Development of an Improved Grapple/Carriage Control System: A Feasibility Study

In:

Harvesting Technical Reports

Report No:

H005

Report Date:

July 11, 2011

Author(s):

T Evanson

One way to reduce the cost of harvesting on steep country is to improve the productivity of grapple yarding which is a highly productive cable yarding system that eliminates the need for manual breaking out.

This project investigated the feasibility of a remote control system for grapple extraction by swing yarder where the grapple/carriage is controlled by the “spotter” (or bunching machine operator). The feasibility study concluded that improved control of the grapple/carriage would reduce the “position grapple” and “load” elements of the hauling cycle, resulting in an increase of 3% in overall hauler productivity. This would translate to a decrease in the effective logging rate of up to one dollar per tonne.

Document:

H005 (1.04 Mb)