Patent ID: 8370222
Filing Date: 2013-02-05
Classification: B23D,B23Q,B27B,G06Q,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A system for tracking lumber in a sawmill comprising: a first laser scanner positioned to scan sideboards near an infeed of an edger; a second laser scanner positioned to scan cants near an infeed of a gangsaw; at least one computing device coupled to the first laser scanner and the second laser scanner, the at least one computing device configured to determine at least one geometric characteristic of a sideboard, determine at least one geometric characteristic of a cant, and logically associate the sideboard with the cant from which the sideboard was sawn based at least in part on the at least one geometric characteristic of the sideboard and the at least one geometric characteristic of the cant; wherein the at least one computing device includes: an edger computer optimizer communicatively coupled to the first laser scanner and configured to control the edger during sawing of the sideboard based at least in part on data received from the first laser scanner; a mill audit computing device communicatively coupled to the edger computer optimizer and configured to receive geometric information indicative of the sideboard from the edger computer optimizer, the mill audit computing device further configured to determine the at least one geometric characteristic of the sideboard based at least in part on the received geometric information; wherein the mill audit computing devices is further configured to receive image data associated with a current display of the edger computer optimizer and extract the geometric information indicative of the sideboard from the received image data; and wherein the at least one computing device further includes a gangsaw computer optimizer communicatively coupled to the second laser scanner and configured to control the gangsaw during sawing of the cant based at least in part on data received from the second laser scanner, and wherein the mill audit computing device is further communicatively coupled to the gangsaw computer optimizer and configured to receive geometric information indicative of the cant from the gangsaw computer optimizer, and is further configured to determine the at least one geometric characteristic of the cant based at least in part on the received geometric information.