Method and system to determine strength of dry wood products using near infrared imaging
AssigneeBoise Cascade Corporation
InventorsDavid Bolton, Jude Richard Peek, Curtis Fennell
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Near InfraRed NIR technology, including NIR cameras and detectors, is used to accurately identify moisture content, the specific locations of the moisture on an entire surface of a dry veneer sheet or other wood product, and the strength of the dry veneer sheet or other wood product. Based on the identified moisture content and/or predicted strength for a dry veneer sheet or other wood product, one or more actions are taken with respect to dry veneer sheet or other wood product to ensure the dry veneer sheet or other wood product is put the most efficient, effective, and valuable use.
Claims20
A method for determining strength of dry wood products comprising:
- generating strength analysis models and/or mechanical properties model data for dry wood products;
- providing a NIR dry wood product strength analysis system, including at least one NIR dry wood product strength analysis station;
- analyzing a dry wood product using the NIR dry wood product strength analysis station;
- and
- assigning a grade to the dry wood product based, at least in part, on the analysis of the dry wood product using the NIR dry wood product strength analysis station.
A method comprising:
- generating a moisture level to greyscale mapping database, the moisture level to greyscale mapping database containing data that maps moisture level to Near InfraRed (NIR) image greyscale values for dry veneer sheets;
- providing the dry veneer sheets to a NIR analysis station for detecting moisture levels in the dry veneer sheets, the NIR analysis station including one or more sources of illumination positioned to illuminate a surface of the dry veneer sheets, the NIR analysis station including one or more NIR cameras positioned to capture one or more NIR images of the illuminated surface of the dry veneer sheets;
- positioning the dry veneer sheet to be analyzed in the NIR analysis station such that a first surface of the dry veneer sheet to be analyzed is illuminated by the one or more illumination sources;
- capturing, using the one or more NIR cameras, one or more NIR images of the illuminated first surface of the dry veneer sheet;
- processing the one or more NIR images of the illuminated first surface of the dry veneer sheet to generate NIR greyscale images indicating different moisture levels in the illuminated first surface of the dry veneer sheet;
- processing the NIR greyscale images using the moisture level to greyscale mapping database to identify moisture levels for the first surface of the dry veneer sheet;
- generating strength analysis models and/or mechanical properties model data for dry wood products;
- providing a NIR dry wood product strength analysis system, including at least one NIR dry wood product strength analysis station;
- analyzing the dry veneer sheet using the NIR dry wood product strength analysis station;
- assigning a grade to the dry veneer sheet based, at least in part, on the analysis of the dry veneer sheet using the NIR analysis station and NIR dry wood product strength analysis station;
- and
- based, at least in part, on the grade assigned to the dry veneer sheet, taking one or more actions with respect to the dry veneer sheet.
A system for determining strength of dry wood products comprising:
- strength analysis models and/or mechanical properties model data for dry wood products;
- a NIR dry wood product strength analysis system, including at least one NIR dry wood product strength analysis station;
- a dry wood product, the dry wood product being provided to the NIR dry wood product strength analysis station to be analyzed using the NIR dry wood product strength analysis station;
- and
- dry wood product grade data assigned to the dry wood product based, at least in part, on the analysis of the dry wood using the NIR dry wood product strength analysis station.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.