This invention relates to an improvement in equipment for separating the residual bark in decorticating facilities, for which, following decortication, the material is moved from the decorticating drum into a collecting funnel or hopper and from there moved on by a conveyor system, where the conveyor system is in the form of a first conveyor belt and is mounted transversely to the lower part of the hopper extending across the end of the drum, the improvement comprising joining one reversing location of the first conveyor belt by another reversing location of a second conveyor belt with an intermediate space between them, an additional roller corresponding in width to the width of the belts mounted between them, and one rectilinear guide member at each end of the additional roller to permit displacement thereof.

An apparatus is disclosed for separating material by length into first and second fractions containing, respectively, material longer than a specified length and material shorter than a specified length. The apparatus includes a plurality of generally parallel shafts having disks attached thereto. The disks are spaced on the shafts a distance approximately equal to one-half the specified length. Shaft diameters and shaft spacings are selected to cause material in the first fraction to remain supported by the shafts and to flow along the shaft surfaces from one shaft to the next adjacent downstream shaft, while material in the second fraction tilts and falls downwardly between adjacent shafts.

A method and apparatus for parallelly aligning pieces of timber, such as logs and billets, for further handling, comprises the serial feeding of pieces of timber into a sorting zone provided with a fast-rotating drum surface which pushes the timber towards, and aligns the timber with, a more slowly rotating drum surface provided with engagement members. The pieces of timber are aligned on and between the respective drum surfaces so as to be parallel and at right angles to the direction of rotation of said surfaces. The pieces of timber are pushed off in parallelly aligned orientation from the more slowly rotating surface for further handling.

A material separating apparatus for separating particles up to a preselected size from a material having particles of different sizes therein includes a trough having a material input end longitudinally spaced from a material discharge end. The apparatus also includes a separator having a plurality of longitudinally spaced finger screen sections between the input end and the discharge end and along the longitudinal axis of the trough. The finger screen sections each have a backbone extending from side to side across the width of the trough and also each have forwardly extending fingers connected at one end to the backbone. The fingers are spaced side by side from each other by a preselected amount at forward ends thereof sufficient to allow particles up to the preselected size to pass through the fingers as the trough is vibrated to cause the material to move from the input end to the discharge end. The finger screen devices also each have the forward ends of the fingers thereof overlapping the next forwardly adjacent finger screen device and include a rearwardly depending leg connected at one end to the backbone thereof. The apparatus further includes the forward ends of the fingers being vertically spaced above the next forwardly adjacent finger screen device by an amount equal to the preselected amount of spacing therebetween. With this arrangement, the material is conveyed along the trough and over successive ones of the finger screen sections with particles up to the preselected size falling through the finger screen as the material moves from the input end to the discharge end of the trough.