Woodworking – Process – Securing
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-29
2003-07-22
Bray, W. Donald (Department: 3725)
Woodworking
Process
Securing
C029S428000, C029S897310, C144S002100, C144S133100, C144S136100, C144S346000, C144S353000, C144S246100, C144S253500, C144S203000, C144S003100, C144S354000, C144S355000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06595252
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
Floor-bridging units
10
are used for framing floors of wood buildings.
FIG. 1
shows an example of a floor-bridging unit
10
. The floor-bridging unit
10
is generally an X shaped member
12
with flanges
14
attached to two sides
16
. The floor-bridging units
10
are placed between floor joists
18
and nailed through the flange
14
to the joist
18
, as seen in FIG.
2
. Once installed in rows between the joists
18
, they transmit point loads from one joist
18
to the adjacent joists
18
by supplying support to the joists
18
in compression or tension. The floor-bridging units
10
add stiffness and rigidity to the floor system. The increase in rigidity and stiffness allows for longer joist spans, shallower joists
18
, or wider on-center joists
18
, thereby providing for more cost-effective material usage.
The floor-bridging unit
10
is usually constructed by creating the X member
12
from two legs
22
of #2 grade kiln dried spruce 2×3s. The 2×3 are each planed to tolerance, mitered on the ends and dado cut at the center to remove a portion of material from each piece, as shown in FIG.
3
. The two dado cut slots
24
are then joined together with glue and staples to form the X member
12
of the floor-bridging unit
10
. The ¾″ Douglas Fir plywood flanges
14
are then glued and nailed to the ends of the X member
12
to form the floor-bridging unit
10
, as shown in FIG.
1
. Current industry practices are to first plane the 2×3 lumber for the legs
22
and then to cut the lumber to length using a hand operated miter saw. The 2×3 lumber is actually about 1 and ½ inches by 2 and ½ inches and is planed downed to a consistent 1 and ½ inches by 2 and {fraction (7/16)} inches. The lumber is planed because initially the lumber is not a consistent size and needs to be in order to maintain the manufacture of a quality product. Once cut to length, the dado slot
24
is cut into the legs
22
by a saw. Two legs
22
are joined at the dado slots
24
to create a dado joint and form the X member
12
. This joint is glued and stapled together. The ends of the joined legs
22
are trimmed to tolerance in a table saw. To make the flanges
14
, sheet wood is cut into strips and then into rectangles on a table saw. Glue is then applied by hand to the four ends of the dado joined legs
22
of X member
12
. After the glue is applied, the rectangles are positioned onto the ends by hand and nailed in place using a hand operated nail gun.
It is an object of the present invention is to provide a method of mass producing floor-bridging units
10
in an efficient and cost effective manner.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A method of producing the floor-bridging units, which increases production rate of the floor-bridging units. First rough lumber beams are fed through a planer, which planes the lumber to the required consistent size tolerance. The planed lumber is transferred to a cut-off saw to cut the legs. The legs are transferred to a dado machine and a dado slot is cut into the lumber. The legs are transferred to a joining station to form the X member, where the dado slots are joined into a dado joint by gluing and stapling the joint. The X member is transferred to a trimming station to be trimmed. At the same time flanges are being made by cutting sheet lumber in strips and then into rectangles to form the flanges. The flanges are transferred to a nailing jig, while glue is applied to the trimmed ends of the legs of the X members. The X members with the applied glue are transferred to the nailing jig. Finally, the flanges are nailed to the glued ends of the X members and the finished floor-bridging units are transferred to a packaging area.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3665982 (1972-05-01), Kvalheim
patent: 3732906 (1973-05-01), Welgas
patent: 5592800 (1997-01-01), Koo et al.
Bassett Darwin R.
Bassett Wayne L.
Bray W. Donald
Elnitski, Jr. John J.
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