IMPROVED LUMBER STACKING APPARATUS WITH AUTOMATED STICKER FEEDING FEATURE

摘要

A lumber stacking apparatus 10 is described having sticker feed conveyor 150 for distributing stickers to a plurality of sticker stations 154 adjacent a rear of the apparatus 10. A sticker transfer conveyor 158 is provided with grippers 186 at each sticker station 154 for gripping a rear end of the stickers and lift ing the gripped stickers from the sticker feed conveyor 150 and moving the stickers forward and depositing the stickers in slots 62 formed in arms 54. The arms 54 are moved forward and upward to pick up a layer of boards on an elevated surface and to transfer the layer and underlying stickers to a layer stacking station 38. An overhead layer formation assembly 100 has layer formation stops 118 that selectively project downward into the path of the boards to form a layer and are removed to release a layer. A stripping mechanism 122 is associated with the layer formation assembly to strip the stickers and layer fro m the arms.