Tomorrow: Computer-Made Sawing Decisions?

Automation in the woodworking industry during the past two decades has been largely mechanical. Further real progress in improvement in primary and secondary processing must come through automating the processing decisions now made rather imprecisely by people. The initial attack by the FPL on this problem in the field of hardwoods has four objectives. The development of 1) A computer program which can take as input a mathematical description of a board and its defects and the desired list of furniture cutting sizes and create as output the location of the cuttings, the saw cuts, and the total yield in units or percent. 2) A computer program which can take as input the mathematical description of a board and its defects and develop as output its grade by the rules of the National Hardwood Lumber Association (NHLA). 3) The technology for a system which can scan a. board and provide the mathematical description of that board and its defects for either of the two programs just mentioned. 4) A computer program which will use the flitch description as input and develop as output the position of the: edging cuts, possible rip cuts, trimming cuts, and cross cuts which will result in a board or boards of the highest quality and value. The output presumably would take the form of machine control. The computer cut-up program has been completed and published. It is possible through its use to estimate furniture cutting yields with a high degree of precision. The computer grading program has also been completed and using a Control Data 3600 computer it is possible to determine in approximately 1/4 second the grade of a hardwood board. Its reliability and precision are very good. An ultrasonic defect detection system is under development which has shown good reliability in locating knot-type defects. Work has begun on the decision-making computer program which will determine the optimum position of edging, ripping, trimming, and cross cutting cuts in boards and flitches during primary processing. Investigation has shown a potential upgrade exists of at least $15 to $20 per MBF in hardwood lumber. The cost of the milling operation and of the upgrading system is not expected to exceed $5 per MBF.

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