Lumber Autograding by Machine

Lumber grading is the last and most beneficial portion of a sawmill to be automated. Human Graders have been expected to do multiple calculations and interpretations of rules at accuracies greater than 1/16 th of an inch on all six sides of the board at distances greater than 20 feet in less than two seconds per piece. This task is performed repetitively for an eight hour shift, day after day.

Algis’ automatic lumber grader performs these actions spectacularly at speeds much greater than the Human Grader. Algis scans the top side, leading edge and both ends of a piece of lumber when the piece enters the first bank of scanners. The board is then turned over so the two remaining sides can be scanned by the second bank from the top. This method allows for all six sides of a board to be scanned without the need for cameras under the table. Having all the cameras above the grading table helps keep the cameras clean subsequently lowering the frequency of maintenance.

The human grader seldom, if ever has the time to see one end of the lumber and never both ends in the allotted time. End scanning is essential to accurately grade lumber 3 dimensionally.

Wear and tear on the Algis system is extremely low because it never touches a piece of lumber. The automatic lumber grading system is designed to minimize downtime. If any portion of the Algis should fail, snap in replacement modules are kept on hand and downtime is never more than 10 minutes.

Algis can be customized to suit your mill’s requirements. Different grading rules and different species are easily accommodated with our different software packages. Trim decisions are made based on management’s special parameters. Special parameters can include, selecting clears, shop, appearance grades, J-grade or specific lengths to fill standing orders.