A typical working cycle begins with the harvester head in the Tilt Up position. The roller arms and the delimbing knives open. The harvester head is positioned to the tree with the boom so that the trunk comes between the upper knives and the rollers.
Position the harvester head on the tree. Grip the tree with the knives. Press the Knives Close control button inside the cab. When the control system receives the signal from the button, the two upper knives and the bottom knife will close. After a delay, the roller arms will close against the tree.
The harvester head now has a firm grip on the tree. The harvester head is ready for the actual felling of the tree.
Before you cut down the tree, plan the felling operation completely. This allows the tree to be felled in the desired direction.
The actual cutting of the tree from the stump is done by a hydraulic saw in the harvester head. Press the saw button in order to activate the saw. The saw motor will start to rotate and the saw bar will begin moving toward the tree. Keep the button depressed in order to continue the process.
Consider the direction of the wind, when you fell a tree. Consider the lean of the tree before you fell a tree.
Push the tree with the boom during the felling process. This will help the tree fall in the right direction.
The next step of the felling process will establish conditions for delimbing and for cross cutting the tree.
Fell the tree in a direction that is easy to feed through the delimbing knives. Place the cut off logs in a pile.
Avoid cutting off branches from the next trees on top of the pile. This makes extracting the logs harder.
Once the tree is felled, the processing begins. Processing the tree means that the tree is delimbed and the tree is cut to the desired lengths.
Delimbing is the shearing off the limbs. This is achieved via the rollers that pull the tree through the delimbing knives. As the tree is fed through the harvester, the length of the log is measured. This length is displayed in the cab.
The feed roller motors can be activated by pressing the Forward Feed button. The feed roller motors can be activated by pressing one of the preset buttons. Each preset button corresponds to a certain length that can be programmed in the computer.
Feeding via the Forward Feed button will stop when the button is not pressed.
Use the following method in order to feed to a preset length.
- Press the control button for the desired length. The forward feed starts automatically. The feeding will continue until the correct length is reached.
- The control system controls the speed of the rollers. The tree stops within a set tolerance. The tolerance is set in the computer when the lengths are programmed.
- The knives will close around the tree when the length is within the setting tolerance.
- Preset feeding continues automatically until the correct length is achieved.
- Preset feeding can be stopped by pressing the Preset Stop button.
- The saw will cut the log when the desired length is achieved. This is done by pressing the saw button.
When processing of the tree is finished, and only the top of the tree remains in the harvester, reset the harvester. This prepares the head for the next tree. Press the Knives Open, Bottom Knife Open, and Rollers Open buttons. The tree will drop out of the harvester. Press the tilt up button or the reset button. The reset button activates the above functions. A preprogrammed delay is activated.
Note: By programming the computer, a number of automatic functions can be activated. The log can be cut off automatically and/or the feed can begin automatically after the cross cuts. These functions are examples that can be programmed into the computer. You should study the manual for the harvester as well as the manual for the control system, before you attempt to work with the harvester.