Edge Sanding Device

Abstract

The edge sanding device may be a tool for sanding an edge of a workpiece. The workpiece may be moved through a cabinet from an infeed to an outfeed by a conveyance. The workpiece may pass one or more edge sanding stations as the workpiece moves through the cabinet. As the workpiece passes an individual edge sanding station selected from the one or more edge sanding stations, the individual edge sanding station may move an orbital sander from a quiescent position to a sanding position thus pressing a sanding disk of the orbital sander against the edge of the workpiece to sand the edge. In some embodiments, the edge sanding device may further comprise one or more finishing stations to smooth corners of the workpiece.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An edge sanding device comprising
 a conveyance and one or more edge sanding stations;   where the conveyance moves a workpiece from an infeed of said device to an outfeed of said device, moving the workpiece past the one or more edge sanding stations;   responsive to detecting that the workpiece is adjacent to an individual edge sanding station, an orbital sander of the individual edge sanding station is energized and a linear actuator of the individual edge sanding station moves the orbital sander in a first direction from a quiescent position to a sanding position;   where the orbital sander presses a sanding disk coupled to a sanding head of the orbital sander against the workpiece to sand an edge of the workpiece while in the sanding position;   responsive to detecting that the workpiece is no longer adjacent to the individual edge sanding station, the linear actuator moves the orbital sander in a second direction from the sanding position to the quiescent position and the orbital sander is deenergized.   
     
     
         2 . The edge sanding device according to  claim 1   where the workpiece is detected to be adjacent to the individual edge sanding station by a workpiece sensor;   where the workpiece sensor signals the presence of the workpiece to control electronics which controls the movement of the orbital sander in the first direction and the second direction via the linear actuator.   
     
     
         3 . The edge sanding device according to  claim 1   where the individual edge sanding station is enabled and disabled by a plurality of operator controls that are electrically coupled to the control electronics;   where the control electronics prevents movement of the orbital sander in the first direction to the sanding position if the individual edge sanding station is disabled by the plurality of operator controls.   
     
     
         4 . The edge sanding device according to  claim 1   where the plurality of operator controls comprise a plurality of edge sanding station pressure adjustments which determine the amount of pressure applied to the edge of the workpiece by the one or more edge sanding stations when the one or more edge sanding stations are in the sanding position.   
     
     
         5 . The edge sanding device according to  claim 1   where the orbital sander is a random orbital sander which rotates the sanding disk around the center of the sanding head while the center of the sanding head moves in a circular motion relative to the body of the random orbital sander.   
     
     
         6 . The edge sanding device according to  claim 1   where the orbital sander is an off-the-shelf sander that is installed in a sander enclosure of the individual edge sanding station such that cost and lead time of replacing the orbital sander is reduced and availability of the orbital sanders is increased.   
     
     
         7 . The edge sanding device according to  claim 1   where the sanding disks of the one or more edge sanding stations comprise differing coarseness;   where the coarseness of each of the sanding disks is selected such that the workpiece is sanded by the sanding disks of decreasing coarseness as the workpiece moves from the infeed to the outfeed.   
     
     
         8 . The edge sanding device according to  claim 1  further comprising
 one or more finishing stations; 
 where the one or more finishing stations are positioned to sand the workpiece after the one or more edge sanding stations have sanded the workpiece; 
 where the one or more finishing stations smooth corners of the workpiece.