Hino Trucks announced an expansion of its product range to include electric vehicles.
Hino Trucks will offer an electric version of their M- and L- Series medium duty trucks branded Me Series and Le Series available in 2024. Hino Trucks will begin production of these new vehicles integrating SEA Electric’s SEA-Drive® power system.
The Hino Class 5 M5e cab over and Class 6 L6e conventional models come equipped with battery capacities of 138kwH and 220kwH respectively. Starting in 2024, Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) mandates are starting to kick off in California which are growing the demand for electric vehicles (EV), and many customers want to add EV’s to evaluate operational capabilities. The strategic collaboration with SEA Electric is part of Hino’s plan to provide powertrain options to meet the needs of customers and markets.
Hino Trucks’ national dealer network in the US is already prepared for the coming changes. Each dealer is already high-voltage trained from Hino’s previous hybrid product and are capable to service electric vehicles safely and efficiently. To further compliment the EV transition, Hino Trucks is building infrastructure to support these trucks with Hino INCLUSEV, a premier portfolio of end-to-end electric vehicle enablement - exclusively available through Hino’s nationwide dealer network. This is a customer centric, dealer unified end-to-end EV enablement solution that includes consulting, sales, infrastructure, single-source financing, support and service. Source
Read MoreNaarva have produced an easy to mount stump remover for all loading grapple models.
The uprooter squeezes the unwanted vegetation between its rubber jaws and roots them out of the ground. Uprooted vegetation does then not resprout. The uprooting jaws are easy to mount and dismount with a few bolts. The bolt coupling is designed in a way that it fits all loading grapple models. The uprooter is a great way to clean field edges, roadsides and bushes. The powerful jaws can uproot even the biggest bushes. Fewer treatments are required compared to saw cutting. A cutting blade on top of the rubber jaws cuts the trees and the cutting blade is removable.
Key technical information is as follows:
Model name: P05G
Weight: 78 kg (172 lb)
Cutting blade: Removable and mounted with bolts
Jaw width: 76 cm (30 in)
Warranty: 12 months or 1000 hours
It is suitable for all grapples excluding energy wood grapples. Source
Ponsse presents good results for the first quarter of 2023
The forest machine market functioned well during the first quarter. Demand for Ponsse machines picked up in the middle of the period under review. Net sales increased by approximately 29 per cent to EUR 201.7 (156.1) million. The fastest-growing business areas were new machine sales, maintenance services, and their technology company Epec. Demand for used machines was also high. New machines were delivered to customers at an accelerating pace as the availability of parts improved. Ponsse’s euro-denominated operating profit in 2023 is expected to be slightly higher than the operating profit of its continuing operations in 2022. Source
Landrich scales-up and improves operations
The addition of a new manufacturing and assembly line for a multi-functional harvester will help ALPA Equipment Company improve its production and create 15 new jobs in the process. Source
FPInnovations and Groupements forestiers Québec receive $6.7M in funding from MEI to drive the forest sector’s digital transformation
Groupements forestiers Québec, a powerful force in Québec forestry with its more than 26,000 private forest landowners, and FPInnovations, a private not-for-profit organization that specialises in the creation of solutions in support of the Canadian forest sector’s global competitiveness, have been awarded $6,678,540 as part of the Digital Transformation Offensive (DTO), a strategic initiative led by the Québec Ministry of the Economy and Innovation (MEI), in order to accelerate the digital transformation of companies in all sectors of activity and regions of Québec. Source
Read More“Chipping operations and chip quality from mixed hardwood forests for bioenergy”
International Journal of Forest Engineering, 2023. John Vance, Jingxin Wang, Xufeng Zhang, Shawn Grushecky & Raffaele Spinelli. Source
“Study of a chassis path planning algorithm for a forest harvester”
International Journal of Forest Engineering, 2023Zhuoxian Tan, Jinhao Liu, Biao Sun, Haoxian Qin & Yuewei Ma. Source
“Exploring determinants of log truck accidents resulting in injury or fatality in the Northwest United States between 2015-2019 using Motor Carrier Management Information System data”
International Journal of Forest Engineering, 2023. Allison Clonch, Marcy Harrington, June Spector, Lily M. Monsey & Marissa G. Baker. Source
Read MoreTo see the full list of international logging, roading and trucking conferences and expo’s, please click the “read more” tab.
Read MoreThe optimal tyre pressure plays an important role in getting the best out of heavy machinery.
For the same machine to perform at its best, one may need to adjust the tyre pressures many times during the working day, depending on the work at hand, the weight of the work implements, the machine load and speed – just to give some examples. And of course, unlike cars, heavy machinery often has many axles and a weight distribution far from an even 50/50. Each axle has its own optimal pressure in different situations.
Nokian Heavy Tyres technical manual includes a chart for speed, pressure and load-bearing capacity for each heavy tyre. It shows that as the speed increases, the same tyre pressure carries less load. So, as a very practical example, working on the field at slow speeds calls for much lower tyre pressure than doing a high-speed road transit. When the tyre pressure is set optimally according to the speed and load, the tyre is safe, has the best grip, it does not warm up too much and it wears more evenly. On the other hand, just a single long road transport with a wrong tyre pressure can cause irreparable damage.
When the machine is operated in an uneven terrain such as forest, the tyre pressure becomes an increasingly complex issue. Take a forestry forwarder for an example: on a level surface it is easy to define the optimal tyre pressure for each axle according to the evenly distributed load, but on the highly uneven forest floor the two rightmost tyres can be up in the air, leaving the two leftmost tyres to carry the entire load momentarily. These load peaks can leave just one tyre to carry tens of tons of timber. As the tyre pressure is the only thing carrying the weight in the tyre-wheel combination, the forestry tyres should be filled to their maximal operating pressure.
Nokian often witness that forestry machine contractors are not aware of the correct tyre pressure under full load. The load peaks in the forest lead to the tyre sidewall flexing too much, causing sidewall damage. If the tyre pressure is, say, half of the maximal operating pressure, the damage is considered accidental and is not covered by the tyre warranty.
Regular tyre pressure monitoring is the key when you want to get the best service life out of your tyre investment. It is often the case that a forwarder operator is picking up the timber left by a harvester, and suddenly one tyre starts to lose pressure. Unfortunately, the operator cannot see it happening or feel it in any way until the track falls off from the bogie. This can mean that a forestry tyre is damaged beyond repair. And what’s more, you still need to limp home from the forest. After that, nine out of ten times the tyre must be replaced.
When a tyre pressure monitor is in use, the machine operator has more options. They can unload the forwarder in time and drive home before the damage gets too severe. In that case, they often get away with just replacing the tube – a few hundred euros compared to a few thousand. The outer tyre will live on and last for its intended service life.
Besides load, speed and operating surface, there is yet another variable: the tyre temperature. As a rule, the tyre pressure should always be checked when the tyre is cold. This applies to cars as well as to heavy equipment. How the tyre temperature affects its pressure depends on the size of the tyre’s airspace. In a forestry tyre, the pressure rises approximately 0.17 bar (2.4 psi) for every 10 degrees Celsius (50° F). Source
Read MoreA state-of-the-art Trimble Technology Lab is being established at UBC’s Forest Sciences Centre.
As with many industries, the forestry profession is undergoing digital transformation to improve productivity and drive sustainability. Research and teaching at UBC Forestry is offering students new opportunities to learn and gain skills using industry-focused software and hardware technologies. With an in-kind gift from Trimble, the lab at UBC will be the first forestry-focused lab for Trimble and the first lab of this type in Canada.
Among the lab technologies that will help expand teaching and research opportunities are computer-based decision support systems, 3D modeling software, rugged field-tablets and 3D laser scanners. Educational areas that will benefit from this new lab space include silviculture, stand dynamics, forest biometrics, carbon management, sustainable harvesting systems and resource identification, quantification and many more.
The Trimble Technology Lab at UBC gives students and researchers access to some of the most innovative digital tools that are being integrated into forestry practices across the industry. The lab will include a broad range of Trimble’s industry-leading technologies such as the Trimble® XR10 HoloLens with hardhat, TX8 laser scanners, robotic total stations and field tablets. Advanced software solutions include RealWorks® scanning software, eCognition® data analytics software, Tekla® Structures, Tekla Structural Design Suite, Trimble Access™ field software, TerraFlex™ GIS data collection, and the company’s popular 3D modeling software, SketchUp Pro, as well as the Trimble Connected Forest™ portfolio, which enables forestry professionals to collect, communicate, and analyse information across the forest to mill supply chain—improving productivity and streamlining operations. Source
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