Peter C. Matthews, father of scattering, passed away

04 2017

Microtec regrets the sad announcement that Peter Charles Matthews, one of the fathers of the tracheid effect, passed away last Saturday, aged 74, following a short illness. 

Peter C. Matthews and Berry G. Wilson discovered the grain deviation effect that laser light has on wood. Their collaboration with Microtec and Federico Giudiceandrea started in the late 90s after meeting in the US. While working on scatter technologies, Mr. Matthews used to visit Microtec's facilities in Brixen several times. 

Matthews and Wilson invented a method for measuring fiber angle in a fibrous solid material, which is particularly well suited for measuring diving grain, grain surface angle and fiber orientation in wood, enabling high accuracy knot detection. Several patents for this invention have been registered.  

"I would like to express my deep felt compassion to Peter's family and friends and express my admiration and praise for the innovative work he achieved. Microtec and the wood processing family bow to Mr. Matthews' exceptional attainments." states Microtec CEO Federico Giudiceandrea.

Peter had been enjoying his retirement over the past few years. His innovations will always be commemorated.

Tracheid effect, discovered 1974 by Peter Matthews

Method and apparatus for detecting timber defects
US 3976384
Laser scattering is used in lumber scanning to recognise wood properties and defects, especially knots.  

Measuring light diffusion in organic bodies

The laser is generated, bundled and projected onto the board. Due to the different properties of the board and wood fibers, the laser light is being reflected accordingly. Highly sensitive cameras register the reflected laser light while powerful algorithms and processors are able to promptly analyze the geometrical and optical characteristics of the board.

Laser technologies are used to recognize characteristics of wood fibers, knots, resin, stains and more.

Grain deviation in wood

US Patent, Aug 19, 1986, by Peter Matthews
US 4606645 A
Method for measuring fiber angle in a three dimensional fibrous solid material. It is particularly well suited for measuring diving grain and grain surface angle in wood. The method is based on the measurement of the intensity of reflected light at different azimuthal angles when a beam of light of small diameter is impinged upon the surface. 

Father of laser scatter effect

Peter C. Matthews discovered the grain deviation effect that laser light has on wood. While working on scatter technologies, Peter used to visit Microtec's facilities in Brixen several times.