Publication Details
Character-marked furniture: potential for lumber yield increase in rip-first rough mills
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Year Published
1998
Publication
Forest Products Journal. 48(4): 43-50.
Abstract
The inclusion of character marks in furniture parts increases part yield at least as much as previously estimated by industrial practitioners and scientists specializing in yield efficiency. However, character-marked furniture is uncommon in the more popular North American furniture species and designs. Opportunities for extending the hardwood resource associated with using more of wood's natural character in secondary wood products can be more easily implemented today than a decade ago, given the advent of computer-supported sawing systems. In this study, the yield increases associated with including character marks on furniture parts were evaluated. We assessed gang-rip-first processing yields for seven furniture cutting bills using the USDA Forest Service's ROMI-RIP simulator. The yield increase associated with the inclusion of character marks in furniture parts depends on the size of the character allowed, the type of character, one-face versus both-face quality provisions, the lumber grade mix, and the cutting bill. Yield increases were highest when cutting 2 Common lumber into partsthat allow character marks as large as 2 inches in diameter on both faces (13.8 percentage points higher yield than for clear parts). For a scenario that represents a less ambitious change from current practices, the yield obtained when cutting 2 Common lumber into parts that allow character marks as large as 1 inch on only one face was 3.9 percentage points higher than when cutting clear parts.
Citation
Buehlmann, Urs; Wiedenbeck, Janice K.; Kline, D. Earl. 1998. Character-marked furniture: potential for lumber yield increase in rip-first rough mills. Forest Products Journal. 48(4): 43-50.