How can computer vision help a sawmill or wood products plant sort boards by grade?

---
title: "How to grade lumber with computer vision"
description: "Cameras over the grading table or a conveyor can image each board on several faces as it passes. A computer vision model trained on your own boards and grade rules can find knots, splits, wane, stains, decay and other visible features, measure where they sit, and suggest a grade or the best cut to get more usable length. It keeps an image record for each board so questions from buyers can be checked later. A trained grader reviews borderline boards and samples the rest, and boards that need an official grade stamp are still graded under your normal rules."
url: https://lidvizion.ai/answers/how-to-grade-lumber-with-computer-vision/
site: Lid Vizion
index: https://lidvizion.ai/llms.txt
---

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# How can computer vision help a sawmill or wood products plant sort boards by grade?

Cameras over the grading table or a conveyor can image each board on several faces as it passes. A computer vision model trained on your own boards and grade rules can find knots, splits, wane, stains, decay and other visible features, measure where they sit, and suggest a grade or the best cut to get more usable length. It keeps an image record for each board so questions from buyers can be checked later. A trained grader reviews borderline boards and samples the rest, and boards that need an official grade stamp are still graded under your normal rules.

## What this means in practice

- Set up even lighting and cameras that see each face of the board on the line.
- Label boards from your own mill for each feature and grade your graders use.
- Train or tune a model and compare its suggestions with grader decisions.
- A trained grader reviews borderline boards and samples the rest of each run.
- Keep image records by board or bundle so buyer questions can be checked quickly.

## How Lid Vizion approaches it

We start with the business decision and operating context, define ownership and measurable milestones, then use configuration, integrations, automation, or custom software only where each earns its place.

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