Patent ID: 8215347

Claim:
An apparatus for determining one or more operating parameters for debarking wood being fed to a debarker, the apparatus comprising: a scraper; an actuator configured to adjust the position of the scraper toward a sample portion of the wood to scrape a surface of the sample portion of the wood with a scraping force; a force sensor operatively associated with the scraper detecting the scraping force and generating and sending a signal relating to the scraping force; a light source impinging light on a scraped surface of the sample portion; a light detector for detecting a light image defined by light from the light source reflected by the scraped surface and generating and sending a signal relating to the light image; and a controller operatively associated with the force sensor and the light detector said controller receiving the signal relating to the scraping force and the signal relating to the light image, the controller comprising a processor to determine one or more operating parameters based on the signal relating to the scraping force and the signal relating to the light image, whereby the one or more operating parameters are relevant to debarking wood proximal to the sample portion.