Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries research scientist Henri Bailleres tests a pine log for strength and stiffness.

The Australian softwood industry needs a way to accurately predict the strength and stiffness of timber (green logs and boards) processed for structural products.

While good quality timber can easily be separated from poor quality timber, identifying timber that will never be high grade while it is still green saves resources such as time, labour and money.

By confidently determining stiffness and strength in the dry mill, higher recoveries and a more accurate mechanical property for each product can be established.

Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries (QPIF) is working in conjunction with Hyne Timber, Carter Holt Harvey and Wespine to determine the best way of identifying stiffness and strength in green pine.

The first stage of the project focused on stiffness-limited Radiata pine resources from the southern highlands. The second stage concerned the strength-limited pine resources from Western Australia. The third and last stage of the project focused on Caribbean pine from South East Queensland.

Initial analysis showed a high level of correlation between the log vibration parameters and average board stiffness. It also showed the ideal scanner efficiency for strength prediction improvement.

Before the conclusion of the project, timber processors were installing technology to detect low stiffness timber and to divert it from the seasoning and moulding processes. This resulted in significant savings in energy usage and downstream costs.

QPIF is working on communicating the results of this research to industry. 

For more information on this project, contact Henri Bailleres henri.bailleres@dpi.qld.gov.au