Productivity of harvesting machines and costs of mechanized wood harvesting: Lithuanian case study.

摘要

During the last years the demand for mechanized wood harvesting is increasing in Lithuania. Harvesting machines produced only 3.8% of wood in state forests in 2005 and this amount increased up to 12.2% in 2006. But productivity of harvesting machines under Lithuanian conditions also costs of mechanized wood harvesting were not studied up to now. This study examines the productivity of harvesting machines used in Lithuania and costs of mechanized wood harvesting. The research was performed on six cutting sites. The productivity of two harvesters and two harwarders (integrated harvester-forwarder) was investigated. The harvesting machines were filmed in normal working situations and data were analyzed by time study method. The productivity of machines ranged from 10.7 to 46.5 m3/h (solid m3 per effective hour) for study areas. The harvesting machines' productivity in relation with stem size models were formed. The wood harvesting costs of Timberjack 1270D harvester ranged from 8.0 to 1.7 EUR/m3 (stem size 0.1-2.0 m3) in clear cuttings and that of harwarders varied from 29.9 to 3.1 EUR/m3 for (stem size 0.1-1.0 m3). The wood harvesting costs of Sampo 1046X harvester amounted to 6.8-2.2 EUR/m3 in clear sanitary cutting and to 12.4-3.5 EUR/m3 (stem size 0.1-0.5 m3) in selective sanitary cutting.