The Beast harvests stumps without an operator
Twenty percent of the forest’s energy lies in the stumps. The problem is to make stump harvesting profitable. The Swedish machinery manufacturer Gremo is one step closer to that goal with a concept machine that had its world premiere at Elmia Wood.
The remote-controlled stump harvester is based on Gremo’s machine system, Besten (“the Beast”) and Kuriren. The system consists of three machines: two forwarders (Kuriren), whose operators take it in turns to remote control an unmanned harvester (Besten).
The system met with great interest when it was presented at the previous Elmia Wood. Since then, Gremo has taken over the development process and exhibited the first serially manufactured system at Elmia Wood 2009.
“After the fair the machines will be delivered to Södra (the association of forest owners in southern Sweden) and put into production in northern Skåne,” says Gremo’s marketing manager Ulf Severinsson.
The advantage of the system with Besten and Kuriren is that two operators can take turns to forward out the timber and pulpwood while the other operator stays behind to keep on working in the forest. The remote-controlled harvester places the stems directly onto the forwarder. Another advantage is that the operators can avoid the vibrations and shaking that come from sitting in a harvester.
“Those work environment problems are even greater when it comes to harvesting stumps,” Ulf says. “No one can work a whole day in the excavators that are currently being used for stump harvesting.”
The solution is Besten. So far, the machine is not for sale equipped with a stump harvesting head. While the machine does work, Ulf says Gremo needs to develop the entire system to make stump transporting more financially viable.
“There is a huge amount of empty space in the loads and the stumps have to be compacted somehow,” he says.