FDMC Magazine
Q: In our dimension mill for the center panels on doors, we present the inspector with staves which are 8 feet to 14 feet wide. The inspector marks the unacceptable knots, cracks and other defects with a UV "pen." The staves are passed to a saw operator who (using an UV lamp for ID) cuts out the defective areas and creates shorter staves for subsequent processing (along with some amount of scrap). We then glue-up these staves into a panel downstream in the manufacturing process. In a different plant we use the "glued-up stock" and make a panel for a door. When we stain the doors (or our customers stain the doors), we often find cracks that were missed. In the short term, I'd like to optimize the lighting in the stave and panel inspection area. Can you recommend a reference that would suggest inspection lighting alternatives (ambient lighting, alternative light sources, etc.) that could be evaluated? In the longer term, I'd like to consider some type of a more automated process for crack/check identification. This process would have to be quick and non-invasive to the wood. Have you ever seen this done in your travels?