Performance and cost of a new mini-forwarder for use in thinning operations

Spinelli, Raffaele; Magagnotti, Natascia

doi:10.1007/s10310-010-0193-x

Cited by 24 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…In general, the productivities and costs achieved for these small machines should be considered satisfactory and similar to those achieved in other studies [11,12]. It was expected that, in particular, the forwarder productivity would be higher in the midfield operations due to a higher timber concentration [13] in comparison with TWM.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Designing Thinning Operations in 2nd Age Class Pine Stands—Economic and Environmental Implications

Mederski

Venanzi

Bembenek

et al. 2018

Forests

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The application of a harvester for thinning operations in young stands can pose several dilemmas. Firstly, the value of the timber obtained should be higher than the cost of the thinning operation-this is especially difficult with young stands, where the timber is of a small size and productivity is low. In addition, small harvesters used for thinning usually have short cranes, less than 10 m in length, which is rather impractical in stands where the distance between strip roads is a standard 20 m. The aim of this research was to select the best mechanised thinning operation, taking into account economic suitability and some environmental aspects (damage to the remaining stand and density of strip roads). The research was carried out in a 31-year-old pine stand (11.27 ha) in which three different harvester thinning (T) operations were designed: TM1) with midfield and one harvester pass, TM2) with midfield and two harvester passes and TWM) without midfield and one harvester pass. In all the proposed operations, a Vimek 404 T5 harvester (with a 4.6 m-long crane) and a Vimek 606 TT forwarder were used. The most economic operation was TWM, with a total cost of €13.73 m −3 , while TM1 was 13% more expensive at €15.51 m −3. The lowest level of damage, 1.5%, was recorded in TWM, while in TM1 the level was 2.1%. The TWM operation required a net of strip roads twice as dense as in TM1. Taking into account all the analysed aspects, a thinning operation with midfield and one harvester pass is recommended when using the Vimek 404 T5 harvester and the Vimek 606 TT forwarder in the first thinning of a pine stand.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Designing Thinning Operations in 2nd Age Class Pine Stands—Economic and Environmental Implications

Mederski

Venanzi

Bembenek

et al. 2018

Forests

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“…However, depending on the engine power, such figures may reach as high as 24.3 l • h -1 (Holzleitner et al 2011). Similar to other studies carried out on forwarding operations (Spinelli et al 2004, Nurminen et al 2006, Spinelli & Magagnotti 2010, Ghaffarian et al 2007, in this study, the forwarding performance was significantly affected by the operational distance and the amount of extracted wood per turn. Also, delays affected in a negative way the forwarding productivity.…”

Section: Figuresupporting

confidence: 85%

Performance of a mid-sized harvester-forwarder system in integrated harvesting of sawmill, pulpwood and firewood

2017

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Borz S.A., 2017. Performance of a mid-sized harvester-forwarder system in integrated harvesting of sawmill, pulpwood and firewood. Ann. For. Res. 60(2): 227-241.Abstract. Fully mechanized timber harvesting systems are generally characterized by a high operational performance being widespread and used across many regions. Such systems are adaptable to different levels of operational integration, enabling also the recovery of energy wood, but given integration configurations affect their performance. A production study was carried out in a Norway spruce clear-cut aiming to investigate the performance of a mid-sized harvester-forwarder system in general, and the effect that fuelwood recovery from tree tops may have on its performance. Data was collected in the field during 11 days of observation using state-ofart equipment and software. Harvester's operations were monitored using a digital camera. Data refined from 27.5 filmed hours that accounted for 1045 felled and fully processed trees was used to model and compute its performance indicators. In addition, fuel consumption data was sampled in the field. The results indicated that a delay-free cycle time consumption was affected by variables characterizing the tree size. The net production rate was estimated to about 26.5 m 3 • h -1 , being substantially affected by supplementary tree-top processing. Forwarding operations were monitored using a handheld computer and a Global Positioning System unit. The delay-free cycle time consumption was affected by forwarding distance and the amount of loaded wood, resulting in a net production rate of about 19.2 m 3 • h -1 . Under these circumstances, the forwarding performance matched the harvester's outputs for an extraction distance of about 100 m, indicating that the supplementary processing of the tree-tops had no effect on the system's productive performance in the studied conditions. Most likely, it affected the harvester's fuel consumption given its proportion of 9% in the delay-free harvester's cycle time. The results also indicated a mean fuel consumption of about 1.7 l • m -3 for the studied harvesting system.

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“…The equations have F-values that give significant P-values, and the results of the validation tests suggest that they are generally reliable: the validation r 2 are comparatively high, and two-sample t testing never detected any significant (P [ 0.1) differences between observed and predicted processing time. Contrary to expectations, extraction distance did not have any significant impact on productivity, within the limited range gauged by the study and included between 70 and 300 m. All these equations were assembled into a deterministic model together with the forwarding productivity equations extracted from Spinelli and Magagnotti (2010), and tied to a machine rate calculator based on Miyata (1980). The model allowed exploring sensitivity to tree size, and the results are shown in Fig.…”

Section: Data Processingmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Extraction of firewood logs from site two was excluded from model building, since the respective models had already been developed and published on a peer-reviewed journal, as a separate effort aimed at determining the performance of small-scale forwarding units (Spinelli and Magagnotti 2010).…”

Section: Data Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanized thinning of walnut plantations established on ex-arable land

et al. 2010

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The study compares two product strategies-chips versus firewood-and two technological levels-manual versus mechanized-as applied to the thinning of walnut agroforestry plantations, established on ex-arable land. Such plantations are widespread all across Europe, and their establishment was subsidized under the provisions of EU Directive 2080/90, and of regional grant schemes. Field test data were used to build a simple deterministic model for estimating thinning productivity and cost under varying work and economic conditions. This model can assist prospective users when checking the profitability of an operation, or when assessing the competitiveness of alternative options. Removing nurse alder from young walnut plantations yields between 25 and 50 t of fresh biomass per hectare and is crucial to the good development of the stand. The study shows that the removal of nurse alder from walnut plantations is economically viable, and it can also offer some profits if stand and market conditions are favourable. As a rule, the average DBH of removal trees should not be smaller than 12 cm. Best results are obtained with mechanized harvesting, which does not seem to cause heavier stand and soil damage than manual harvesting. Manual harvesting is preferable only if the annual utilization of machinery is very low, and in this case it should be geared to firewood production. The manual whole-tree harvesting (WTH) method used in this study offers the lowest performance under all conditions, and should be replaced with some other manual alternative to WTH. Mechanized WTH offers a significant cost reduction over mechanized short-wood (SWS) harvesting, but this difference is still rather limited: hence, other parameters come into play when deciding what system to apply, and namely product price and mass output. In this respect, one also has to consider the cost of managing the harvesting residue, and that of fertilizing, if soil nutrient depletion is to be feared.

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Performance and cost of a new mini-forwarder for use in thinning operations

Cited by 24 publications

References 15 publications

Designing Thinning Operations in 2nd Age Class Pine Stands—Economic and Environmental Implications

Designing Thinning Operations in 2nd Age Class Pine Stands—Economic and Environmental Implications

Performance of a mid-sized harvester-forwarder system in integrated harvesting of sawmill, pulpwood and firewood

Mechanized thinning of walnut plantations established on ex-arable land

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