EQUIPMENT SELECTION FOR THE FELLING OPERATION ON HARDWOOD FORESTS

Abstract

In harvesting are involved the heaviest tasks with the highest energy demands (5,000 to 6,000 Kcal day-1) for the worker, compared to other activities like office work (2,000 to 3,000 Kcal day-1), agriculture or construction (4000 to 5000 Kcal day-1), which underlines its importance in terms of the physical effort demanded for its accomplishment. The properties of the machines used in hardwoods, mostly, do not match the dimensions of the trees, thus, power saw specifications for felling operations commonly used in the mountains are bigger (and more expensive) than those really needed, which results in a greater physical effort required from the forest worker. This study was conducted to measure production, cost and work load when the operator used two models of power saw with different weight. Results show that production is the same in the felling activity with both equipments, but not so the cost and the work load, because these two variables are higher when the worker deals with felling activities using the heaviest power saw along the working day.