Warp Stable Wood Product And Methods For Detecting The Same

1 . A wood product having a cross-sectional centroid wherein at least one property is substantially symmetrical about the cross-sectional centroid of the product wherein the property is selected from the group consisting of: morphology, microstructure, macrostructure, and chemical composition.

2 . The wood product of claim 1 wherein the microstructure property is microfibril angle.

3 . The wood product of claim 1 wherein the macrostructure property is grain angle.

4 . The wood product of claim 1 wherein the chemical composition property is a hemicellulose.

5 . The wood product of claim 1 wherein the morphology property is at least one of: shape, curvature, compression wood and pith location.

6 . The wood product of claim 1 wherein degree of symmetry of the property is an indicator of warp potential.

7 . The wood product of claim 6 wherein the warp potential is at least one of: crook, bow, cup and twist.

8 . A wood product package comprising:

a plurality of wood products wherein a performance attribute of the wood products is certified in statistical terms based on a degree to at which at least one of a morphology, microstructure, macrostructure or chemical composition property remains substantially symmetrical about a cross-sectional centroid of each of the wood products.

9 . The wood product package of claim 8 wherein the certified performance attribute is immunity to warp distortion.

10 . The wood product package of claim 8 wherein the microstructure property is microfibril angle.

11 . The wood product package of claim 8 wherein the macrostructure property is grain angle.

12 . The wood product package of claim 8 wherein the chemical composition property is a hemicellulose.

13 . The wood product package of claim 8 wherein the morphology property is at least one of: shape, curvature, compression wood and pith location.

14 . The wood product package of claim 8 wherein the performance attribute is certified based on a change in moisture content.

15 . A method for sorting a wood product comprised of one or more regions of interest, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting one or more properties within each region of interest wherein the detected property is at least one of: morphology, microstructure, macrostructure, and chemical composition;

calculating an index of symmetry correlated to a degree to which the one or more detected properties are substantially symmetric about one or more cross-sectional centroids of one or more of the regions of interest within the wood product; and

sorting the wood product into at least one of a plurality of categories based on the index of symmetry.

16 . The method of claim 15 wherein the one or more detected properties are detected using one or more sensor groups selected from the group consisting of: moisture content measurement, electrical property measurement, structural property measurement, acousto-ultrasonic property measurement, light scatter (tracheid-effect) measurement, grain angle measurement, shape measurement, color measurement, spectral measurement and defect maps.

17 . The method of claim 15 wherein the sorting is based on one or more sensor groups in conjunction with human input.

18 . The method of claim 15 further comprising the step of:

certifying a performance attribute of the wood product in statistical terms based on a degree to which at least one of the morphology, microstructure, macrostructure or chemical composition property remains substantially symmetrical about one or more of the cross-sectional centroids of the wood product.

19 . The method of claim 15 wherein the microstructure property is microfibril angle.

20 . The method of claim 15 wherein the macrostructure property is grain angle.

21 . The method of claim 15 wherein the chemical composition property is a hemicellulose.

22 . The method of claim 15 wherein the morphology property is at least one of: shape, curvature, compression wood and pith location.