DE29901880U1 - Hydraulic log splitter for the production of firewood split ready for the oven - Google Patents

Description

Hydraulic wood splitter for producing oven-ready split firewood Description

Hydraulic wood splitters of the usual design have a horizontal or vertical hydraulic cylinder.

In the versions with a horizontal hydraulic cylinder, the piece of wood to be split is usually pushed through a splitting wedge that can be adjusted in height manually or hydraulically. This splits the wood into 2, 4 or more pieces. These machines are often semi-automatic, which means that the piece of wood to be split activates the valve of the hydraulic cylinder using its own weight via a lever and thus starts the splitting process. After the wood has been pushed completely through the splitting wedge by the next piece of wood, it is often transported away on a conveyor belt. The performance of the machine and the occupational safety for the operating personnel can be described as good.

The main disadvantage of this design is that if the wood to be split has different diameters, the height of the splitting wedge must be adjusted so that the log hits it in the middle. Nevertheless, the splitting pieces often vary greatly in size, as the pieces of wood are always split into the same number of pieces regardless of their diameter. Furthermore, there are often problems with knotty pieces of wood, especially hardwood, as the piece of wood to be split does not necessarily come to rest in the intended position in front of the splitting wedge on its own. The wood is then pressed into the splitting wedge at an angle to its grain and becomes jammed there.

In hydraulic wood splitters with a vertical hydraulic cylinder, the splitting wedge is in most cases attached to the cylinder. The piece of wood to be split is placed on a rigid support table attached below the splitting wedge. Depending on the splitting wedge used, the wood is split into 2 or 4 pieces. The person operating the machine can give the split pieces a uniform size because, on the one hand, he can align the wood to be split precisely with the splitting wedge and, on the other hand, can sort out large pieces after the splitting process and split them again. With this design, work safety is good and the split pieces are uniform in size, but the performance leaves something to be desired due to the manual work and the constant waiting times while the cylinder is moving.

The invention specified in the protection claim is based on the problem of creating a hydraulic wood splitter that has a high performance even with heavily knotted wood and wood of very different diameters and yet produces split pieces of uniform size without having to compromise on work safety and ergonomics. This problem is solved with the features specified in the protection claim.

Hydraulic wood splitter for producing oven-ready firewood

The invention makes it possible to manually position knotty and uneven wood in the correct position required for the splitting process. The wood can be split into a corresponding number of pieces according to its diameter without having to adjust anything on the machine. The electrical control and discharge regulation of the hydraulic valves allows high performance to be combined with high levels of work safety and convenience.

An embodiment of the invention is explained with reference to Figure 1.

Figure 1 shows the hydraulic wood splitter with five splitting tools (3). The splitting tools (3) consist of vertical flat irons, which are ground on the edge facing the cylinder. While the splitting tools for three or more split pieces are attached horizontally to the machine frame, the splitting tool under the support plate (4) is an exception. It is attached at a slight angle, sloping approx. 10° from front to back. The wood to be split here is halved. To prevent the piece of wood from tipping over sideways, it is placed on it as with all other splitting tools and also leaned against the semi-circular support plate. This support plate is attached between the splitting tool and the hydraulic cylinder parallel to the working direction of the cylinder. The curve of the support plate must be adapted to the curve of the pressure plate (5).

The pressure plates (5) of the hydraulic cylinders must be sufficiently large with a diameter of approx. 20 cm to prevent the wood from splitting off the pressure plate during the working movement of the cylinder. The underside of the pressure plates should also be grooved to prevent the wood from slipping, especially on uneven cutting sides.

The hydraulic cylinders (6) must be sufficiently strong with a splitting pressure of approx. 15 tons and their working length must be selected so that they reach their end position just above the splitting tool. Pieces of wood to be split that are still stuck in the splitting wedges despite the cylinders reaching their end position are finally pushed through the splitting tool by the next piece of wood. In addition, the upward movement of the cylinders should be faster than the downward movement in order to save working time. The hydraulic oil is supplied by a hydraulic pump on the machine that can be driven in various ways (petrol, diesel or electric motor, tractor PTO, etc.). An external supply, for example via the hydraulic system of a vehicle, is also conceivable. The electrical control of the hydraulic cylinders has a few special features:

After the wood has been placed on the splitting tool, the command to lower the cylinder is given via two electrical push buttons (7). To do this, both push buttons must be pressed simultaneously, which is only possible with both hands due to their arrangement on the machine.

Hydraulic wood splitter for producing oven-ready firewood

This ensures that the person operating the machine has removed both hands from the wood before the splitting process is initiated. After pressing the two push buttons, the downward movement and the switch to the upward movement take place automatically. When the cylinder has reached its lowest position, the magnetic switch (14) is activated and the command to move upwards is given automatically. During this time, the next piece of wood to be split can be placed under a free cylinder and the command to lower this cylinder can be given. The electrical control system ensures that while a cylinder is moving, the next command can be given to an adjacent cylinder, but this is only carried out after the previous movement has finished.

Furthermore, each individual hydraulic cylinder has a mechanically adjustable, electrical magnetic limit switch (8) that prevents the cylinder from returning completely to the upper basic position. This ensures that if pieces of firewood of the same length are to be split over a longer period of time, the cylinders do not return to their upper basic position and always cover a certain unnecessary empty distance, but can be adjusted to the length of wood to be split with a tolerance of a few centimeters.

Figure 2 describes the structure of this electric magnetic limit switch (8). A metal profile tube (9) with a square cross-section is attached to the hydraulic cylinder in the working direction, which is split lengthwise on the side opposite the cylinder. A smaller profile tube (10) runs in the large profile tube (9), at the upper end of which a flat iron (11) is attached, which protrudes through the slot in the large profile tube and at its lower end rests loosely on the top of the pressure plate (5) through a hole in the frame of the machine. Two angle irons (12) are attached parallel to these profile tubes, onto which the magnetic switches (8 + 14) are screwed with a wing nut (13) each. As soon as the magnetic switch (8) is activated by the flat iron (11), the hydraulic cylinder stops its upward movement. By changing the height of the magnetic switch, the cylinder can be stopped at any point in its working range and thus adjusted to the length of wood to be split. Figure 3 shows an example of a cylinder in a middle working position. If the flat iron (11) activates the lower magnetic switch (14), the command to move upwards is given automatically.

The support legs (2) of the machine should be approximately 80 cm long so that on the one hand the person operating the machine has a comfortable working height and on the other hand there is a distance of approximately 50 cm from the upper edge of the conveyor belt (1) to the lower edge of the splitting wedges (3) in order to avoid the falling split pieces getting caught.

After running horizontally beneath the machine, the conveyor belt (1) slopes upwards to convey the split wood into a provided transport vehicle or transport container.

Claims (1)

Hydraulic wood splitter for producing firewood ready for use in the oven Protection requirements Hydraulic wood splitter for producing firewood that is split ready for use in the oven, characterized in that several hydraulic cylinders (6) arranged parallel to one another and vertically press the wood to be split through fixed splitting wedges (3) equipped with a different number of splitting blades, the splitting wedges (3), due to the arrangement of the splitting blades, enable the splitting of different wood diameters into a different number of evenly sized split pieces, an additional support plate (4) also enables the halving of pieces of wood, the split wood is continuously transported away and loaded by a conveyor belt (1) mounted under the machine after it has completely passed through the splitting wedges, electric control and sequence regulation of the machine functions enables safe and rapid work, a mechanically adjustable, electric magnetic limit switch (8) is mounted on each hydraulic cylinder, which prevents a complete return to the upper basic position of the respective cylinder if desired.