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

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.

Performance Analysis of Log Extraction by a Small Shovel Operation in Steep Forests of South Korea

“…Slope is shown to be a primary factor in productivity because it affects the accessibility of the harvesting machine [18,43,46,51,52]. However, this was also observed in Berendt et al [41], Ghaffariyan et al [53], and Walsh and Strandgard [54]. These studies found that the slope did not significantly impact loaded travel time during extraction activities.…”

“…Further, tree volume, instead of DBH, was selected in the regression model because this variable was evaluated as more stable and applicable [17,39,40]. Both the Berendt et al [41] and Han et al [42] studies found that the most commonly used variable is tree volume to estimate the productivity.…”

Performance Comparison for Two Cable Extraction Machines in a Larix kaempferi (Lamb.) Carr. Plantation

“…The mechanization of timber harvesting commonly involves several challenges: the required equipment is costly [5], and the harvesting activities considerably disturb the forest soil through compaction, rutting and displacement [6]. These activities are even more difficult to conduct on steep terrains due to their inaccessibility to forest vehicles [7].…”

Assessment of the Profitability of Environmental Activities in Forestry

“…The study identified a number of factors that negatively affect the implementation of environmental activities, in particular, non-compliance with logging technology and the increase in purchasing prices for raw materials, fuel and lubricants and energy resources [42]. These factors have a significant impact on environmental performance.…”

“…The improvement and significant growth of economic criteria of efficiency of production and financial activity does not necessarily lead to improvement of environmental performance indicators. A qualitative change in these indicators occurs when the level of utilization of production resources is sufficiently high [42]. It is possible to determine this despite the whole variety of its forms, by using the whole complex of analytical instruments.…”