which rollers required for feeding
the tree 8 is ohtained, for example, from hydraulic motors
placed in the rollers, as well as of two arms~5 and 6,
which are, by means of articulated joints, fastened to the
same object 9, a working cylinder 7 mounted between said arms
producing the required compression force on the rollers 3
and 4.
The arms S and 6 are mounted in the line 1 for
the treatment of trees on shafts 10 and 11, which are trans~
versal to the direction of movement of the tree and placed in
the same plane as the axles of the rollers. This articulated
mounting permi~s the lower roller 4 to grasp the tree even if
the trunk 8 were highly curved or had a large root expansion,
as is shown in Figure 4. In this way, continuous drive is
guaranteed from both rollers 3 and 4. ~;~
Due to the longer arm 5 of the upper roller 3,
one support point of the trunk 8 is almost always a lopping
means, because of which the lopping means 13 and 14 are always
able to come as close to the surface of the trunk 8 as
possible. Moreover, due to the difference in length of the
~rms 5 and 6, it is possible.to use rollers of the shape of
a double cone so that, due to overlapping of the rollers 3
and 4, the diameter dimension remaining between them can be
made sufficiently small (Figure 5).


~48~7
The upper roller 3, with the lon~er arm-5, is better
able to grasp the root ends of the trees ~s well which, due
to thelr length or the inclination of the ground, form a
rather large angle with the plane of treatment of the line 1.
In the case shown in Figures 3 and 4, the cylinder-
piston apparatus 7 arranged between the.arms 5 and 6 is placed
between the rollers 3 and 4 and the articulation points 10 and
11, but it can of course also be. placed between extensions
of the arms S and 6 passing beyond the articulation points
10 and 11.
The invention is not restricted to the exemplifying
embodiment described above alone, but it may show variation
in many ways within the scope of the patent claims.