Smoother and gypsum board manufacturing device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12533828-B2
Application number	US-202218682667-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 25, 2022
Priority date	Aug 31, 2021
Publication date	Jan 27, 2026
Grant date	Jan 27, 2026

Abstract

A smoother includes a conveying device for a molded body; a pair of arms that are respectively disposed to face both widthwise ends of the conveying device, and in which longitudinal ends of the arms are swingable in upward and downward directions with respect to a conveying surface of the conveying device; a smoother plate fixed to a pair of facing ends of the longitudinal ends of the pair of arms; weights that are respectively attached to the pair of arms and are movable along a longitudinal direction of the arms; a weight position changing device configured to change positions of the weights on the arms; and a first control device configured to control the positions of the weights on the arms via the weight position changing device.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A smoother configured to correct a shape of a molded body of a gypsum slurry by smoothing, the smoother comprising:
a conveying device for the molded body; a pair of arms that are respectively disposed to face both widthwise ends of the conveying device, and in which longitudinal ends of the arms are swingable in upward and downward directions with respect to a conveying surface of the conveying device; a smoother plate having a plate-shaped body and being fixed to a pair of facing ends of the longitudinal ends of the pair of arms, the smoother plate configured to contact and smooth a top surface of the molded body with a bottom surface of the plate-shaped body as the molded body is being conveyed under the bottom surface on the conveying surface; weights that are respectively attached to the pair of arms and are movable along a longitudinal direction of the arms; a weight position changing device configured to change positions of the weights on the arms; and a first control device configured to control the positions of the weights on the arms via the weight position changing device.

2 . The smoother according to claim 1 , wherein the smoother includes
a smoother plate position changing device configured to change a position of the smoother plate in a height direction thereof, and a second control device configured to change the position of the smoother plate in the height direction thereof via the smoother plate position changing device.

3 . The smoother according to claim 2 , wherein
the smoother includes a debris detection sensor, and the second control device is configured to move the smoother plate upward by the smoother plate position changing device in response to the debris detection sensor detecting that a debris adheres to a lateral surface of the smoother plate positioned upstream in a conveying direction of the molded body.

4 . The smoother according to claim 1 , further comprising a storage device, wherein
the first control device is configured to control the positions of the weights on the arms based on control conditions in accordance with a type of the molded body stored in the storage device.

5 . The smoother according to claim 1 , wherein
the first control device is configured to control the positions of the weights on the arms independently of each other in accordance with a position of the molded body in a widthwise direction of the conveying device.

6 . A gypsum board manufacturing device, comprising:
a mixer configured to form a gypsum slurry; a molding machine configured to mold the gypsum slurry supplied from the mixer; and the smoother according to claim 1 , the smoother being configured to smooth a surface of a molded body molded with the molding machine.

Assignees

• Yoshino Gypsum Co

Inventors

• Hatanaka Takumi
• Tanikawa Seiji

Classifications

• B28B19/0092

  to webs, sheets or the like, e.g. of paper, cardboard · CPC title

• B28B5/027

  the moulding surfaces being of the indefinite length type, e.g. belts, and being continuously fed (feeding B28B13/02) · CPC title

• B28B11/0845 Primary

  for smoothing · CPC title

• B28B5/021

  the shaped articles being of definite length · CPC title

• B28B17/0063

  Control arrangements · CPC title