Systems and methods for auditing optimizers tracking lumber in a sawmill

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9505072-B2
Application number	US-201213366028-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 3, 2012
Priority date	Feb 3, 2012
Publication date	Nov 29, 2016
Grant date	Nov 29, 2016

Abstract

An audit system and method audits operation of an optimizer system in a mill, for example auditing operation of a cant optimizer which optimizes sawing patterns. The audit system may be completely independent of the optimizer. For example, the audit system may acquire information (e.g., optically) indicative of a geometry of boards downstream from a piece of equipment such as a gangsaw. The audit system may computationally reconstruct a cant from which the boards were sawn, determine an outside dimension indicative of wane, and simulate alternative sawing patterns, determining a theoretical amount of recovery that would have resulted from each and comparing such to actual recovery from the log or cant. Alternative sawing patterns may take into account various wane rules and comparison may take into account current demand and/or prices for dimensional lumber.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of automated auditing of sawmill operation, the method comprising:
acquiring via at least one sensor a set of geometrical information from a number of pieces of lumber following at least partial completion of a sawing operation that forms the number of pieces of lumber from a log or cant;
computationally determining by at least one processor original shape of the log or cant based at least in part on the acquired set of geometrical information;
computationally simulating by at least one processor two or more simulated sawing solutions based at east in part on the original shape of the log or cant; and
computationally determining by at least one processor a simulated amount of recovery from the log or cant for a given one of the simulated sawing solutions, wherein the given one of the simulated sawing solutions is different from an actual sawing solution used in the sawing operation.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
for the given one of the simulated sawing solutions, computationally comparing the determined simulated amount of recovery from the log or cant to an actual amount of recovery from the log or cant, wherein the actual amount of recovery corresponds to at least one of a volume or a value of lumber produced from the log or cant by the actual sawing solution used in the sawing operation, and wherein the determined simulated amount of recovery from the log or cant corresponds to at least one of a volume or a value of lumber that would have been produced from the log or cant by use of the given one of the simulated sawing solutions.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
providing an indication of a variation between the determined simulated amount of recovery from the log or cant and the actual amount of recovery from the log or cant.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
providing a notification if a variation between the determined simulated amount of recovery from the log or cant and the actual amount of recovery from the log or cant exceeds a defined threshold.

5. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
stopping operation of a piece of sawing equipment if a variation between the determined simulated amount of recovery from the log or cant and the actual amount of recovery from the log or cant exceeds a defined threshold.

6. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
adjusting operation of at least one of a piece of sawing equipment or an optimizer system that is controllably coupled to the piece of sawing equipment based at least in part on a comparison between the determined simulated amount of recovery from the log or cant and the actual amount of recovery from the log or cant.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein acquiring via at least one sensor a set of geometrical information from a number of pieces of lumber following at least partial completion of a sawing operation that forms the number of pieces of lumber from a log or cant includes optically acquiring geometrical information from a plurality of boards downstream of a gangsaw.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the given one of the simulated sawing solutions includes a saw path spaced perpendicularly from a sawn face of a given one of the number of pieces of lumber in at least one direction by a defined distance.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the given one of the simulated sawing solutions is an edging or trimming operation.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein computationally simulating by at least one processor the given one of the simulated sawing solutions includes computationally simulating by at least one processor the given one of the simulated sawing solutions based at least in part on a number of wane rules.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein computationally determining by at least one processor a simulated amount of recovery from the log or cant for a given one of the simulated sawing solutions includes taking into account a price of lumber.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein computationally determining by at least one processor a simulated amount of recovery from the log or cant for given one of the simulated sawing solutions includes taking into account a number of wane rules.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the number of pieces of lumber includes two or more pieces of lumber, and wherein computationally determining by at least one processor an original shape of the log or cant based at least in part on the acquired set of geometrical information includes arranging virtual representations of the respective pieces of lumber into positions corresponding to positions of the respective pieces of lumber within the log or cant.

14. A method of automated auditing of sawmill operation, the method comprising:
acquiring via at least one sensor a contour of wane on an outermost one of two or more pieces of lumber following at least partial completion of a sawing operation that forms the pieces of lumber from a log or cant;
computationally fitting by at least one processor a curve to the contour of wane;
computationally simulating by at least one processor two or more simulated sawing solutions based at least in part on the curve; and
computationally determining by at least one processor a simulated amount of recovery from the log or cant for a given one of the simulated sawing solutions, wherein the given one of the simulated sawing solutions is different from an actual sawing solution used in the sawing operation.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the curve is a basis spline and the method further comprises:
computationally constructing a simulated cant based at part on image data representing the pieces of lumber.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the given one of simulated sawing solutions is a first simulated sawing solution, wherein the two or more simulated sawing solutions include a second simulated sawing solution, and wherein the first and second simulated sawing solutions include different respective sawing increments spaced perpendicularly in two directions from a location of a sawn face of a given one of the pieces of lumber in the simulated cant.

17. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
for the given one of the simulated sawing solutions, computationally comparing the determined simulated amount of recovery from the log or cant to an actual amount of recovery from the log or cant, wherein the actual amount of recovery corresponds to at least one of a volume or a value of lumber produced from the log or cant by the actual sawing solution used in the sawing operation, and wherein the determined simulated amount of recovery from the log or cant corresponds to at least one of a volume or a value of lumber that would have been produced from the log or cant by use of the given one of the simulated sawing solutions.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
providing an indication of a variation between the determined simulated amount of recovery from the log or can and the actual amount of recovery from the log or cant.

19. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
providing a notification if a variation between the determined simulated amount of recovery from the log or cant and the actual amount of recovery from the log or cant exceeds a defined threshold.

20. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
stopping operation of a piece of sawing equipment if a variation between the determined simulated amount of recovery from the log or cant and the actual amount of recovery from the log or cant exceeds a defined threshold.

Assignees

• Barker Earl
• Weyerhaeuser Nr Co

Inventors

• Barker Earl

Classifications

• B23D59/008 Primary

  comprising computers · CPC title

• B27B1/007

  taking into account geometric properties of the trunks or logs to be sawn, e.g. curvature · CPC title