Patent ID: 7279684
Filing Date: 2007-10-09
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. A method for determining the composition of a resin-wood composite material, comprising: providing a plurality of training samples comprising a mixture of quantitatively predetermined respective amounts of a plurality of components comprising at least wood, resin, moisture, and wax; irradiating said plurality of training samples with NIR radiation using NIR spectroscopic instrumentation including an associated source of NIR radiation, wherein said irradiating comprises exposing said training samples to NIR radiation at a succession of different wavelength values spanning a selected spectral range of wavelengths including a range of about 1200 nm to about 2400 nm; measuring non-absorbed NIR energy reflected by said exposed training samples over said selected spectral range at wavelength measuring intervals not exceeding about 5 nm, providing respective training sample spectral data sets; generating a calibration with reference to the training sample spectral data sets for the NIR spectroscopic instrumentation for quantitatively correlating spectral results with component concentrations in compositions comprising a mixture of at least wood, resin, moisture, and wax; irradiating at least one test sample comprising a mixture of quantitatively unknown amounts of a plurality of components comprising at least wood, resin, moisture, and wax, with NIR radiation using the NIR spectroscopic instrumentation, wherein said irradiating comprises exposing said test sample to unfiltered NIR radiation at a succession of different wavelength values spanning a selected spectral range of wavelengths including a range of about 1200 nm to about 2400 nm; measuring non-absorbed NIR energy reflected by said test sample over said selected spectral range at wavelength measuring intervals not exceeding about 5 nm, providing a test sample spectral data set; and predicting, using the calibration and the test sample spectral data, component concentrations of at least resin, moisture, and wax, in the test sample.