Eco Log glimpses an economic upswing
“This year’s Elmia Wood is the best I’ve exhibited at.”
Erling Lindberg, sales manager with the machinery manufacturer Eco Log doesn’t hesitate when he speaks.
“It feels like the economy is turning around.”
Erling Lindberg has been at Elmia Wood since 2001 and can compare this year’s fair with the previous record Elmia in 2005. He thinks there is more interest in new machines this time than last time, when the economy was booming.
“There’s been particular interest in multi-stem processing and bioenergy,” he says.
He believes that the need to extract biofuel from the forest is continuing to increase, but with the reduction in the amount of round timber being felled, access to slash has also been reduced. This is leading to more cleaning and felling of sparser growth on poorer terrain – and a consequent need for different machines.
“Our harvesters are extremely useful on terrain with poor carrying capacity,” he says. “Our technology of having the wheels on swing axles means that the harvester can move forward on its belly, rather like a boat.”
Eco Log’s new machine at the fair was a new crane for the 590D final felling harvester. The crane is 11 meters long and has a gross lifting torque of 300 kNm. At the end of the crane is a large Log Max harvester head that can handle outsize stems over 70 centimetres in diameter, which is interesting for bioenergy purposes. Eco Log also exhibited its new 594C forwarder, which can carry 19.5 tonnes.