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With the nation's hardwood lumber industry facing growing foreign competition, technology is needed to help mills obtain more high quality lumber from trees, Purdue University researcher Rado Gazo said. Gazo is overseeing a summer project at a northern Indiana lumber mill filled this spring with a CT scanner that's comparing logs cut after being subjected to the high-resolution X-ray scans with logs cut after being sized up the traditional way.
He said the technology could have a big impact on the hardwood industry if it proves effective optimizing the extraction of high quality wood from logs. It could also affect the way uncut logs are bought and sold at auctions and sales.
"The way you buy and sell logs today, you basically go out and guess what is inside a log based on bark, the history of the tree or the site where the tree was grown," Gazo said. "You're hoping for the best outcome but you never know until you cut the log what you've really got."
Gazo, who oversees Purdue's Hardwood Scanning Center created three years ago, is working on the project with Sun Joseph Chang, a professor of forestry at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
He said Chang has spent 20 years researching CT scanner lumber applications and is considered a top expert in the field.
Purdue's center has received about $1 million in federal, state and private money for the research. Some of those funds were secured by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., a longtime supporter of the university's hardwood tree research.
Lugar, who owns a hardwood tree farm near Indianapolis, said the CT scanner work is "an exciting step" in helping support Indiana's and the nation's ability to compete in the multi-billion-dollar global hardwood market.
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 Computed tomography, or CT, uses X-rays to make detailed images of structures inside objects. A leased scanner that Purdue installed in April at Pike Lumber Co., in Akron, about 40 miles west of Fort Wayne, is giving high-resolution views inside the logs.
Five tree species _ hard maple, black cherry, yellow poplar, white oak and red oak _ are being run through the scanner as part of the "proof of concept" tests.
In black and white images, the CT scans show slices of the log that reveal cracks, insect damage, areas of decay, growth rings, grain patterns and other features.
If the technology works well, Gazo said it could be available commercially within three years to help mill workers determine the best angles for cutting logs to extract superior lumber. He that it could potentially increase the value of logs 20 percent to 40 percent.
In particular, it could be a boon to the nation's veneer industry by helping producers maximize thin, high-quality slices of woods that are glued onto less valuable wood.
Gazo said it could even be feasible to develop a portable CT scanner capable of imaging live, standing trees.
John Brown, the executive vice president of Pike Lumber, is gearing up for a June 21 demonstration of the technology at the mill that will be attended by lumber equipment makers and distributors.
He said a demonstration log will be scanned, sawn into boards and then put back together.
"You'll see an image of what it looks like on the computer," Brown said. "You peel away the layers and say, 'Here's what we said was there and here's what's there.'"
[Associated Press]
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