%0 Research note
%T Productivity of a prototype truck-mounted logging residue bundler and a road-side bundling system
%A Lindroos, Ola
%A Matisons, Magnus
%A Johansson, Petter
%A Nordfjell, Tomas
%D 2010
%J Silva Fennica
%V 44
%N 3
%R doi:10.14214/sf.148
%U https://silvafennica.fi/article/148
%X When recovering logging residues (LR) for bioenergy its density should  be increased before road transport, otherwise a low proportion of the  trucks’ load capacity will be used. One way this can be currently done  is to compress LR into bundles that are forwarded to roadside landing. A  less well-developed alternative is to forward loose LR and bundle it at  landing. In the presented study, a prototype specifically developed for  road-side bundling was found to produce larger, heavier bundles than  bundling machinery intended for in-field use (mean length, diameter and  raw bulk density 4.7 m, 0.8 m and 285 kg m<sup>–3</sup>, respectively,  with 299–445 kg oven dry matter per bundle). The machine was also at  least 30% more productive than previously described in-field bundling  systems, producing 14–19 bundles per productive work hour (PWh),  equivalent to 5.2–7.8 oven-dry tonnes PWh<sup>–1</sup>. Bundles were  estimated to use 67–86% of an LR truck’s 30 tonnes load capacity,  similar to proportions used when transporting loose LR. However, a  continuous feeding and compressing process would probably almost double  productivity, while longer bundles would enable full use of truck load  capacity. With such improvements bundling at road-side could provide a  viable alternative to current LR-recovering systems.