Patents by Inventor James D. Woodford

James D. Woodford has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7571751
    Abstract: In a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a new method for edging a wood board. This method comprises the steps of constructing from the scanned images of a wood board, a virtual entity of the wood board; determining from the scanned images an optimized cut line along the virtual entity; displacing the forward edge of the virtual entity ahead of the leading edge of the wood board; displacing the rear edge of the virtual entity behind the trailing edge of the wood board and sawing the wood board along the optimized cut line on the virtual entity. In another feature, the saw blades inside the board edger are mounted in saw collars and are shifted along the arbor by an electric setworks mounted on the top of the saw box and a shifting arm extending vertically between the setworks and a respective saw collar.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2009
    Assignee: U.S. Natural Resources, Inc.
    Inventors: James D. Woodford, Joe Weirathmueller, Friedrich Weirathmueller, Khalil G. Asal
  • Patent number: 7543615
    Abstract: In a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a new method for edging a wood board. This method comprises the steps of constructing from the scanned images of a wood board, a virtual entity of the wood board; determining from the scanned images an optimized cut line along the virtual entity; displacing the forward edge of the virtual entity ahead of the leading edge of the wood board; displacing the rear edge of the virtual entity behind the trailing edge of the wood board and sawing the wood board along the optimized cut line on the virtual entity. In another feature, the saw blades inside the board edger are mounted in saw collars and are shifted along the arbor by an electric setworks mounted on the top of the saw box and a shifting arm extending vertically between the setworks and a respective saw collar.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2009
    Assignee: U.S. Natural Resources, Inc.
    Inventors: James D. Woodford, Joe Weirathmueller, Friedrich Weirathmueller, Khalil G. Asal
  • Publication number: 20080230151
    Abstract: A board edger is taught that includes an infeed conveyor, a scanner for scanning a board to be edged as it passes on the infeed conveyor to determine orientation and dimension and a saw. The saw includes a reference plane for supporting a board to be edged, a first saw box disposed adjacent the reference plane and having at least two blades controllable for width, longitudinal angle and depth, a second saw box disposed adjacent the reference plane and having at least two blades controllable for width, longitudinal angle and depth, and a saw controller coupled to the scanner for receiving signals from the scanner and coupled to the first and second saw boxes for setting the first saw box for cutting and controlling the cutting by the second saw box. Advantageously, while one saw box is cutting a board the other saw box is being set up by the saw controller to cut the next board thereby decreasing the spacing required between boards. This increases the throughout of the board edger.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 20, 2007
    Publication date: September 25, 2008
    Inventors: Ken Appeldoorn, James D. Woodford, Hugh Hawley, Stephen Mockler
  • Patent number: 6929043
    Abstract: In a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a new method for edging a wood board. This method comprises the steps of constructing from the scanned images of a wood board, a virtual entity of the wood board; determining from the scanned images an optimized cut line along the virtual entity; displacing the forward edge of the virtual entity ahead of the leading edge of the wood board; displacing the rear edge of the virtual entity behind the trailing edge of the wood board and sawing the wood board along the optimized cut line on the virtual entity. In another feature, the saw blades inside the board edger are mounted in saw collars and are shifted along the arbor by an electric setworks mounted on the top of the saw box and a shifting arm extending vertically between the setworks and a respective saw collar.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2005
    Assignee: Valley Machine Works Ltd.
    Inventors: James D. Woodford, Joe Weirathmueller, Friedrich Weirathmueller, Khalil G. Asal
  • Publication number: 20030019545
    Abstract: In a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a new method for edging a wood board. This method comprises the steps of constructing from the scanned images of a wood board, a virtual entity of the wood board; determining from the scanned images an optimized cut line along the virtual entity; displacing the forward edge of the virtual entity ahead of the leading edge of the wood board; displacing the rear edge of the virtual entity behind the trailing edge of the wood board and sawing the wood board along the optimized cut line on the virtual entity. In another feature, the saw blades inside the board edger are mounted in saw collars and are shifted along the arbor by an electric setworks mounted on the top of the saw box and a shifting arm extending vertically between the setworks and a respective saw collar.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 19, 2002
    Publication date: January 30, 2003
    Inventors: James D. Woodford, Joe Weirathmueller, Friedrich Weirathmueller, Khalil G. Asal