CA2352077A1 - Grade encoded lumber product and method of its manufacture - Google Patents
Grade encoded lumber product and method of its manufacture Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- CA2352077A1 CA2352077A1 CA 2352077 CA2352077A CA2352077A1 CA 2352077 A1 CA2352077 A1 CA 2352077A1 CA 2352077 CA2352077 CA 2352077 CA 2352077 A CA2352077 A CA 2352077A CA 2352077 A1 CA2352077 A1 CA 2352077A1
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- lumber
- product
- grade
- information
- strength
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Abstract
A lumber product is described having electronically readable grade and or strength information encoded integrally with the product. The method of making the product is also included within the scope of the disclosure. Information on lumber properties may be determined by known machine or X-ray grading methods. This is transferred to one or more programmable and remotely readable microchips that are attached to the individual piece of lumber. The method permits much more information to be included than is conventionally grade stamped on the piece; e.g., compressive or tensile strength, dimensions, prediction error, and other properties.
Description
24,164 GRADE ENCODED LUMBER PRODUCT AND METHOD
OF ITS MANUFACTUP;E
The present invention is a lumber product having electronically readable grade and/or strength information encoded integrally with the product and to the method of making the product. The grade information may be initially determined us ing known methods. This information is then transferrf:d to one or more remotely read able programmable microchips placed on or in the lumber after it leaves the grading machine.
Background of the Invention Construction lumber has been visually ;graded for many decades, if not for centuries. Defects such as knot size and placement, wane, grain direction abnor-malities, and various types of warpage all enter into ;grading decisions.
Construction lumber grading rules are established by various industry recognized and supported grading bureaus. These rules establish various grades; e.g., Select Structural, No. l, No. 2, etc., based on the minimum anticipated strengi:h and stiffness under a bending load when the piece is used as a beam; i.e., when loaded on an edge, or as a plank; i.e., when loaded on flatwise. Other rules may relate to use primarily in compression, such as for wall studs. The latest visual rules for dimension lumber (that nominally 2 inches thick) have been derived by extensive testing in which tens of thousands of pieces having the various visual defects have been loaded to destruction.
In the more recent past lumber that has been machine stress rated has become available as a specialty product. This has particularly been useful to truss manufacturers where load carrying capacity of their products is of critical importance to building safety. Normally the board will be stressed flat; i.e., as a plank, and the modulus of elasticity (E) and bending stress rating (Fb) imprinted on the board as it leaves the machine. Visual grading is often also used in conjunction with this method to eliminate boards with excessive edge knots, or visual characteristics such as wane, that would be not be acceptable in the particular stress grade. A newer X-ray method, based on multiple side-by-side longitudinal scans which read board density, can also give strength and stiffness information but other properties as well, such as knot size and placement.
OF ITS MANUFACTUP;E
The present invention is a lumber product having electronically readable grade and/or strength information encoded integrally with the product and to the method of making the product. The grade information may be initially determined us ing known methods. This information is then transferrf:d to one or more remotely read able programmable microchips placed on or in the lumber after it leaves the grading machine.
Background of the Invention Construction lumber has been visually ;graded for many decades, if not for centuries. Defects such as knot size and placement, wane, grain direction abnor-malities, and various types of warpage all enter into ;grading decisions.
Construction lumber grading rules are established by various industry recognized and supported grading bureaus. These rules establish various grades; e.g., Select Structural, No. l, No. 2, etc., based on the minimum anticipated strengi:h and stiffness under a bending load when the piece is used as a beam; i.e., when loaded on an edge, or as a plank; i.e., when loaded on flatwise. Other rules may relate to use primarily in compression, such as for wall studs. The latest visual rules for dimension lumber (that nominally 2 inches thick) have been derived by extensive testing in which tens of thousands of pieces having the various visual defects have been loaded to destruction.
In the more recent past lumber that has been machine stress rated has become available as a specialty product. This has particularly been useful to truss manufacturers where load carrying capacity of their products is of critical importance to building safety. Normally the board will be stressed flat; i.e., as a plank, and the modulus of elasticity (E) and bending stress rating (Fb) imprinted on the board as it leaves the machine. Visual grading is often also used in conjunction with this method to eliminate boards with excessive edge knots, or visual characteristics such as wane, that would be not be acceptable in the particular stress grade. A newer X-ray method, based on multiple side-by-side longitudinal scans which read board density, can also give strength and stiffness information but other properties as well, such as knot size and placement.
A paper by the present inventor briefly describes the various grading methods and how the resulting grade information is indicated to the ultimate user on the product (Gromala, D. S., Machine-graded lumber: Questions and answers, Automated Builder, Sept. 1966, pp. 22-24, 51).
Of necessity, each grade will contain a spectrum of strengths. Some pieces will barely fail to meet the next higher grade while others will just be above the next lower grade. However, it is these lower strength pieces that define the allowable loading for the entire grade. While machine grading has somewhat narrowed the span of strength ratings within the individual grades, this still has not resulted in the most efficient use of the products. Improvements have been needed both in the amount of information transmitted with the individual pieces of lumber and with the way the lum-ber is sorted, packaged, and merchandised. The present invention is an effective new way of presenting grading information so that the ultimate user can make most effec-tive use of the products.
Summary of the Invention The present invention is directed to lumber products containing strength and other grade data on microchips embedded in or otherwise associated with the prod uct. The associated information may be read by non-contact scanners at any location and time after manufacture.
Microchips are tiny silicon wafers designed to be readily programmed with extensive amounts of data. They have been usf;d for purposes as varied as pet identification and identifying the contents and routing of packaged goods. As is the case with many high technology products of this type, their cost has been dramatically dropping to the point that they are now economic for many single use applications.
Microchips can be used in the same manner as the ubiquitous bar codes seen on virtu-ally every product sold today. They can be scanned in a similar non-contact manner but have the advantage that they do not need to be visible to the scanner, as do bar codes. Microchips have the further significant advantage that they can hold much greater amounts of information than bar codes. Examples of their use have been de-tailed in the popular press; e.g., Flash, Cynthia, 'Smart: chips' keep things moving, The [Tacoma WAS News Tribune, April 12, 2000, p D 1; and Starkman, Dean, International Paper and Motorola agree to put microchips in 'Smart iPackages', The Wall Street Jour-nal, April 13, 2000, p B6.
Of necessity, each grade will contain a spectrum of strengths. Some pieces will barely fail to meet the next higher grade while others will just be above the next lower grade. However, it is these lower strength pieces that define the allowable loading for the entire grade. While machine grading has somewhat narrowed the span of strength ratings within the individual grades, this still has not resulted in the most efficient use of the products. Improvements have been needed both in the amount of information transmitted with the individual pieces of lumber and with the way the lum-ber is sorted, packaged, and merchandised. The present invention is an effective new way of presenting grading information so that the ultimate user can make most effec-tive use of the products.
Summary of the Invention The present invention is directed to lumber products containing strength and other grade data on microchips embedded in or otherwise associated with the prod uct. The associated information may be read by non-contact scanners at any location and time after manufacture.
Microchips are tiny silicon wafers designed to be readily programmed with extensive amounts of data. They have been usf;d for purposes as varied as pet identification and identifying the contents and routing of packaged goods. As is the case with many high technology products of this type, their cost has been dramatically dropping to the point that they are now economic for many single use applications.
Microchips can be used in the same manner as the ubiquitous bar codes seen on virtu-ally every product sold today. They can be scanned in a similar non-contact manner but have the advantage that they do not need to be visible to the scanner, as do bar codes. Microchips have the further significant advantage that they can hold much greater amounts of information than bar codes. Examples of their use have been de-tailed in the popular press; e.g., Flash, Cynthia, 'Smart: chips' keep things moving, The [Tacoma WAS News Tribune, April 12, 2000, p D 1; and Starkman, Dean, International Paper and Motorola agree to put microchips in 'Smart iPackages', The Wall Street Jour-nal, April 13, 2000, p B6.
It is an object of the invention to provide a lumber product containing an integrally associated scanner readable microchip containing strength and/or other prod-uct information.
It is another object to provide a scanner readable method for indicating lumber grade, strength and other information.
These and many other objects will become readily apparent after reading the following detailed description taken with the drawvlg.
Brief Description of the Drawings The single drawing is a graph showing in arbitrary units lumber strength vs a predictor property, such as modulus of elasticity.
Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments The use of microchips for product identification has still been very lim ited because of their novelty and, initially, their high cost. However, they appear to of fer a unique and novel solution to encoding electronically readable grade and/or strength information on individual pieces of construction lumber.
Additionally, they are capable of including much more information about each individual piece than is possible with presently used printed grade marks. As l:he lumber leaves a conventional machine stress rating or X-ray grading machine, the bending strength, stiffness and any other product information is automatically entered onto a microchip which is placed on or inserted into the piece of lumber. By using additional microchips placed longitudi-nally along the product, information can be included for applications such as truss manufacture so that the most efficient use of the piece is possible.
In addition to bending strength and stiffiaess, parameters that can be pro-grammed onto the microchips include tensile and compressive strength, strength pre-diction error, width, thickness, and length, knot size and location, species, moisture content, mill identification number and many others. The term "grade information"
should be read sufficiently broadly to include all of the:>e parameters.
In lumber parlance, "boards" are pieces of nominal 1 inch (25.4 mm) thickness and "dimension lumber" is of nominal 2 inch (50.8 mm) thickness. As is well known, actual finished lumber will be less than these dimensions. The present in-vention applies equally to these and other thicknesses, such as the nominal 4 inch ( 101.6 mm) lumber frequently used as headers over wall openings. The invention also applies to reconstituted lumber products, such as those described in Bassett et al. U.S.
Pat. No 6,001,452, and other structural composite lumber products..
By labeling lumber properties with microchips, many new opportunities for processing, packaging, and merchandising are opened. For example, microchip la-beled lumber could be sensed and automatically sorted by desired property both at the point of production and at the point of use. At present lumber mills sort and package lumber in a wide variety of individual sizes and grades. The building component manufacturer purchases a more limited variety of grades. Using microchip identifica-tion, lumber could be sold in packages of random dimensions and grades to be readily sorted at the point of resale or use. The packages ma:y be conventional strapped bun-dles, typically about 2 ft high and 4 ft wide (0.61 m X 1.22 m), although these package sizes vary considerably.
There are other advantages in addition to those named above. The value of the lumber could be determined by the actual value. of the product delivered to the customer rather than by auction on the commodity market. Building component plants could optimize structural designs to take maximum advantage of the properties of mate-rial currently in inventory. Importantly, the resulting building components could be marketed on the basis of component to component reliability that could be accurately quantified. Complete piece-by piece tabulations of stnzctural properties can be logged, encoded onto an invoice, and transmitted electronically to the customer. In turn, the component manufacturer will know the exact properties of each piece being shipped.
Order files and production sequences can then be automatically managed to optimize the structural needs of each order against the properties of the incoming material. If field repair is required; e.g., of a truss, the repair can be made using knowledge of the actual original properties required of a member that might need to be replaced.
Referring now to the drawing, the graph. shows a cloud of points and an associated regression line plotting a strength property against a predictor property.
Scales of the axes on the graph are arbitrary. The strength might be a property such as breaking strength under load; e.g., tension or flexure. 'The predictor property might be one such as stiffness on some other property that might be considered critical for a par-ocular application. Grade separations shown on the figure are likewise arbitrary. It is of note that the grade properties are determined by the strength values lying at and just above the grade separation line; i.e., the lowest acceptable properties in any particular grade. Lumber having properties in the upper portion of the grade zone can be assumed to be entirely suitable for many uses that might need a stronger or stiffer product than that at the low end of he grade. An example might be truss chords having some spe-cific design criteria. Similarly, high end lumber in a given grade is regularly used at present in applications where its better properties are not needed. Thus, higher product 5 value can be readily captured if the ultimate user can readily segregate the specific pieces suitable for a particular application. This can is easily done by scanning an in-ventory of microchip tagged lumber to select the specific pieces needed.
It will be apparent to those skilled in thf: art that many variations can be made in the products and methods described that have not been specifically described herein. These methods and products are considered to be within the scope of the in-vention if encompassed within the following claims.
It is another object to provide a scanner readable method for indicating lumber grade, strength and other information.
These and many other objects will become readily apparent after reading the following detailed description taken with the drawvlg.
Brief Description of the Drawings The single drawing is a graph showing in arbitrary units lumber strength vs a predictor property, such as modulus of elasticity.
Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments The use of microchips for product identification has still been very lim ited because of their novelty and, initially, their high cost. However, they appear to of fer a unique and novel solution to encoding electronically readable grade and/or strength information on individual pieces of construction lumber.
Additionally, they are capable of including much more information about each individual piece than is possible with presently used printed grade marks. As l:he lumber leaves a conventional machine stress rating or X-ray grading machine, the bending strength, stiffness and any other product information is automatically entered onto a microchip which is placed on or inserted into the piece of lumber. By using additional microchips placed longitudi-nally along the product, information can be included for applications such as truss manufacture so that the most efficient use of the piece is possible.
In addition to bending strength and stiffiaess, parameters that can be pro-grammed onto the microchips include tensile and compressive strength, strength pre-diction error, width, thickness, and length, knot size and location, species, moisture content, mill identification number and many others. The term "grade information"
should be read sufficiently broadly to include all of the:>e parameters.
In lumber parlance, "boards" are pieces of nominal 1 inch (25.4 mm) thickness and "dimension lumber" is of nominal 2 inch (50.8 mm) thickness. As is well known, actual finished lumber will be less than these dimensions. The present in-vention applies equally to these and other thicknesses, such as the nominal 4 inch ( 101.6 mm) lumber frequently used as headers over wall openings. The invention also applies to reconstituted lumber products, such as those described in Bassett et al. U.S.
Pat. No 6,001,452, and other structural composite lumber products..
By labeling lumber properties with microchips, many new opportunities for processing, packaging, and merchandising are opened. For example, microchip la-beled lumber could be sensed and automatically sorted by desired property both at the point of production and at the point of use. At present lumber mills sort and package lumber in a wide variety of individual sizes and grades. The building component manufacturer purchases a more limited variety of grades. Using microchip identifica-tion, lumber could be sold in packages of random dimensions and grades to be readily sorted at the point of resale or use. The packages ma:y be conventional strapped bun-dles, typically about 2 ft high and 4 ft wide (0.61 m X 1.22 m), although these package sizes vary considerably.
There are other advantages in addition to those named above. The value of the lumber could be determined by the actual value. of the product delivered to the customer rather than by auction on the commodity market. Building component plants could optimize structural designs to take maximum advantage of the properties of mate-rial currently in inventory. Importantly, the resulting building components could be marketed on the basis of component to component reliability that could be accurately quantified. Complete piece-by piece tabulations of stnzctural properties can be logged, encoded onto an invoice, and transmitted electronically to the customer. In turn, the component manufacturer will know the exact properties of each piece being shipped.
Order files and production sequences can then be automatically managed to optimize the structural needs of each order against the properties of the incoming material. If field repair is required; e.g., of a truss, the repair can be made using knowledge of the actual original properties required of a member that might need to be replaced.
Referring now to the drawing, the graph. shows a cloud of points and an associated regression line plotting a strength property against a predictor property.
Scales of the axes on the graph are arbitrary. The strength might be a property such as breaking strength under load; e.g., tension or flexure. 'The predictor property might be one such as stiffness on some other property that might be considered critical for a par-ocular application. Grade separations shown on the figure are likewise arbitrary. It is of note that the grade properties are determined by the strength values lying at and just above the grade separation line; i.e., the lowest acceptable properties in any particular grade. Lumber having properties in the upper portion of the grade zone can be assumed to be entirely suitable for many uses that might need a stronger or stiffer product than that at the low end of he grade. An example might be truss chords having some spe-cific design criteria. Similarly, high end lumber in a given grade is regularly used at present in applications where its better properties are not needed. Thus, higher product 5 value can be readily captured if the ultimate user can readily segregate the specific pieces suitable for a particular application. This can is easily done by scanning an in-ventory of microchip tagged lumber to select the specific pieces needed.
It will be apparent to those skilled in thf: art that many variations can be made in the products and methods described that have not been specifically described herein. These methods and products are considered to be within the scope of the in-vention if encompassed within the following claims.
Claims (13)
1. A lumber product having electronically readable grade and/or strength information encoded on at least one programmable microchip integrally associated with the product.
2. The lumber product of claim 1 in which the lumber is initially ma-chine stiffness graded in a continuous lumber tester.
3. The lumber product of claim 1 in which the lumber is initially graded in an X-ray lumber guage.
4. The lumber product of claim 1 in which the grade information in-cludes at least stiffness and bending strength information.
5. The lumber product of claim 1 in which the grade information in-eludes tensile strength information.
6. The lumber product of claim 1 in which the grade information in-eludes compressive strength information.
7. The lumber product of claim 4 which the grade information further includes details of knot location and size.
8. The lumber product of claim 4, 5, or 6 which the grade information includes a best estimate of strength and a prediction error.
9. The lumber product of claim 1 in which the grade information in-eludes standard conventional grade information.
10. The lumber product of claim 1 in which the programmable micro-chip is embedded into the lumber.
11. The lumber product of claim 1 in which the programmable micro-chip is attached to the lumber surface.
12. The lumber product of claim 1 in which a plurality of programmed microchips are placed longitudinally on the product.
13. A method of indicating lumber grade which comprises determining at least the strength characteristics of the piece of lumber; entering the strength charac-teristics on a programmable microchip; and locating at least one programmed micro-chip on the lumber so that grade information can be read electronically without physi-cal contact or visual examination of the lumber.
15. A method of merchandising lumber which comprises determining at least the grade characteristics of individual pieces of lumber; entering the grade char-acteristics on a programmable microchip; locating at least one programmed microchip on each piece of the lumber so that grade information can be read electronically without physical contact or visual examination of the lumber, and packaging the lumber.
16. The method of claim 15 in which random grades are contained within the package.
15. A method of merchandising lumber which comprises determining at least the grade characteristics of individual pieces of lumber; entering the grade char-acteristics on a programmable microchip; locating at least one programmed microchip on each piece of the lumber so that grade information can be read electronically without physical contact or visual examination of the lumber, and packaging the lumber.
16. The method of claim 15 in which random grades are contained within the package.
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| US64321500A | 2000-08-22 | 2000-08-22 | |
| US09/643215 | 2000-08-22 |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA2352077A1 true CA2352077A1 (en) | 2002-02-22 |
Family
ID=24579850
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA 2352077 Abandoned CA2352077A1 (en) | 2000-08-22 | 2001-07-04 | Grade encoded lumber product and method of its manufacture |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA2352077A1 (en) |
Cited By (3)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WO2008034948A1 (en) * | 2006-09-19 | 2008-03-27 | Upm Raflatac Oy | Wood board |
| EP2230626A1 (en) * | 2009-03-15 | 2010-09-22 | Dula-Werke Dustmann & Co. GmbH | Identification method and processing method of solid and compound boards using RFID and device therefor |
| US20130232907A1 (en) * | 2009-06-26 | 2013-09-12 | Weyerhaeuser Nr Company | Method for constructing a truss from selected components |
-
2001
- 2001-07-04 CA CA 2352077 patent/CA2352077A1/en not_active Abandoned
Cited By (3)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WO2008034948A1 (en) * | 2006-09-19 | 2008-03-27 | Upm Raflatac Oy | Wood board |
| EP2230626A1 (en) * | 2009-03-15 | 2010-09-22 | Dula-Werke Dustmann & Co. GmbH | Identification method and processing method of solid and compound boards using RFID and device therefor |
| US20130232907A1 (en) * | 2009-06-26 | 2013-09-12 | Weyerhaeuser Nr Company | Method for constructing a truss from selected components |
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Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| EEER | Examination request | ||
| FZDE | Dead |