An Ultrasonic Sensor System For Bacterially

A major problem in the hardwood lumber industry is the loss of production as the result of theformation of splits, checks, or ring failure during kiln drying. A primary cause of these drying defectsis the degradation of the green lumber as a result of bacterial infection. The optimum drying scheduleis dependent on the initial quality of the green lumber. Unfortunately, it is currently not possible todetermine the initial quality non-destructively under mill conditions. An improper drying scheduleapplied to infected wood can cause surface checks and honeycomb which are especially severe in oaklumber and a major source of value loss and wasteThe proposed program is directed at demonstrating the feasibility of using ultrasound to measure thebacterial degradation of green lumber prior to kiln drying. Implementation of this test method in themill will be used to sort and remove lumber from the processing stream prior to kiln drying.Alternately, the ultrasonic sensor data can be used to determine trim points, thus insuring that only non-infected segments are dried.