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A colour assessment methodology for oak wood

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Abstract

Context

Customers have limited tolerances for colour differences between oak wood elements in parquetry or furniture, whereas manufacturers are in need of an objective method to communicate possible differences in their products.

Aims

This study is aimed at grading oak wood boards in objectively defined colour classes in correspondence with the visual assessment by an expert panel.

Methods

First, the most suitable spectrophotometer for measurements approximating the perception of the human eye was selected. Then, three colour grading algorithms were evaluated: one based on the smallest distance towards the centre of the colour subspaces, the second using a classification tree and the last implementing the CIEDE2000 colour difference formula to determine tolerance ellipsoids.

Results

Statistical analysis using a classification tree and CIEDE2000 tolerance ellipsoids classified the specimens in good accordance with visual assessment, with a 6 and 5 % misclassification, respectively.

Conclusions

The colour grading methodology can be adapted to particular grading purposes and is proposed as a basis for development of an inline colour grading system to be added to commonly used defect detection scanners.

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Funding

The authors wish to thank IWT (Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology) of the Flemish Government for financing this project and the members of the users group for their constructive advice. The authors are also grateful to the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) for the postdoctoral grant of Jan Van den Bulcke.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Wood Technology, Department of Forest and Water Management, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Nele Defoirdt, Jan Van den Bulcke & Joris Van Acker

  2. CTIB-TCHN (The Belgian Institute for Wood Technology), Allée Hof ter Vleest 3, 1070, Brussels, Belgium

    Inge Wuijtens, Lieven De Boever & Hugo Coppens

Authors
  1. Nele Defoirdt
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  2. Inge Wuijtens
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  3. Lieven De Boever
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  4. Hugo Coppens
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  5. Jan Van den Bulcke
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  6. Joris Van Acker
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nele Defoirdt.

Additional information

Handling Editor: Barry Alan Gardiner

Contribution of the co-authors

Nele Defoirdt: colour measurements, running the data analysis and writing the paper.

Inge Wuijtens: designing the experiment, coordinating the research project, colour measurements, running the data analysis and reviewing the paper.

Lieven De Boever: designing the experiment, supervising the work, running the data analysis.

Hugo Coppens: supervising the work and reviewing the paper.

Jan Van den Bulcke: supervising the work and reviewing the paper.

Joris Van Acker: supervising the work and reviewing the paper.

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Defoirdt, N., Wuijtens, I., De Boever, L. et al. A colour assessment methodology for oak wood. Annals of Forest Science 69, 939–946 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-012-0214-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-012-0214-3

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