Scarfer & RF Tunnel
The next step in our manufacturing process is to finger joint the material to the proper length. We do this using a scarfer. Wood enters the scarfer on a turntable and knives in the machine cut the finger joints. Then, the machine applies glue to the joints and sends the material on a chain up to the Radio Frequency tunnel. This tunnel is basically a giant microwave oven and rapidly cooks, or cures, the glue in the finger joints. At the other end, a flying cutoff saw automatically trims the material to the specified length. Essentially, if we had the material and the space in our plant, this machine could create an infinitely long board for gluing. In fact, the longest beam we've ever glued was just under 174 feet long and was used to create the bottom chord of the covered bridge over the Delaware River in Downsville, NY.
The following photo shows finger-jointed boards coming out of the scarfer and tunnel.
Click here to continue.
No comments:
Post a Comment