FESA provides guidelines for the safe use of construction excavators in forestry operations.The guideline was produced as part of a project involving forest owners, logging contractors and equipment suppliers. When equipment from other industries is used in the forestry environment, they may not meet all the safety specifications required. The main safety risks in the mechanised forestry machine environment include the machine rolling over, the cab being hit by a falling object, flying objects penetrating the cab and the machine tipping over onto its side. Purpose-built forestry machines are generally compliant in meeting the standards to mitigating these risks; however machines from other industries often have to be modified.
The new FESA guidelines provide information on the safety aspects required to make these non-purpose-built machines compliant. Where it is particularly practical and useful, is that it provides safety requirements for specific machines carrying out specific operations, as opposed to the usual prescriptive way of listing safety modifications regardless of whether they are needed or not. The FESA guidelines make reference to the main safety risk areas indicated above, including the relevant ISO standards. Specific attention is given to protective bars and mesh, polycarbonate glazing as window protection and chain catchers and energy absorbing chain shot guards.
The guideline is titled “A guide to safety requirements for excavator-based machines used in forestry operations”. It was published as ICFR Bulletin 05/2013. The compilers were P Schoombee, P Hall, C Inngs, B Krieg, D Grobler, C Greyling, G Hogg and S Ackerman. Source: http://www.icfr.ukzn.ac.za/publications/bulletins/