Use of sensing technologies in the wood products industry

森林产品为加拿大提供了巨大的经济财富，2008年带来了302亿美元的出口收入。在当前的木材制造业务中，测量木材特性对于确保在正确的时间和成本将正确的纤维导向适当的制造公司以生产所需的产品至关重要。在所有与质量有关的木材属性中，密度和含水率是最重要的两个，因为它们影响制造过程的效率。为了准确地控制产品质量，需要一个能够实时监测这些木材性质的系统。最近的研究表明，近红外(NIR)光谱、探地雷达(GPR)或磁共振(MR)技术是监测木材性质的很有前途的技术。该项目将以迄今取得的研究进展为基础，基于近红外光谱、探地雷达或磁共振技术，开发可操作的、负担得起的、坚固耐用的系统，用于实时监测原木密度和含水率(MC)。同时，还将进行更基本的研究，以模拟表面以及观察和光照条件对可见光-近红外光谱的影响，从而对含水率和密度估计产生影响，开发一种从高光谱图像中提取木材含水率和密度的方法，并建立用于表征木材性质的新的近红外传输装置。该研究团队是多学科的，由来自新不伦瑞克大学、多伦多大学、FP创新公司和名古屋大学(日本)的木材科学和传感技术方面的领先研究人员组成。这项研究将为现有木制品制造公司的过程控制和增值优化提供新的技术，从而直接对加拿大产生好处。

The forest products have provided Canada with great economic wealth, bringing in $30.2 billion in export revenue in 2008. In current wood manufacturing operations, measurement of wood characteristics is essential to ensure that the right fiber is directed to the appropriate manufacturing company at the right time and cost to produce products in demand. Among all the quality-related wood properties, density and moisture content are two of the most important because they affect the efficiency of manufacturing processes. In order to accurately control the product quality, a system able of real time monitoring of these wood properties is needed. Recent research has shown that near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) or magnetic resonance (MR) technologies are promising technologies for monitoring wood properties. This project will build on the research advances made to date and develop operational, affordable and robust systems for real-time monitoring of log density and moisture content (MC) based on NIR spectroscopy, GPR or MR technologies. In parallel, a more fundamental research will be undertaken in order to model the effects of surface and of viewing and illumination conditions on the VIS-NIR spectra and thus on the moisture content and density estimation, to develop a method for deriving wood MC and density from hyperspectral images and to prototype a new NIR transmission device for characterizing wood properties. The research team is multi-disciplinary and consists of leading researchers in wood science and in sensing technologies from University of New Brunswick, University of Toronto, from FPInnovations, and from Nagoya University (Japan). The research will have a direct benefit to Canada by providing novel technologies for process control and value-added optimization in existing wood product manufacturing companies.