Lumber leaving GradeScan will eventually end up on the lug chain. Between the scanner and the lug chain though, it is possible for boards to get out of order or sometimes a board could break and not show up – it is important to make sure that the system know for sure which board is on what lug. So Lucidyne developed a patented technique that uses each board’s fiberprint to confirm its identification. No spray marks are made on the board!

When boards are scanned they are assigned a sequential board number that is used for all internal processing and tracking. However, no marks are placed on the board itself. Therefore, the board must be re-associated with its board number once it reaches the lug chain. Lucidyne calls its system True-Q^™, a board recognition method that features patented “BoardPrint” technology to track lumber without marking it.

GradeScan captures images on the top and bottom of each board. These images are compared with a single image taken once the board reaches the lug chain to confirm the identity of the board. If the new image does not match the expected board, True-Q^™ will look upstream and downstream ten boards in an attempt to find a match and will favor the closest boards more heavily. The system is not designed to support boards being removed and then reinserted in the flow, but will tolerate some degree of boards trading places. True-Q^™ errs to the conservative side; it will reject boards that do not meet predetermined matching criteria.

In the image below, The column on the left shows images taken by GradeScan. The column on the right shows images from True-Q^™. If they match a short green line connects the two images.