QLK5-1999-01467 LINESET: Linking raw material characteristics with industrial needs for environmentally sustainable and efficient transformation of raw material

Contacts
Website: www.tratek.se/eng/lineset
Summary Information



To find similar Items, click on a keyword below:
Quality of Life - 5.3.2 The Forestry-Wood Chain

Contract No:	QLK5-1999-01467
Source:	Progress Report - January 2001 - Abstract

---

Progress Report - January 2001 - Abstract

An industrial tool for utilising more effectively forest raw material, designed for sawmills, will be developed and tested. The basis is a precise knowledge of wood properties from forest to end producer achieved by identifying each log and board, allowing traceability. Wood data for onse sawmill, acting as a model, will automatically be stored in a database, from harvesting of the log to cross-cutting at the end manufacturer. By analysing the data and utilising the knowledge on a European scale, and a number of sawmills having adopted the system, two distinct accomplishments will be met:

1. a more accurate judgement of log qualities already at the log sorting station means less wood raw material for producing a specific product.

2. means for a secure system to guarantee traceability through the forestry wood chain for specified products from forests managed in an environmentally sound manner.

Objectives

The overall aim of this project is to increase the knowledge about the two most important factors for achieving a more sustainable and environmentally friendly use of resources:

• Forest raw material properties
• End manufacturers needs

This will be achieved by exploring an automatic traceability chain, from the stem in the forest to the board entering the end manufacturer crosscut saw. This will enable the development of a secure and automated system for industry to enhance forest raw material utilisation and indicate its origin. The main technical objective is to develop an industrial system based on a detailed sawmill raw material database detailing individual log boards. The database will contain data from the forest, the log sorting station, the saw line, the automatic green sorting station, the handling of stacked wood and finally the automatic cross cut saw of the end manufacturer.

The methods for achieving such automatic traceability in the forest wood chain are:

• To design, test and implement methods for code-marking logs and for tying forest data to the log code, both for automatic and manual application.
• To design, test and implement methods for tying data from the log sorting station, saw line and board green sorting station to the log code.
• To design, test and implement methods for code marking the boards at the green sorting station and for tying data from the green sorting station to the end manufacturers' automatic cross-cut saw, as the final sorting station will not be included in this project
• To evaluate and describe the economic potential possible to achieve with traceability
• To find and explore connections between log parameters in the forest, log sorting station, and sawing line with quality parameters of the boards in the automatic green sorting station, useful for industrial automated operation, for increasing the value of forest raw material.

• To disseminate the results via a website (homepage), at an EU-seminar and in published articles.

During the projects first 12 months, the objectives were:

• To specify the requirements for a system for individual tracking of information in the forest wood chain.
• To describe the general guidelines or traceability systems, depending on user needs, subsystems and detailed systems.

Results and milestones

The expected deliverables and milestones for the first 12-month period were delivered.

The report 'Specification of requirements for a system for individual tracking of information in the forestry wood chain', was presented as deliverable 1. Recommendations for the development design of workpackage 2 - Description of general guidelines for traceability systems depending on user needs, sub-systems and detailed systems, was presented as deliverable 2. These two deliverables were together presented as milestone 1.

Technical note 3.1. Guideline for organisation of the local databases was presented to define the structure and contents of the database to be produced in workpackage 3.

Milestone 2, First sub system ready for installation, a description of the pacing technique to be used in LINESET for securing that the boards coming from a specific log can be identified, was delivered. Two different systems will be used. One for the Monsteras Sawmill (Sweden) by controlling the log and board flow, using the length variation as a code. The second, used at the Castets sawmill (France), will mark each log with a code, consisting of a combination of colour sprays from a number of ejectors, which can be automatically detected on the respective boards at the final sorting station.

Benefits and Beneficiaries

Traceability throughout the forestry wood chain is important for a number of reasons: for environmental reasons in order to be able to guarantee that wood on the market comes from sustainable managed forests but also for getting a grip on the wood flow along the forestry wood chain. In fact, there is today a constant loss of valuable wood raw material and thereby money, due to lack of traceability. At this stage of the project, the interest of the possibilities has increased significantly compared to a year ago.