Since my earlier report, the Ponsee 'Ergo' Harvester has been joined by a Ponsee Forwarder and timber is currently being shipped from the site.
The Harvester at work (Photo: R MacCurrach)
The Harvester or 'Processor' is crucial to the efficiency of any logging operations and the Ponsee 'Ergo' working at Ty Gwyn is an example of one of the leading machines. Finland has had well-managed forests for a long time, so I was not surprised to discover that Ponsee is a Finnish company. Einari Vidren was a farmer's son who became a forestry worker. Dissatisfied with the forestry machines available in the 1960s, he built his own and the success of his own designs led him to found Ponsee in 1970. 'Ponsee' is apparently a crossbreed dog found in Finland. This firm now has over 800 workers and is active in 40 countries. It describes itself as "A logger's best friend". For more information on the firm and its products, go to their website.
The two methods of logging are 'tree length' where the main trunk is brought out in one piece and 'cut to length' where each trunk is accurately cut to sections of the required length as part of the felling. The second method makes heavy demands on the harvester technology, leading to increased capital cost, but offers benefits each time the timber is handled after felling.
The forwarder loading cut timber (Photo: R MacCurrach)
The Ponsee Forwarder has the same rough-terrain design and telescopic crane as the Harvester. Its task is to grapple the cut logs into its load space and transfer them to the loading area adjacent to a forest road for loading onto a timber truck for long-distance transfer on public roads.
Timber truck at a loading point (Photo: R MacCurrach)
According to the requirements of the end user, the timber may be graded into two or more types. This depends principally upon the diameter of the trunk and this is measured automatically by the harvester head as part of the cut-to-length operation. Timber trucks have their own vehicle-mounted crane so that they can self-load and self-unload.
With modern computer and communication technology, it is now possible for all the machines and trucks involved to be linked to the receiving mill and planning office for best overall efficiency. The Ponsee software systems are briefly described here.
My pictures of this stage of harvesting are here.
[Ponsee links updated 25-Jul-2014]
