A lumber grading system for the future: an update evaluation

Within the next few years, the lumber manufacturing industry will see some of the first installations of automatic lumber grading systems. These grading systems will include complex mechanisms including cameras, lights, lasers, x-rays, computers, electronics and other devices necessary to identify lumber grading features. Sophisticated computer software will be needed to process the volume of information generated by the scanning hardware. The resulting “digital map” of lumber defect data outputted by the software will be used to automatically sort and grade lumber according to standard grading rules (e.g. NHLA hardwood lumber grading rules). However, this data can also provide a potential wealth of information to dramatically reduce costs and increase value recovery by creating a more intelligent, more adaptable manufacturing system.