Core joiner and cutter apparatus
View Patent ↗An automatic core joiner and cutter apparatus for use in the recycling of used cores and the manufacture of new conjoined cores is disclosed. The apparatus combines an infeed unit, a milling unit, and an outfeed unit, all controlled by a PC. The used core is milled by the infeed milling bit and the core remnant is milled by the outfeed milling bit. A glue applicator applies glue to at least one of the milled surfaces and the milled surfaces are mated together to produce a new conjoined core. The infeed cutting and milling operations and the outfeed cutting and milling operations are controlled by the controller and performed at the same time.
1. A process for automatically performing cutting and milling operations on a used core and a core remnant to provide mating milled surfaces on the adjacent ends of the used core and core remnant and placing the mating surfaces into engagement with each other to produce a conjoined core, such process including the steps of:
positioning a used core proximate an infeed cutting blade and infeed milling bit and positioning the adjacent end of a core remnant in a position proximate an outfeed cutting blade and an outfeed milling bit;
cutting the used end of the used core with the infeed cutting blade to produce a clean end and cutting the used end of the core remnant with the outfeed cutting blade to produce a clean end;
milling the clean end of the used core with the infeed milling bit to produce a mating surface and milling the clean end of the core remnant with the outfeed milling bit to produce a mating surface;
applying glue to at least one of the mating surfaces; and
joining the mating surfaces of the used core and core remnant to produce a conjoined core.
2. The process of claim 1 wherein the outfeed cutter and milling bit are positioned on a vertical slide and a horizontal slide, wherein a controller controls movement of the outfeed milling bit into engagement with the interior surface of the core remnant.
3. The process of claim 1 further including the step of moving the conjoined core a specified distance and cutting the conjoined core with the outfeed cutting blade to produce a new conjoined core member of specified length.
4. The process of claim 1 wherein the used cores are provided in a variety of lengths and resulting conjoined cores are of a variety of lengths and the specified length of the new conjoined core member can vary.