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Apparatus and method for spreading and refining natural wood (13) which has been crushed in a pair of crushing rollers, to form a flexible open lattice work web (14) of naturally interconnected wood strands which are generally aligned along a common grain direction and a substantial proportion of wh

Apparatus and method for spreading and refining natural wood (13) which has been crushed in a pair of crushing rollers, to form a flexible open lattice work web (14) of naturally interconnected wood strands which are generally aligned along a common grain direction and a substantial proportion of which are substantially discrete but incompletely separated from each other. The spreading and refining is performed by passing the crushed carcass (14) through at least two roller pairs (30) which have spaced corrugated rollers (32) with the maximum spacing between the corrugations of the opposed spaced corrugated rollers decreasing in the roller pairs with increasing distance from the crushing rollers. At least one roller (32) of each spaced corrugated roller pair is axially reciprocated. Between said at least two spaced corrugated roller pairs (30) is a pair (66) of intermeshing corrugated rollers (70, 74). A pair (46) of rollers (50, 56) incorporating a series of axially spaced blades (48) may be provided to break up knots and spiral grain growth and downstream of a last of the spaced corrugated roller pairs (30) a rolling harrow (82) or further pair (66) of intermeshing rollers may be provided.

대표청구항 ▼

A process for partially rending natural wood to form a flexible open lattice work web of naturally interconnected wood strands which are generally aligned along a common grain direction, a substantial proportion of said strands being substantially discrete but incompletely separated from each other,

A process for partially rending natural wood to form a flexible open lattice work web of naturally interconnected wood strands which are generally aligned along a common grain direction, a substantial proportion of said strands being substantially discrete but incompletely separated from each other, said rending being effected by crushing the natural wood between a pair of rollers arranged with generally parallel axes by rolling engaging the natural wood from either side to form an open carcase of the natural wood and by spreading and refining the carcase to form the web, said spreading and refining comprising passing the crushed carcase through at least two roller pairs which have spaced corrugated rollers and in which the maximum spacing between the corrugations of the opposed spaced corrugated rollers decreases in the roller pairs with increasing distance along a spreading and refining path from the crushing rollers, reciprocating at least one roller of each spaced corrugated roller pair relative to the other roller of said pair during said pass, and passing the carcase through a pair of intermeshing corrugated rollers after said pass through a first of the pairs of spaced corrugated rollers and before said pass through a further of the pairs of spaced corrugated rollers.