Appeal No. 98-3125
Application Nos. 08/294,730, 90/003,655, 90/003,826 and
90/004,552
each other to remove bark from the logs without appreciable
wear to the rotary drum. As noted in column 2, lines 3-22, of
the ‘412 patent,
[i]t has been proposed to feed tree length
logs into a debarking drum with a nealy
horizontal conveyor. To obtain efficient
debarking, the tree length logs must be fed in
groups of stacked or side by side logs. The
problem with this technique is that the very
long logs, perhaps sixty feet in length, begin
to rotate and tumble soon after their leading
ends enter the drum, while substantial lengths
of the logs are still on the conveyor. The
rotating and flailing motion of the logs can
cause severe damage to the conveyor chain, and
the trailing ends of logs leaving the conveyor
can catch on and can be grabbed by the
downwardly and rearwardly moving return portion
of the conveyor. This can cause the trailing
end of a log to be pushed down and pulled
rearwardly so that the log jams in the chain
while its leading end is whipped around by the
drum. While the conveyor chain is quite strong
and can support and move groups of heavy logs,
localized stress in individual links caused by
impact, or by grabbing a log at the nose end of
the conveyor can damage the chain.
Appellants’ solution to the problem indicated above is to
provide a debarking apparatus which uses a generally
conventional main chain conveyor and an auxiliary feed means
in the form of a conveyor or low friction feed region between
the nose or head end of the main chain conveyor and the
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