Laboratory Studies of the Formation of a Wood Bundle by Leveling Devices

Abstract

The main development trend of the logging industry is the continuous improvement of existing equipment, the manufacturing application of prospective technological processes, and the use of effective technical solutions that will increase labor productivity and reduce production costs. About 150 million m3 of wood is harvested annually in Russia. The harvested wood is supplied to consumers by road 54.7%, rail 39%, and water 6.3% transport [11]. Each type of vehicle has its own rules for the transportation of goods. In order to load round timber into transport as efficiently as possible, it is necessary to align the ends of the round timber. The problem of alignment of the ends of round timber is widespread in the logging industry. Often, this problem is solved individually at each enterprise. To form a pack of logs before loading on the timber transport, various end-leveling devices are used. Gravity levelers are the most common, they are easy to manufacture and economical. The principle of their work is to use the gravity of the load lowered by the crane onto the alignments equipment. The currently existing and previously developed designs of such devices have a number of disadvantages: long alignment time, large friction forces, and the need to repeat operations. Therefore, the purpose of our research is to improve the design of gravity levelers for the qualitative formation of the bundle, which is an urgent task today. This will increase the efficiency of loading wood raw materials into logging transport and labor productivity.