The chipping cost of wood raw material for fuel in Estonian conditions

Abstract

Irdla, M., Padari, A., Kurvits, V., Muiste, P. 2017. The chipping cost of wood raw material for fuel in Estonian conditions. -Forestry Studies | Metsanduslikud Uurimused 66, 65-74. ISSN 1406-9954. Journal homepage: http://mi.emu.ee/forestry.studies Abstract. In Estonia up to now the producers of wood fuels have not yet adequately analysed the production and transport costs although it is known that the share of these costs form up to half of the fi nal price of wood chips or hog fuel. With this in mind the goal of the case study was defi ned -to analyse the price formation of comminuted wood fuels in Estonian conditions. Within one year of the survey the initial data was collected from the company SLG Energy. Different types of machines (7 in total) were observed -wood chippers Jenz HEM 561, Jenz HEM 582, Heinola 910ES, and Doppstadt DH 608. All machines were equipped with a GPS tracking device which recorded the route and the fuel consumption and during the observation period all costs and revenues related to the concerned machines were accounted. It was determined that due to frequent repairs the maintenance costs of older machines were higher and productivity lower compared with new machines. The biggest item of expenditure turned out to be the fuel consumption. The second was the cost of repairs in the case of older machines and price in the case of new machines. Also the type of chipper had an impact on the production cost. Under the cumulative effect of various factors the production cost turned out to vary widely from 1.03 to 2.38 €/m l 3 .

Value Retention, Service Life, Use Intensity and Long-Term Productivity of Wood Chippers as Obtained from Contractor Records

“…To our knowledge, there are no other studies that have gathered long-term data from so many chipping contractors, and the few available studies tap into the records of State companies and cooperatives, which often benefit from the existence of a formal administration office and a centralized infrastructure [22].…”

Intelligent Predictive Maintenance (IPdM) in Forestry: A Review of Challenges and Opportunities

“…In 2019, Spinelli et al [18] indicated that chipper repair and maintenance may represent between 1.5% and 29% of total production cost. They declared that repair and maintenance costs are complicated to calculate as the rate, scale, and severity of breakdowns are inherently variable [25], and different repairmen or operators may record various cost figures for the same maintenance activity [26][27][28]. Many factors could increase the frequency and severity of failures and reduce safety, such as careless equipment storage, poor preventive maintenance, and low quality of prior repairs [18].…”

“…In the last two decades, with the accelerated growth of computer science and emerging Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, maintenance strategies have revolutionized from preventive maintenance (schedule-based maintenance) to predictive maintenance (PdM). Remaining Useful Life (RUL) is the time left for a machine/component to offer its operative capabilities before a crash [25]. The maintenance planner or decision-maker use this metric to plan the actual time that machinery needs maintenance.…”

Computer Aided Modeling of Wood Chips Transport by Means of a Belt Conveyor with Use of Discrete Element Method

“…The basic ones include: a cylindrical chipper [1], a drum chipper [2], a disc chipper [3], a hammer chipper [4], or a spiral chipper [5]. Chippers for the industrial production of biomass, with high capacity (indicated in scientific publications on the power range from 130 kW to 900 kW [6]), have the wood chips outlet system based on the forced motion of the cutting mechanism [2,3,[7][8][9][10][11]. Chippers used on urban areas for tree care in parks, gardens, and by-road surfaces are low power machines (Figure 1).…”