Kiln and chamber records, assembled into one treatment file for the person who answers for your program.

A batch leaves paper in several places. The kiln or chamber produces a chart, someone fills out a stamp log, the lumber arrives with an invoice, and whoever supervises quality pulls it together when an inspector asks.

For the test, AI reads copies of those records and drafts the file by batch: batch and load, the schedule used, a reference to the temperature log, the fields of the certified mark, the lumber supplier documents, and the batches with a record missing. It never reads a chart as a pass or a fail. Your reviewer compares each draft with the file your plant actually kept.

One plant can be three kinds of facility, and the lumber trail is arithmetic. NELMA, one of the inspection agencies accredited by the American Lumber Standard Committee, certifies wood packaging facilities that buy heat treated lumber and build, remanufacturers that resize it, and heat treatment facilities with their own chamber, and one plant can be more than one. For lumber bought in, ALSC's enforcement regulations, dated November 7, 2025, want documentation that purchases were enough to produce what was labeled, and have the agency confirm it, generally monthly. NELMA's forms show the shape: an HT Lumber Purchases Form, one sheet per size, with date received, thickness by width by length and board feet, beside a WPM Stamped Usage Report with job number, material used, item size, quantity and board feet, all kept for the three years before the current calendar year. Each purchased piece needs an HT mark, a facility ID and an agency logo, and NELMA warns against reading that ID as a grade number. The draft runs a balance size by size and shows any month when usage passes purchases.

Each charge has its own paper, and the method changes what it looks like. ISPM 15, in the edition adopted in 2018, sets 56 degrees C for 30 continuous minutes through the whole profile of the wood in a conventional chamber, and 60 degrees C for 1 continuous minute for dielectric heating. ALSC accepts monitoring by wet and dry bulb, by dry bulb alone against a schedule, or by thermocouples in the core of the thickest piece, and counts kilns, heat boxes and any other enclosed apparatus as heat chambers. NELMA's own minimum is higher, 140 degrees F (60 C) for 30 consecutive minutes with thermocouples, generally at least three of them. Its HT chart is a good model of the record: a unique charge number, start and end date and time, an incremental temperature record, the items in the charge, the thickest piece, and board feet split by IPPC, HT and Dunnage stamp. The draft copies those fields and cites the chart by charge. It doesn't read the curve.

A missing reading is the finding that matters. ALSC says a thermocouple that fails to record, without adequate duplication, calls into question the results for the affected charges, and a charge that falls short can't be quality marked unless it is properly re-heat treated. ISPM 15 lists finding the coldest location in each load among the factors a country should consider, and recommends at least two sensors, set at least 30 centimeters from a board's end and reaching the center, with pallet blocks probed in the piece with the largest dimensions. Treatment providers keep heat treatment and calibration records for a time their national plant protection organization sets. ALSC has equipment more than 5 degrees F off recalibrated or replaced, keeps each verification study at both the agency and the facility, and requires annual calibration and requalification after a major change for chambers under that rule. So the draft's missing-record list is concrete: no chart, no charge number, a calibration date that doesn't cover the charge, a sensor short of what your agency approved. Your responsible person decides what each one means.

The mark is a set of fields with rules of their own. Annex 2 of ISPM 15 requires the symbol, the ISO two-letter country code, a hyphen, the producer or treatment provider code and a treatment code of HT, DH, MB or SF, with nothing else inside the border. It must not be hand drawn, red and orange should be avoided (NELMA prohibits them), and it goes preferably on at least two opposite sides. APHIS and CBP took no action from March through December 31, 2025 on shipments missing only that hyphen, and resumed enforcement on January 1, 2026. The Uniform Standard for Wood Pallets notes that sulfuryl fluoride is not approved for use in the United States. ALSC's label also carries the accredited agency's symbol or name. NELMA treats its stamps as its own property, accounted for and kept at the facility they were issued to, and has full-length dunnage stamped every two feet. The draft reads which stamp went with which job from your records and lays out those fields for checking. Authorizing a mark is never its call.

Used wood splits the rules, and your reviewer settles it. ISPM 15 calls a unit repaired when up to about one third of its components are replaced and remanufactured beyond that, and lets a repaired unit keep its marks if each added treated piece is marked, while letting a country require more. Woodpack Global's 2025 standard says repaired, remanufactured and combo pallets must be retreated and remarked by an ALSC monitored facility with the old marks obliterated, and NELMA says the same, with a narrow exception for a completely replaced box or crate side, top or bottom. A marked unit left unaltered needs nothing new. Packaging made wholly of processed wood such as plywood falls outside ISPM 15, yet NELMA wants a plywood-covered crate stamped on its framing and its covering. The draft records what your records say was done and cites your agency's procedure rather than picking a rule. ALSC has management appoint a trained employee with authority to remove the mark and hold shipments, and that person is usually your reviewer. None of this is legal or compliance advice.

When your reviewer approves, new charges and lots get the same draft file and gap list for about 30 days.

Your responsible person reviews every file and decides each treatment question, and the charts and logs stay exactly as your plant keeps them.

Anything further is a new decision, one job at a time, with a price of its own.