Building Materials and Equipment

Laser rangefinders are used to measure the length of lumber to ensure that the boards are cut to the correct length. While other methods of end-tallying lumber rely on human judgment or estimations, using laser measurement sensors guarantees that boards are measured and cut with extreme accuracy.

An overview of common challenges, best practices, and tips to help make fiberglass cut-to-length and thickness measurement systems successful.

Many manufactures have a requirement to accurately measure the angles of their products on line and adjust the process to reduce waste.

A maker of foundation pile testing equipment uses laser rangefinders to collect set data, acquiring it much faster than hammer impacts. The rangefinder is affixed to a stationary base. The automated equipment is set up prior to starting of the hammer and does not require the use of manual recording methods.

Acuity’s rangefinders are used at sawmills to measure the width of lumber boards while sorting on a conveyor line.  A customer has an AR1000 laser distance sensor mounted in line with the board and housed under a higher conveyor area approximately 10 feet away.

Lumber mills are taking advantage of the high speed and high accuracy AR2000 sensor for sorting applications. As lumber is moved down the conveyor line, sensor length measurements are made on each board in less than two seconds.

The forest, lumber and wood products industry is a regular user of Acuity laser sensor products for the measuring of logs, cants, lumber, veneer thickness, paperboard, etc.

An OEM machine maker who has for years been making equipment for the concrete block industry is addressing a quality assurance issue by integrating Acuity laser displacement sensors into a non-contact height measurement system.

Our customer from the lumber industry is using the AS2100 laser sensor to measure the length of cut lumber as it moves down the mill. With a measurement range of over 300 feet on natural targets and an accuracy of 0.040″ at 20 Hz, the AS2100 is a good fit for this customer.

Global equipment providers to the cement and minerals industries use distance laser meters for diagnosing runout and shape deformation problems.

Before material is cut into individual sheets, there can be a large sag created by the mismatch of speeds between two rollers. A global manufacturer sought to use laser distance sensors to improve the performance of their production lines.

A stone fabrication company uses our AS1100 Long Distance Sensor to measure the length of each slab before it is cut with a wet saw. As well, the AS1100 is mounted a bit off-axis to avoid an obstruction.

One of the issues doors can have is that they are too thick or too thin for a good fit. Laser displacement sensors in a dual opposed mode can make thickness measurements to hold several thousand’s of an inch as doors move down the conveyor line.