Abstract: Apparatus for forming a loosely felted mat of elongated wood flakes, the wood flakes being aligned in parallel relation and parallel to the longitudinal direction of the mat. The apparatus includes a former for depositing wood flakes on a support surface in a uniformly dispersed, loosely felted relation, and a plurality of vertically oriented baffles positioned below the former and in mutually parallel alignment. The baffles are reciprocated in the direction of the mat to cause flakes lying across the baffles to fall between the baffles and to be aligned with the longitudinal direction of the mat.

Abstract: Apparatus is described for forming a loosely felted mat of elongated wood flakes, the wood flakes being aligned in parallel relation and parallel to the longitudinal direction of the mat. The apparatus includes a former for depositing wood flakes on a support surface in a uniformly dispersed, loosely felted relation, and a plurality of vertically oriented baffles positioned below the former and in mutually parallel alignment. The baffles include a first set and a second set with respective ones of the second set of baffles being positioned between respective ones of the baffles of the first set. The baffles of the second set are reciprocated in the direction of the mat to cause flakes lying across the baffles to be aligned with the longitudinal direction of the mat.

Abstract: Apparatus for forming a loosely felted mat of thin elongated wood flakes with said flakes being aligned in mutually parallel relation. The apparatus includes a mat supporting surface, a hopper for holding a quantity of wood flakes, and a funnel assembly for receiving wood flakes from the hopper and for causing the flakes to be aligned in substantially parallel side-by-side relation as they are deposited on the supporting surface. The funnel assembly includes a plurality of funnels positioned in adjacent side-by-side relation, the funnels each including inclined walls having lower edges defining an elongated narrow opening adjacent the supporting surface and upper edges defining an opening wider than said narrow opening and for receiving wood flakes from the hopper. The narrow openings of the funnels are parallel and distribute the flakes uniformly across the supporting surface.

Abstract: An article having non-planar portions, such as a pallet having a substantially flat deck member and a plurality of hollow leg members projecting integrally from the deck member, is molded as a one-piece unit from a loosely-felted, layered mat formed from a mixture of a resinous particle board binder and flake-like wood particles. The wood flakes have an average length of about 11/4 to about 6 inches, preferably about 2 to about 3 inches, an average thickness of about 0.005 to about 0.075 inch, preferably about 0.015 to about 0.025 inch, and an average width of 3 inches or less and no greater than the average length. Each layer of wood flakes in the mat lie substantially flat on a plane generally parallel to the major plane thereof and are randomly oriented to each other. The mat is placed between the male and female dies of a mold or press and compressed therein to substantially the desired shape under temperature and pressure conditions sufficient to bond the flakes together.

Abstract: A fingerling shear for shearing a length of wood in a plane transverse to the grain direction and for splitting the sheared length along the grain direction to form a plurality of fingerlings. The shear includes a planar shearing blade, supported for rotation about a generally vertical axis, the planar shearing blade including an involute cutting edge adapted to engage the elongated piece of wood during rotation of the blade and for shearing off a length of that piece of wood, and a plurality of splitting blades fixed to the lower surface of the planar shearing blade and spaced along the involute cutting edge, the splitting blades each including a leading cutting edge spaced from the involute cutting edge of the planar blade and extending tranversely to the lower surface, the cutting edges of the splitting blades being adapted to sequentially engage portions of the sheared length of the wood stock to sequentially split fingerlings from the sheared length.

Abstract: A molded unitarily formed pallet is provided, the pallet including wood particles bonded together by a cured binder in compressed relation. Also provided is a method for making such pallets. The pallet includes a deck having an upper supporting surface, a lower surface, a plurality of integral leg sections extending downwardly from the deck, and a densified integral peripheral portion surrounding the deck to provide increased strength at the periphery of the pallet. The pallet may also include narrow elongated wooden strips bonded to the densified peripheral edge to further increase the strength of the pallet.