TADPOLE SYSTEM FOR MACHINE STRESS GRADING OF TIMBER
The Tadpole system is designed to efficiently monitor, in real time, the stress grading machine and the stress graded timber product. It achives this with the aid of specialised data input, data storage, data analysis and reporting functions which are designed to provide everything needed for quality control, quality assurance and product compliance verification of machine stress graded (MSG) timber.
Tadpole was developed over a number of years in conjunction with mills in Australia and New Zealand and was built to be compatible with both metric and imperial units. This makes it suitable for use in any mill using the bending type of stress grader like the Computermatic, Dart, CLT and HCLT machines.
An overall requirement for Tadpole was for it to have grading machine independence. Independence resulted in a common database and common user interface making it possible to develop common control criteria and methodology across the commercial machine types in use. For example, the mills using the Tadpole system are using five different types of commercial grading machines and identical control is currently being achieved with each machine type. Tadpole provides valuable information about the capabilities of the different grading machines and associated mechanical transfer equipment and this information can be used to guide decisions in this area.
The Tadpole name is derived from "Technically Advanced Production Monitoring of Local-E" and has been designed to be a stand alone, turnkey solution but is also compatible with current control systems for mechanically stress graded timber used in various parts of the world making it easy for mills operating under a specific control regime to enhance their current system with the new technology.
Tadpole uses robust software components to provide a reliable system running on the Windows XP platform. The use of advanced software components has resulted in an enhanced and more efficient form of control due to the extensive nature of the information collected and the ease and speed with which it can be analysed and presented to the operator either directly on the screen, via external signals or via reports. The current release is Version 9 and is available for the the Sybase Advantage Database Server V9. Version 9 is also available with legacy support for the Paradox BDE based file system.
Note that some of the pictures on this web site may be from earlier versions and may also show only part of a window. Please contact us for any questions related to the current version.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN ADVANTAGES OF THE TADPOLE SYSTEM?
Tadpole has many advantages over other forms of control and product monitoring traditionally used for mechanical stress grading operations. Most day to day functions of the control system were designed to be either fully automatic or require minimal operator input which has many bonuses for the mill through improved productivity, accuracy and reliability. Conventional control systems require a considerable amount of time and paperwork and sometimes without achieving good control over the process. Conventional control systems also provide little information other than a pass/fail result for product monitoring tests and also lack means of taking advantage of data generated during normal operations.
Analysis of test results and routine checks are available in real-time during production to minimise the chance of rejected product and to provide operators with the required information for machine and product complicance verification as quickly as practicable. The system is designed to require minimal operator training and requires minimal ongoing paperwork.
A comprehensive collection of control and other data are stored in a database which can be easily used to provide end-of-run and other reports on grading machine verification, compliance verification, process improvement, machine repeatability, operator performance, management reporting, internal auditing, external auditing and R&D.
The Sybase Advantage Database Server provides a comprehensive and cost effective, reliable client/server system that requires no routine maintenance or IT support (paper). The database can be located on a remote server or on a local machine and can also be replicated at any location. The database can be routinely backed up and restored to ensure total data security.
SUMMARY OF ADVANTAGES
The accumulation of local-E data on a routine basis has provided mills with the ability to effectively carry out regrading exercises post-grading. The information so gained has been used for various research and development purposes (paper). One other important use the local-E data has been put to has been the 're-assembly' of logs to provide a picture of the local-E distribution within the logs (paper). This research has provided significant on-going benefits in a number of mills by improving log sorting procedures.
Being able to carry out sophisticated analysis using standardised analysis techniques acting directly on the database is a highly significant improvement over older methods. The versatility of having routine analyses performed automatically for less experienced staff and also being able to easily query the database to do more sophisticated analyses has been a great feature for research and development projects. The special design of the software based analyses results in a far more reliable result than is the case with the common practice of the ad hoc adoption of complicated, error prone spreadsheets.
In summary, Tadpole provides mills with the most effective and efficient control and monitoring system for mechanical stress grading yet devised. By being developed directly in the mills, the resulting system ended up as a user friendly approach to solving the very old problem of effective and efficient control over the MSG process.
Tadpole also provides the tools needed by anyone with access to the databases the ability to quickly and efficiently review a grading operation, carry out audits, analyse data (for example to define new grade levels) and do many types of research and development work.
© 2008 Wood Technology Australia Pty Ltd