Search

Cable tensile forces in winch-assist harvesting have been investigated in order to assess the safety concerns of the technology. However, the literature is lacking, particularly in regards to the impact of winch design. In this study, a Summit Winch Assist tethering a feller-director on ground slopes up to 77% was monitored for four days. The cable tensile forces were simultaneously recorded at the harvesting and anchor machine at a frequency of 100 Hz. Cameras and GNSS devices enabled a time study of the operations and the recording of machine positions. Winch functionality and design were disclosed by the manufacturer and used for the interpretation of the results. The cable tensile forces reached 296 kN at the harvesting machine and 260 kN at the anchor machine. The slow negotiation of obstacles while moving downhill recorded the highest peaks, mainly due to threshold settings of the winch in the brake system activation. Lower but significant peaks were also recorded during stationary work tasks. The peaks, however, were limited to a few events and never exceeded the endurance limit of the cable. Overall, the study confirmed recent findings in cable tensile force analysis of active winch-assist operations and provided evidence of the underlaying mechanisms that contribute to cable tensile forces.

The interest in active sustainable management of mountain forests is increasing around the world. Great effort, in particular, is focusing on the identification of efficient, safe, and sustainable steep slope harvesting solutions adapted to different environmental conditions. The main attention is moving toward winch-assist harvesting systems on trafficable terrain and European designed standing skyline mobile tower yarders on non-trafficable terrain. These cable-supported harvesting solutions have similar safety issues related to the use of tensioned wire ropes and the use of natural anchors. This research focused on the analysis of cable tensile force while operating with these harvesting solutions in ordinary harvesting sites and operational conditions. First, a state-of-the-art about the steep slope cable-supported harvesting solutions and their main safety issues was completed. A particular focus was dedicated to the significant works on cable tensile force monitoring. Following, field studies were successfully carried out to monitor the cable tensile forces on ordinary logging operations. The survey interested eleven mobile tower yarders, observed on twelve different cable lines in the Italian Alps, and three large integrated-winch forwarders, observed on eight trails in the interior of British Columbia (Canada). A similar approach, based on the integration of tensile force monitoring, video recording of the operations, ground profile analysis, and load measurement/estimation, was applied to both the cable-supported systems. The case studies, the methodological approach used for the data collection and analysis, and the results of the monitoring are presented and reported in detail.