Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The safety distance between the roads to the pile is an area that is often discussed. Loading work with logging trucks is relatively unknown and the study was necessary to provide new knowledge to the subject. In this thesis, the main purpose is to investigate whether the time spent on loading is affected by a different distance between the logging truck and the pile.

The study compared two logging trucks with two different cranes, one with a short crane of 8.1 meters and the other with a long crane of 9.6 meters. The logging truck loaded logs from 1 to 4 meters from the outer edge of the logging truck to the front of the pile, to see how time affected by the different distances. How the distances are measured may vary between different studies, but I chose to measure from the logging trucks sideline to the center of the pile.

To obtain a reference value, each driver could place the logging truck at any distance they preferred. The driver with the shorter crane chose 1.5 meters while the driver with the longer crane chose to place the logging truck at 1.8 meters distance.

The biggest time increase was at four meters distance, which was an increase of 48 percent. The result also shows that the time was increased more the longer the distance was to the pile. Between three and four meters distance there was a significant difference in time spent on both logging trucks.

Because the drivers only drove their own crane, the study results did not show any statistically-guaranteed differences between the short and the long crane. When the drivers only drove one crane type, it was not possible to determine if the crane or driver made the time difference in the study.

The study was conducted under favorable conditions. The time spent on loading is probably greater in reality than the study shows. The effect of an increased distance between the logging trucks and the pile is also larger in practice than during the study. However, at longer distances than three meters, the time increased drastically.