By ANN ALLEN
Indiana Correspondent

AKRON, Ind. — A timber buyer can look at a log and estimate its condition and value, but new technology recently unveiled at Pike Lumber Co. in Akron could soon give them a dimension previously unthinkable – a peek into the log’s interior.

“This is still proof of concept,” Dr. Rado Gazo explained as he demonstrated a computerized tomography (CT) scanning process he and his associates, Daniel Warner and Kyle Newman, are developing from a refurbished, leased medical scanner that once peered into human brains and internal organs.

With their adaptations, the scanner now reveals cracks, insect damage, areas of decay, growth rings, grain patterns and hardware such as staples, shot and insulators that could damage a saw or ruin several boards.

While they use a medical software package, Gazo said the process does not require the detail of a brain scan. “Guys who sign up for wood shop don’t plan to become radiologists,” he said.

Gazo, an associate professor of wood processing and industrial engineering in Purdue University’s Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, and Dr. Sun Joseph Chang, a professor of forestry at Louisiana State University, believe scanning could increase the value of lumber from domestically harvested trees as much as $2.4 billion annually.

To prove their theory, Gazo set up an experimental scanning site this spring in the north warehouse at Pike Lumber. With the assistance of Warner, a technician in Purdue’s Wood Research Laboratory, and Newman, a Purdue undergraduate assistant from Kewanna, Ind., he began scanning 60 logs, sending the resultant data to Chang, whose Topsaw computer program determines the optimal first cut for each log.

The study, financed by federal, state and Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen Assoc. grants, has cost $1 million to date.
Its mission is to increase the global competitiveness of the United States hardwood industry and to conserve that resource by the development of technologies that will enable the hardwood industry to make better processing decisions.

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), a longtime supporter of Purdue’s hardwood tree research and the owner of a hardwood tree farm near Indianapolis, helped secure some of the monies, calling the CT scanner project “an exciting step” in helping support Indiana’s and the nation’s ability to compete in the multi-billion-dollar global hardwood market.

“The Hardwood Scanning Center at Purdue and the demonstration project at Pike Lumber Company are important efforts to help Indiana and America better compete in the hardwood industry,” he said.

Gazo and his team are evaluating the economic benefits of the new technology. Sixty lumbermen, hardwood industry suppliers and representatives of state and federal agencies and of Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources attending the scanner’s recent unveiling had mixed reviews after watching scans of hard maple, black cherry, yellow poplar, white and red oak logs.

Samantha Howard, vice president of administration at Pike Lumber, liked what she saw. “If you don’t know where a log’s internal defects are located, you could make a bad choice in how the log is sawn,” she said.

John Chiarotti of Amos-Hill Associates, Edinburgh, Ind., saw definite possibilities. “Technology has to continue,” he said, “because quality timber sources are declining. It’s extremely difficult to tell the bad from the good.”

John Grunwald of Danzer Services, a veneer-manufacturing firm also located in Edinburgh, liked the CT concept, but had reservations. “It needs to be more accurate. It needs more capacity,” he said.

Rado Gazo’s reply to each was the same: “This is strictly proof of concept. We must take this one step at a time. My hope is to develop a scanner like this that will get the speed and resolution you need. This is the first step.”

Gazo predicted if the technology works well, it could be available within three years to help sawyers determine the best angles for cutting logs to extract superior lumber. The scanning device is not yet portable, but Gazo hopes technology improves so it can be. Still, he feels that by using the scanning equipment, lumber companies could increase the value of logs 20-40 percent.

While value-added is the ultimate goal of every manufacturing operation, it is important to the lumber industry since the demand for forest products is growing. Currently, Indiana’s forests contribute more than $9 billion annually to the state’s economy, making it a leader in agricultural output.

Forest-based manufacturing provides employment for more than 54,000 people, generating payrolls in excess of $1.4 billion annually. While the timber industry is the fourth-largest manufacturing sector by employment in the state, Indiana ranks first nationally in the manufacture of wood office furniture.