Whole Body Vibrations during Fully Mechanised Logging

Abstract

This paper seeks to answer the question of whether the magnitude of vibrations affecting the whole body of the harvester operator (WBV) that are generated by the harvester boom is affected by the size of the processed trunk volume, to specify closer, the magnitude of WBVs generated during forest logging, and to localise these WBVs in individual partial operations. For these purposes, the production process, i.e., forest logging, was divided into six partial operations (Searching; Felling; Processing; Unproductive time; Machine movement; Stationary position). WBVs were scanned in the respective partial operations according to standard ISO 2631-1:1997 and the European Directive 2002/44/EC, and then the values were mutually compared. Volumes of processed trunks were recorded, which were then assigned to the given WBV during the respective operations. Research results did not demonstrate a correlation between the size of the transmitted vibrations and the volumes of cut trunks in the partial work operations of Felling and Processing. Neither a difference was found between the individual partial operations with two exceptions: Searching and Felling/Processing and Unproductive time. The research further showed that the average WBV of three partial operations did not meet the daily limit of 0.50 m/s2 permitted by European Directive 2002/44/EC, within a range from 12.20% to 27.02%.