Importance

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Abstract

An apparatus for longitudinally orienting elongated particles, such as wood strands for forming orienting strand board panels, includes a pre-orienting unit with vertically arranged orienting elements, such as discs of a disc roll, a final orienting unit below the pre-orienting unit, and a forming belt below the final orienting unit. The final orienting unit includes plural sheetmetal chutes that are spaced successively along the transport direction of the forming belt and that each include plural side-by-side trough-shaped orienting channels that slope at a slope angle toward the forming belt along the transport direction. The non-oriented wood strands supplied to the pre-orienting unit are pre-oriented by falling through passages thereof, and the pre-oriented strands are then further longitudinally oriented as they slide longitudinally along the orienting channels, from which they slide without free-falling onto the forming belt. In an alternative embodiment, the pre-orienting unit can be omitted.

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First Claim