METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING PROPERTIES OF WOOD BY INFRA-RED OR VISIBLE LIGHT

摘要

A method for assessing logs before primary processing, or wood pieces before subsequent processing, in order to predict the behaviour of wood during subsequent processing, or to predict one or more wood characteristics which are important for end use, such as susceptibility to internal checking during drying, likelihood of dimensional instability, and elastic modulus, comprises subjecting logs or wood pieces to a source of infra-red radiation, detecting the levels of reflected radiation over the infra-red range or at a number of wavelengths in the infra-red range, and analysing the infra-red reflectance spectra relative to stored comparative information on infra-red reflectance data for logs or wood pieces.