Board scanner for sorting green or dried boards
ZippyScan Transverse is a scanner for both wet-sawn and dried boards. It is designed to detect defects, assess board dimensions, and perform sorting, trimming, and visual strength grading. It helps sawmills boost product quality, increase kiln load quality, and streamline sorting decisions.
The ZippyScan leverages high-performance computing (HPC) to optimize various wood lengths and widths, efficiently processing two boards / second. It handles green and dry wood without optical readjustment, considering enabled production products, quality classes, thickness, and sorting strategies to maximize kiln load quality and minimize unnecessary energy cost per load. Featuring complete 2D optimization, ZippyScan Transverse increases production capacity and stability in the sorting line.
The system’s advanced multi-sensor setup combines 3D laser profiling, scattering laser, and color imaging, enabling accurate detection of board geometry, surface defects, and dimensional irregularities. It identifies warp, cup, twist, cracks, knots, wane, and other visual inconsistencies, supporting comprehensive quality control. For dry softwood applications, the scanner may be combined with density measurement equipment to provide visual strength grading such as the INSTA 142 standard or equivalent.
Optimized for integration into high-throughput operations, ZippyScan Transverse delivers classification results in under one second. Its AI-based decision engine supports real-time control signals to trimmers, stackers, and sorting gates, enhancing downstream efficiency while reducing manual input and operator variability.
The system features an API for real-time business intelligence based on planning and production control data. Companies' IT staff can use the API to connect the device to ERP or BI systems, which provide detailed data on operation performance.
ZippyScan Transverse transforms board sorting into a data-driven, high-precision operation, helping sawmills boost yield, reduce waste, and achieve greater kiln efficiency — all while maintaining operational agility.
With modular installation, the system can retrofit existing workstations and relieve manual labour.
How does it work?
Highlights
01
Boards are moving cross-wise through the scanner on conveyor chains.
02
ZippyScan Transverse before trimming operation analyses the board against users set dimension and quality parametres
03
Resulting output is sent to the trimmer for optimal blade position against the board and sorting mechanism receives pocket ID to the processed board.
Real-time optimization ensures the best value from any wood by selecting the best from the billions of potential combinations.
Uses your current product prices, downstream costs and specs for all your products.
Handles different thicknesses at the same time of raw wood planks by measuring the thickness before optimization.
Scanning speed : 2 boards a second
Output time: < 1 second
Recognizes all significant artifacts of the wood - knots, bark, decay, etc.
Realtime statistical data output and possible to combine with digital twin expansion to forecast different scenarios without material waste.
Operator can change board view from true ratio to fit to screen image for ease of use.