ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF EUCALYPT LOG LENGTH ON THE PRODUCTIVITY AND COST OF WOOD HARVESTING AND TRANSPORT

Abstract

In Brazil, wood harvesting and transport accounts for more than half of the final cost of the wood in the consuming center. The selection of machines and equipments and the development of operating systems are a great challenge for the reduction of the operational costs in wood harvesting and transport. The technological evolution of harvesting mechanization and wood transport includes increased log length aiming at increasing productivity and reducing costs. Two extraction sceneries were computer simulated using a forwarder and “tritrem” transport and logs size ranging from 5 to 6 m in length. It was verified that for 6 m logs, extraction productivity increased about 15.9% and costs reduced about 16.17%, while for transportation, the cost reduction was of 11.1%, and vehicle performance increased buy up to 10%.