Machine designed for dangerous work

Machine designed for dangerous work There is nothing worse than seeing one of your own workers injured on the job, Brightwater logging boss Dale Ewers says. "But I believe we can build a carriage that can go anywhere, fell trees and break out so we won't have any men down the hill in those danger zones. The key is having an "awesome team" who don't see technology as a threat but as a means of making forestry safer and more efficient, he says. "When we get to a zero accident rate and can keep it at zero - and we believe we can - that's when we will be happy. " . It attracted the biggest-ever turnout to a Forest Industry Contractors Association field day at Brightwater last month, which director John Stulen says was an indication of how much interest there was in it. "It's a significant step forward. While the infra-red camera and engine are imported, all of the other componentry is made in New Zealand and assembled locally, including the transmitters and receivers that allow the claw to be sent much further away from the hauler, out of line-of-sight and used even at night. "We are not limited to front hill faces and short pulls; we can pull anywhere, any time. Mr Ewers says the claw has proved just as efficient as chains and men on steep country, and more productive on easier slopes. "I've pulled out our daily target (of logs) on my own. It has driven him and his team at DC Repairs to do something about cutting the forestry industry's stubbornly high fatality and accident rate. Since starting Moutere Logging in 1989, his company has recorded up to 1800 near-hits from incidents involving its own crews during the past 10 years, which sparked a search for solutions. . "Yes, there are strong possibilities of overseas sales - I do not want to say too much but people are ringing and asking questions. "In windthrow areas where 50 percent the wood is knocked over, we haven't even had tree fellers. It replaces the need to have men wrestling with heavy chains and hooks on often steep, debris-strewn hillsides while guaranteeing they do not get hit by wayward logs or dislodged rocks. The claw differs from other grapple hooks and carriages that Mr Ewers has imported from overseas, in that it is fully remotely operated by a worker sitting in a hauler machine up to 700 metres away who uses a hi-tech camera mounted on the grapple to guide it. Mr Ewers says DC Repairs plans to raise its staff by three to 16 as it ramps up production. "This carriage is just step one of five. We've got the major componentry; we just need to make it ergonomically better. The next challenge, Mr Ewers says, is mechanising tree felling. He has plenty of ideas on how to do that but for now is concentrating on producing the claw. He sees it as bringing environmental gains to an industry often accused of not cleaning up well after itself. Better radio communications between those operating haulers and the men on forestry slopes who hook logs on to wire-rope systems brought some improvement but people were still getting hurt, Mr Ewers says. "We had a bit of a brainstorming session and decided to remove those people by going fully mechanised. After four years of trial and error and hundreds of thousands of dollars, DC Repairs has just begun producing a piece of equipment they are confident will help save lives and slash injuries by changing the way logs are gathered and hauled up slopes to skid sites. However, the Falcon Forestry Claw takes almost all of the risk out of the operation by relying on technology to do the job. Machine designed for dangerous work Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 15/05/2012