ABSTRACT: Wood plays a key role in our societies, especially in achieving sustainable development in the construction sector. Making the best of this precious raw material is essential. MiCROTEC is the leading provider of innovative wood scanning solutions that allow making the best of every single tree. What makes MiCROTEC so successful at what it does? Innovation is the key and it permeates the company’s every activity, from the development of superior hardware to the deployment of AI to detect defects. BIO: Carlo Saporito Moretto is responsible for Corporate Business Process Management at MiCROTEC, catalyzing data-driven change.

1. Innovating Wood

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microtec.eu
1980 2023
450 employees
105 €mln turnover
Only provider of scanning & optimization solutions
for the complete wood processing industry
Company

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06. Corvallis
155 SW Madison Ave
Corvallis, OR 97333
USA
01. HQ. Brixen
Via Julius-Durst 98
39042 Brixen
Italy
04. Linköping
Idögatan 10
58278 Linköping
Sweden
05. Espoo
Lukopurontie 2
02200 Espoo
Finland
03. Rosenheim
Happinger Str. 94
83026 Rosenheim
Germany
02. Venezia
Via Miranese 56
30171 Venezia
Italy
07. Vancouver
West Broadway V6J
1847 Vancouver
Canada
Global Network of Innovation
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microtec.eu

4. Global Network of Innovation
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Innovating wood
About 75% of timber is used in the construction sector*
Urbanisation is a key driver of timber consumption
• in China from 1998 to 2018:
o +96% urban dwellers
o +71% per capita timber consumption
• Projected +52% increase in urban population worldwide between 2020 and 2050
• Building homes requires timber, but as much consumption goes into renovating them too
*Q&A: how much timber goes to biomass energy production?
15% goes to biomass energy and 10% to pulp and paper
Why bother? Urbanisation
Source: Gresham House, Global Timber Outlook 2020

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Countries worldwide are pushing towards
home renovation to reduce energy
consumption and promote sustainable
materials with lower carbon footprint
Achieving net zero targets is likely to lead to
higher timber consumption through
substitution effects
All in all, timber consumption is expected to
increase by 170% between 2020 and 2050!
Innovating wood
Why bother? Decarbonisation
CLT = Cross-Laminated Timber
Graphics from: Gresham House, Global Timber Outlook 2020

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Wood
I just can’t get enough
Graphics from: Gresham House, Global Timber Outlook 2020
*Q&A: How about Africa?
Africa does not shine on this chart, because wood
production there (concentrated in Western and
Central Africa) is minor and absorbed in the ‘Rest of
World’ component. Wood processing there is also
underdeveloped, as the continent mostly focuses
on exporting raw material.

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Sustainable supply capacity is expected to realistically achieve 4.6 bln m3/year
We use about 3.7 bln m3/year, facing projections between 5.8 and 7.5 bln m3/year by 2050
That is, we may end up 30-50% short
The least we can do is make the best of every single tree!
Innovating wood
It matters!

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microtec.eu
Forest
Cut and transportation
Cut in Forest Transport to the Mill
• By Truck
• By Train
• By River
Long Logs
Length 4 – 28 meters
Typical in France and
North America
Short Logs
Length 2-6 meters
FOREST LOGYARD SAWLINE GREEN, DRY & PLANER MILL SECONDARY PROCESSING ___

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microtec.eu
Logyard
Log Processing
FOREST LOGYARD SAWLINE GREEN, DRY & PLANER MILL SECONDARY PROCESSING ___
Solution:
CT Log -> Find out more!
Speed: 180 m/min
Logeye -> Find out more!
Speed: 300-800 m/min

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Wood
Section
Pith
Heartwood
Sapwood
Bark
Bark enclosure
Shake
Stain

12. Logeye 300 Features
Logeye 301 D (dimension)
▪ 3D laser triangulation for accurate
and full log real 3D shape scanning
Logeye 301 C (color)
▪ High resolution photo documentation
Logeye 302 (x-ray)
▪ X-ray multi-view system for knottiness,
knotty core, density determination and
foreign objects detection
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Features extraction from CT Log images
× Pith × Heartwood
× Sound knots × Annual rings
× Dead knots × Dry sapwood
× Splits × Compression wood
× Resin pockets × Bark enclosures
× Rot × Slope of grain
× Under bark shape × Species recognition
× Metals × Insect holes

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microtec.eu
CT Log
State of the Art – Under Bark Shape
▪ Estimate log shape after debarking
▪ Traditional techniques struggle since bark and
sapwood densities are very similar, thus AI is
required
▪ Allows for accurate under-bark diameter
estimation

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microtec.eu
Sawline
Sawing the log
FOREST LOGYARD SAWLINE GREEN, DRY & PLANER MILL SECONDARY PROCESSING ___
Solution:
Logeye -> Find out more!
Speed: 300-800 m/min

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Optiline and Maxicut
Make the best of every log
Central cut
Side boards

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Input Material:
• Unedged log slices
Output Material:
• Edged Boards rough sawn
Main Scope:
• Refine the log slice in a rectangular boards
excluding, as much as possible, the wane
areas
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Edger Sawing Line
Lumber Processing in the Sawmill

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Input Material:
• Edged (rectangular) wide boards rough sawn
Output Material:
• Edged (rectangular) wide boards graded
rough sawn or planed
Main Scope:
• Generate a way to classify boards in order to
define a price (value) of that particular boards
microtec.eu
Grading Line
Lumber Processing in the Sawmill

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Green, dry & planer mill
Processing the boards
FOREST LOGYARD SAWLINE GREEN, DRY & PLANER MILL SECONDARY PROCESSING ___
Solution:
Goldeneye Transverse -> Find out more!
Speed: 240 lug/min
Finscan -> Find out more!
Speed: 240 boards/min

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Green sorting
Variosort
Greensorting:
• a process where fresh boards are
sorted by size and quality and
packaged
Input Material:
• Boards with different size and quality
Output Material:
• Packages of boards with common
properties
43x230x4000 A
43x230x4000 B
43x153x4000 A
23x180x4000 A

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Dry sorting
Variosort
Dry sorting:
• a process where packages are
destacked and resorted by quality
Input Material:
• Packages of boards having the same
size but different quality
Output Material:
• Packages of boards with common
properties
43x230x4000 A
43x230x4000 B
43x230x3500 A
43x230x3000 A

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Secondary processing
Finalization
FOREST LOGYARD SAWLINE GREEN, DRY & PLANER MILL SECONDARY PROCESSING___
Solution:
Goldeneye -> Find out more!
Speed: 150-1200 m/min
Woodeye -> Find out more!
Speed: 300 m/min

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Secondary processing
Processing lumber
Rough Sawn Boards
Rip Saw
Wide Boards
Planed Boards
Planer
Cross-Cut
Saw
Moulder
Finger Joint
Machine
Sorting Parquet
Flooring
Truck Flooring
House
Cabinet
Windows
Doors
Beds
House
Furnitures
Sauna Floors
Sauna Walls

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Machines
Scanner and cross-cut
Cross-Cut
Saw
Scanner

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Moulder (or Profiler)
This kind of machine is producing profiling boards for final commercial uses. It is a very
complex machine that requires an high precision and quality control.
microtec.eu
Secondary processing
Moulder
Wienig

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MiCROTEC introduced machine learning in its scanners in 1999
We use it to solve different types of problems:
▪ Segmentation (detecting polygons, such as most defects)
▪ Classification (classifying images, such as in grade mark readers)*
▪ Regression (identifying the location of specific features, such as the pith)
*Q&A: Does MiCROTEC apply classification algorithms in other ways too?
We mostly apply classification to grade mark readers for crayon marks classification
Artificial Intelligence
Detection algorithms

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Segmentation
State of the Art – Stains Detection
▪ Blue/Brown stains detection on lumber boards
▪ Allows a good detection with different color shades and dirt
▪ Increased performances

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Classification
State of the Art – Grade Mark Reader
▪ Crayon mark symbols classification
▪ Manually drawn on moving boards, low shapes precision
▪ Different surface colors

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Regression
State of the Art – Pith Position Estimation
▪ Estimation of the pith position using the boards face image
▪ Annual rings are the main information
▪ Knots, cracks, dirt, saw cuts are additional difficulties

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Neural nets performance is affected by several aspects, including:
▪ Image quality (superior hardware is key)
▪ Training (images pre-labeled by wood experts)
▪ Speed (algorithms must be optimized to match line speed)
▪ Wood (different species and moisture levels)
Performance
Getting it right

31. Crometic Camera
In-house developed and propretary
CMOS sensor with full HD-resolution
with 600 frames per second
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32. X-Ray Technology
▪ In-house developed proprietary
photodiode array
▪ up to 6,000 frames per second
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(X-ray example of a log longitudinal section)
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*Q&A: why does MiCROTEC produce its own photodiodes, when they would be available on the market? Is it just to reduce costs?
MiCROTEC scanners operate under constraints (speed among them) that require optimizing such components for our use cases.

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MiCROTEC Connect is a revolutionary fingerprint system based on CT-scanned logs
It allows to trace each real board back to its original log
Bringing it all together
Fingerprint

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How we do it

35. Thank you