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The Harvester Used in Forestry
Commonly found in the forestry industry, the harvester is a heavy piece of machinery that is utilized specifically in cut-to-length logging projects, and is put to use in operations involving felling, buckling and actually cutting up trees. You will typically find the harvester alongside a forward that is in place and ready to haul away the logs and trees. Originally, the harvester was developed in Sweden and Finland, and the harvester still takes care of all the commercial felling in those countries. Harvesters will work best in terrains that are not steep. When the task is located on a steep hill or for removing only a few trees, the choice is generally a chainsaw. There are even small harvester models that are used in Nordic regions, where they tend to do thinning operations. Manual cutting is sometimes reserved for extreme conditions or for the self-employed owner of the actual wooded location. Harvesters are manufactured worldwide and by several manufacturing companies. The leading names in the production of the harvester are Timberjack (John Deere owned) and Valmet, which is a company owned by Komatsu. The typical harvester is built upon a sturdy all-terrain vehicle, which can either have wheels or tracks. Certain models of this vehicle are articulated, which makes the vehicle able to engage in tight turning around obstacles it comes into contact with. The power supply in the harvester is a diesel engine, which will power the vehicle and the harvester; however, the harvester is controlled by hydraulic drive. The harvester is articulated and has a similar extensible boom to that of an excavator, which reaches out from the machinery in order to carry the head of the harvester. In fact, some commercial harvesters are just adaptations of excavators that have been fitted with new harvester heads, yet others are specifically built to be harvesters. The standard harvester head will incorporate several intricate parts. The parts are as follows: There is a chainsaw that cuts the trees at their base, and then cuts them to length. The chainsaw runs hydraulically, and not by means of a two stroke engine as the portable ones do. This variation of the chainsaw offers a durable chain with a higher output of power, unlike the hand held chainsaw. The harvester head has two curved knives used for delimbing the tree. The knives reach around the trunk of the tree and remove the branches. The harvester also has two feed rollers that reach out and grab on to the tree. Then the wheels pivot apart, allowing the tree to glide through the head of the harvester, while it pivots back together to snuggly hug the tree. Last, the harvester head has another pair of curved knives that are also used for delimbing. An operator that sits inside the cab of the vehicle controls the harvester. It has a computer that is utilized to control and simplify the mechanical motions, while keeping the length and diameter of the trees that have already been cut down. The length of the tree is computed and calculated by counting the rotations of the wheel that grips the tree. To compute the diameter, the pivoting angle of the gripping wheels that snuggly hugs the tree needs to be calculated. On average, the harvester is available for cutting trees that are up to 900mm in diameter, and are built onto vehicles that weigh up to 20 tons. The harvesters boom will reach about a 10m radius. Larger and heavier types of vehicles will definitely do damage to the surrounding forest area it is working in. With the harvester, more trees can be harvested with decreased movements needed by the vehicle.
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