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Management of chipping operations in Polish forests
* 1 , 1 , 1 , 1 , 2 , 2
1  Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW
2  Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Abstract:

Achievement of economically satisfactory effects of the work of wood chippers depends, among other things, on the organization of their work. A characteristic feature of Polish forests is the dispersion of relatively small unit operation areas in forest complexes where forest operations (cleaning, thinning or harvesting) are carried out, that results from the principles of silviculture applied in Poland. In the case of chipper operation, the important factor determining the efficiency of chips acquiring is the amount of material to be chipped at the location and the way it is stacked.

The aim of the research was to identify parameters influencing the efficiency and organization of chippers' operation. The conducted research allowed to determine the structure of the working shift time in the process of chipping logging residues. The analysis covered operation of five wood chippers, working in different conditions, for several months, 6 days a week, being owned by one company and managed by the same team of people. The data obtained from the ComboClient 3 machine operation monitoring program was compiled and analyzed using the Statistica v.13 statistical program.

Several machine states have been distinguished, including operational, ancillary and transport activities, fuel consumption was also determined. There were several cases of the course of task implementation: 1) a chipper does not finish work on a forest area on a given day, travels to machine base, and on the next day it travels back from the base to the place where the task is performed, 2) a wood chipper completes the task on a given area and on the same day it moves to the next task, 3) the chipper stays overnight on the forest area.

Thanks to the proposed approach, it was possible to indicate the impact of work organization on the efficiency of the examined machines. The average travel distance of the chippers when changing the forest area during a working day ranged from 4.74 km to 9.5 km, the chippers make trips every two days on average. The average duration of a working shift is 12.4 hours, after the shift is completed the chipper usually moves to a base located 4.2 km to 6.3 km away, while at the beginning of the work it goes to a forest area located 2.5 km to 4.0 km away. Average fuel consumption in chippers mounted on a forwarders is about 16 l/h, and for chipper on a truck 7.7 l/h.

It was found that the following actions have a decisive influence on the effectiveness of the operation of the chippers: determination of the size of individual tasks and the deplyment of successive forest areas, indication of the proper location of the machine base and the method of accessing the forest area.

Keywords: wood; chipper; chipping; organization; productivity
Comments on this paper
Rodolfo Picchio
Session Chair comment
Dear Authors,

congratulation for this study. The wood chipping process has been analysed through a many-sided and detailed monitoring program in different unit-operation areas of Polish forests, in order to investigate the structure of the working shift and relate it to the effectiveness of the forest operations carried out. Thanks to this approach, it will be possible to identify several parameters, concerning technical and logistical aspects, in order to further improve the work organization during chipping of logging residues. I hope to read further insights on this specific and interesting topic soon.

Session Chair

Rodolfo Picchio



 
 
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