FAQs

We make 3D laser scanners for the sawmill industry.

Our scanners are used primarily for optimization in both green mills and planer mills. All of our scanners are designed and assembled in Washington state, USA.

3D laser scanners are typically used for optimization in sawmills.

Optimization allows computers to make on-the-fly decisions about the best way to cut wood as it moves through the mill. This helps to maximize value and profitability.

Another benefit of 3D laser scanning is that it allows sawmills to gather data about the accuracy and efficiency of different machine centers along their lines. For instance, a scanning system can answer the question “Is my edger actually making the cuts where it thinks it’s making them?”

There are a lot of variables that go into determining the value of a scanning & optimization system for a given sawmill. What kind of equipment do you already have? What kinds of products are you making?

A detailed analysis of your particulars can be put together by a qualified optimization integrator.

However, if you’re looking for ballpark figures, we’ve had mills report improvements of 5% for production and 8% for yield after installing systems with our scanners.

JoeScan scanners do occasionally get used in applications outside of sawmills, and we’re happy to see them there. However, we will always develop solutions for sawmills first.

Our customers appreciate that our focus allows us to develop and support products that are specifically dialed-in for their needs.

We make 3D laser scanners for sawmills because it’s what we know and love. We love the challenge of producing precision optical devices that need to work reliably for years in such a tough environment.

In short, no.

We make the physical scanning hardware, and handle firmware for making the data our scanners produce easy to work with. However, we leave the optimization to the experts.

Our scanners produce point clouds using structured light (as opposed to something like LIDAR). We like this approach because it is a proven, robust technology with a long history of success in sawmills.

For a more in-depth look at how our scanners work, click here.

Sometimes.

From time to time we’ve been known to produce custom solutions for our sawmill partners. This can include unique hardware variations for specific situations, or even simple software integrations.

In general though, we tend to refer most custom software project requests to our integration partners. It’s not that we don’t love your idea. We just want to make sure you’re able to get the best support over the lifetime of your project, and we are focused on producing the best sawmill scanning hardware you can get.

You should choose JoeScan if you are looking for a partner that is committed to the sawmill industry.

We pride ourselves in building relationships with our sawmill & integrator partners.

These relationships help us to develop features and products specifically designed to solve sawmill problems. And they help you to receive world-class support directly from our engineering team.