Some implications of remanufacturing hardwood lumber

Research on several hundred well-manufactured 1 and 2A Common red oak board s shows that better edging and/or trimming or division-based remanufacturin g can produce boards of higher grade and value. Division-based remanufactur ing divides a board into as many as four smaller boards. The UGRS computer program (3,4) grades digitized boards, examines their remanufacturing poten tial, remanufactures to the highest valued solutions greater than the origi nal board values, and displays the size, defect location, and grade of new boards for UGRS analysis. An example analysis of the effects of such remanu facturing for a simple, gang-rip-first, rough-mill cutting bill is included . Whether boards can be remanufactured profitably depends on the relative p rices among the lumber grades and the costs assigned to remanufacturing. Al l software used in this research is available free of charge.