Productivity, Costs, and Selected Environmental Impacts of Remote-Controlled Mini Forestry Crawlers

Ferréol Berendt,Janine Schweier,Mathieu Fortin,Christian Suchomel

doi:10.3390/f9100591

Ferréol Berendt, Janine Schweier + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/f9100591

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Abstract

An effective way to reduce off-road traffic in forests is to implement greater distances between skid trails. However, this implies that trees beyond the boom reach of the harvester need to be felled motor manually before being winched to the skid trail, for example using a remote-controlled mini forestry crawler (MFC). They are only a few local studies which have evaluated the performance of such MFCs. The use of MFCs for wood extraction operations in mixed soft- and hardwood stands is presented in this study conducted in Southwestern Germany. The aim of this study was to analyze the productivity, costs, and selected environmental impacts of mini forestry crawlers during winching operations through a time study. Using statistical regression, time consumption was analyzed in order to determine significant explanatory variables. Environmental impacts were evaluated using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology with Umberto software. The mean net cycle time was 4.82 min and the net productivity rate was 7.77 m3 by productive machine hour (PMH0). Explanatory variables which significantly affected the net cycle time were the winched volume, the number of trees per load, and winching distance. Environmental analysis showed that inputs of fossil energy were mostly due to diesel and lubricant consumption. Raw materials for machine manufacture and maintenance showed the highest impact in human toxicity potential category. The MFCs showed good environmental performances, but the harvesting system should become more productive in order to be more cost effective.

Highlights

The mechanization of wood harvesting operations has become increasingly popular over the last decades in order to satisfy timber demand, to enhance productivity and cost effectiveness, to reduce occupational health and safety risks, and to lessen stand damage [1,2,3]
After removing delays caused by the study design and breaks 1377 min were analyzed, which corresponded to the scheduled machine hours (SMHs)
The analysis showed that the use of mini forestry crawler (MFC) was a suitable option for winching in terms of time consumption

Summary

Introduction

The mechanization of wood harvesting operations has become increasingly popular over the last decades in order to satisfy timber demand, to enhance productivity and cost effectiveness, to reduce occupational health and safety risks, and to lessen stand damage [1,2,3]. This mechanization has led to higher off-road traffic levels [3], which may damage forest soils through compaction, rutting, and soil displacement. In FSC-certified forests, no more than 10% of the area of managed forests should be used as Forests 2018, 9, 591; doi:10.3390/f9100591 www.mdpi.com/journal/forests

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