Automation speeds sawmill inspection
Custom vision system uses CCD imaging, laser triangulation, and three-board image-processing packages.
Machine-vision systems in the lumber industry are gaining acceptance as productivity tools that can save sawmills great expense each year. In some sawmills, machine-vision systems are located at multiple spots along the lumber production and finishing lines to perform various tasks, from inspecting and evaluating rough logs to maximizing the amount of finished lumber per log, to inspecting the lumber in its stages from rough cants to finished boards for dimensional accuracies to within a thousandth of an inch.