Now use your ears for predicting the quality of Tasmanian softwood plantations! No more seeing them to check the quality, but hear — scientists have developed a way to use sound-waves to calculate the stiffness and strength of radiata pines before they are cut down.
It is a CSIRO project – named Ensis — and is the first time that information has been available about logs before they reach the saw mill.
The deputy general manager of wood quality at Ensis, Simon Potter says,
What we’re working on is algorithms that convert the information that we get from the acoustic analysis into predictions of density, first of all, and then from that through to stiffness and strength… It gives confidence to the wood producers of Tasmania that they are actually producing the right stuff.
