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Technology to sort lumber by color and grain for furniture parts

Informally Refereed

Abstract

This paper describes an automatic color and grain sorting system for wood edge-glued panel parts. The color sorting system simultaneously examines both faces of a panel part and then determines which face has the "best" color, and sorts the part into one of a number of color classes at plant production speeds. In-plant test results show that the system generated over 91 percent acceptable panels from automatically sorted red oak panel parts, which exceeded target plant production goals. The technology is also capable of grain sorting panel parts. While sorting parts by grain appears promising in laboratory testing, the grain sorting performance of the technology has not yet been tested in an actual production environment. The color sorting system is a patented technology and is now commercially available under the name of CESYS by Group Seven Systems.

Citation

Kline, D. Earl; Conners, Richard; Araman, Philip A. 2000. Technology to sort lumber by color and grain for furniture parts. Proceedings, Quality Lumber Drying in the Pacific Northwest. 67-73.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/1914