The German Forestry Council and the German Timber Industry Council have included photo-optical measurement with systems authorised by the German Weights and Measures Office, such as our LogStackPro in the framework agreement for the raw timber trade in Germany (RVR).

The German Forestry Council represents the entire German forestry industry, including the Federal Forestry Administration, state forestry administrations, private forests, foundation forests and municipal forest owners. The German Forestry Council (DHWR) is the umbrella organisation of the German timber industry. It represents the interests of over 70,000 companies that generate a turnover of around 120 billion euros with around 650,000 employees. The sawmills organised in the DHWR process around 37 million m³ of raw wood and the wood-based materials industry around 20 million m³.

In the 5th edition of the RVR published on 1 December 2023, photo-optical measurement for log sections (fixed lengths), energy wood and industrial wood (except hardwood industrial wood) is approved for billing purposes in commercial transactions. As part of the approval, the necessity of measuring the front and rear surfaces of piles was also emphasised for the manual sectional measurement method. We have developed LogStackPro as a portable system to be able to take photo-optical images of the back of the pile. We are pleased that the German forestry and timber industry is now also demanding the recording of the rear side.

Quote from the RVR - Appendix VI-d Photo-optical measurement of round timber in room dimensions:

Determination of the pile surface relevant for invoicing:

• The pile front surface and the pile rear surface must be measured by photo-optical means.
• If the local conditions do not permit a photo-optical measurement of the rear surface of the pile, the sectional area measurement method for the rear (see Annex VI-e) must be used.
• Calculation of the pile area relevant for invoicing as the arithmetic mean of the pile front area and the pile rear area.

Our LogStackPro is the only system approved under German calibration law with which the rear side of a pile can be calibrated and photographed directly in the forest, i.e. in accordance with the requirements of the RVR. If it is not actually possible to measure the rear side for space reasons, the dimensions from the manual sectional area measurement method can simply be entered into our form and the LogStackPro determines the pile volume from the calibrated photo-optical pile front measurement, manual rear side measurement and assortment length.