During the northern spring this year Logset made comprehensive investments in its harvester head assembly at its factory in Koivulahti, Finland. New harvester head assembly spaces have been built which increases the production capacity by 50% and safety has been improved. Source: Timberbiz
Next to the assembly there is a newly built testing place for the ready assembled heads. On the other side of the testing place there will be a packing area for loose harvester heads that will be mounted on excavators. This way the assembly, testing and packing create a clear and efficient line inside the factory.
Work safety of the testing place has been improved by building a safety glass cage around the whole test area. The doors are equipped with sensors. If someone were to walk inside the testing area while there is an active harvester head on the inside, the electricity is switched off and the harvester head stops.
The test stand behind the safety glass carries the weight of all Logset harvester head models. One harvester head is tested at a time according to the specified test program. To test and pack one harvester head takes approximately one day.
The hydraulic unit for the test stand is behind the wall. This means workers can control and burden the harvester head like it was fastened on a forest machine. It is possible to calibrate things such as the diameter sensors and delimbing knives with the help of pipes.
During the final inspection, the harvester heads are given the factory settings with which they are delivered to customers. Several different pressures are set, and all functions are controlled so that they work like they should.
The pressure of the delimbing knives and feeding wheels are set using the computer that is outside the safety glass. There are two different control systems on the table: TOC-MD 2 for harvester heads that will be mounted on harvesters and Logset MDX 2 for heads that will be mounted on excavators.
Previously the harvester head final inspection was done in a separate building. The new test place right next to the assembly makes cooperation with the production more flexible.
“Now we can give feedback right away if something is not like it should be. The personnel from the assembly can easily come and see when we test the heads,” said Dan Österåker a final inspector.
Mr Österåker introduced tasks to Christian Hyöty who recently started as a final inspector at Logset. Both Mr Österåker and Mr Hyöty have a background as forest machine operators.
“This is a modern and safe test area. Here we make sure all the factory settings are correct. The fine tuning is done by the operators in the forest depending on what trees they are working with,” said Mr Hyöty.
