FINSCAN BOARDMASTER


Grader/Optimizer for planer mill, sawmill and edger

Automated lumber grading for dressed lumber is now possible thanks to the BoardMaster-NT(TM) transverse Scanner This technology has been in operation since the early 90’s in its black and white version and since 1999 in its color (RGB) version. Designed by FinScan for the Scandinavian market, the BoardMaster-NT(TM) has been adapted for the North-American lumber producers at the beginning of the 21st century. To this date, more than 300 units of the BoardMaster-NT(TM) are in operation worldwide including more than 25 in North-America.

Description and Specifications

The BoardMaster-NT(TM) system is based on twelve (12) color cameras for 16-28’ lumber and eight (8) cameras for 8-14’ lumber, using high scanning rate and large numbers of pixels. Boards are measured on a transversal belt transporter at two scanning stations. The first scanning station consists 3 (2) color cameras and measures the top face of the board. The board is flipped over after the first scanning station and the other face and both side edges are measured with the second scanning station consisting 9 (6) color cameras.

The boards are moved through the scanning frames on belt transporter that pulls the boards away from the lugs. The movements of belt transporters and the main lug transporter are tracked up with absolute encoders.

The BoardMaster-NT(TM) is then able to read all the boards without possible interferences (Chains, lugs, …) The color line cameras detect exactly the thickness, width, length, wanes and deformations of the boards. Knots and other significant defects on the sawn surfaces are also detected and classified. The size, the type and the location of each knot and each defect are determined by the image processing system. The width, length and thickness combination in the optimization has no limitation. Grade rules can be specified individually for top and bottom faces as well as for side faces. Each dimension and each grade can be tagged with its own specific price table. In addition, correction terms by length can be applied. Various customer grades can be mixed with standard grades to optimize the production. The calculation capacity of the system is so effective that there are no practical limitations to the number of different grading rules in the system.

The BoardMaster-NT(TM) system includes extensive statistics-, reports- and diagnostic- functions that help users to optimize grade distributions and to maximize profitability as well as system performance.

- Operational speed up to 200 pieces per minute
- Planer mill, sawmill and edger applications
- Length of the boards: No limit
- Widths, random or planer mill applications: No limit
- Thicknesses: No limit
- Grades: Over 900 products of mixed grades
- Scan density: 0.050’’ average
- Scan frequency : +1000 frames/second
- Colors detected : 16 Millions


We invite you to visit the www.finscan.fi web site to learn more about this product along with other optimization and color vision products from FinScan.