Volunteers sought to draft moisture meter standard. (Wood Extra: News).An international standards committee is seeking experienced operators of in-line moisture meters to participate in developing voluntary guidelines guidelines, n.pl a set of standards, criteria, or specifications to be used or followed in the performance of certain tasks. for the devices. ASTM ASTM abbr. American Society for Testing and Materials Committee D07 on Wood is working on "Test Method for Standardization standardization In industry, the development and application of standards that make it possible to manufacture a large volume of interchangeable parts. Standardization may focus on engineering standards, such as properties of materials, fits and tolerances, and drafting and Calibration calibration /cal·i·bra·tion/ (kal?i-bra´shun) determination of the accuracy of an instrument, usually by measurement of its variation from a standard, to ascertain necessary correction factors. of In-Line Dry Lumber lumber, term for timber that has been cut into boards for use as a building material. The major steps in producing lumber involve logging (the felling and preparation of timber for shipment to sawmills), sawing the logs into boards, grading the boards according to Moisture Meters." An in-line dry moisture meter automatically measures lumber on dry chains and planers to remove wood that exceeds moisture tolerance. The meter produces data on kiln performance to enable improvements to kiln schedules and methods. Uniform settings for moisture tolerance and data computation are important considerations when manufacturing and using these devices. Ed Wagner, an engineer and president of Wagner Electronic Products Inc. of Rogue River Rogue River A river, about 322 km (200 mi) long, rising in the Cascade Range of southwest Oregon and flowing generally south and southwest to the Pacific Ocean. , OR, is task group leader of the committee that has been trying to sort out the complex issues of in-line moisture detection for 10 years. "There are basically no standards available in the industry for in-line moisture detectors except for methods published by manufacturers," Wagner said. Wagner said the standard the committee hopes to complete this year will provide a "common ground" to help wood products manufacturers more effectively select and use in-line meters. The standard being drafted includes a glossary A term used by Microsoft Word and adopted by other word processors for the list of shorthand, keyboard macros created by a particular user. See glossaries in this publication and The Computer Glossary. of terms, that in itself will be useful for buyers and sellers of moisture meters to talk the same language. "Wood by its nature is very inconsistent," Wagner said. "There are many issues that factor into play with in-line moisture measuring including travel speeds, wet spots and lumber thickness. The committee would be interested in receiving help from professionals who have experience working with in-line meters and who are aware of the issues involved in achieving optimum performance." To provide input or join the task group, contact Wagner at (541) 5820541; ewagner@wwwagner.com. Committee D07 meets April 22-25 in Madison, WI. For meeting or membership details contact Maxine Topping, manager, ASTM Technical Committee Operations at (610) 832-9737; e-mali mtopping@astm.org. |
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