When you’re an employee in the logging industry, you’ll quickly realize that loggers rely on various tools and equipment to perform their jobs successfully. So what equipment is necessary for the logging industry? Below, we briefly go over the different types of vehicles and machines you need in forestry to be more productive in cutting down trees.
Feller Buncher: Harvesting
A feller buncher machine is a piece of equipment you use to harvest timber in the logging industry. This vehicle has a cutting head that can grip and cut more than one stem at a time. Many professionals choose this type of felling because it allows the operator more control, which reduces stand damage compared to its counterparts of manual felling.
Stump Shredders: Remove Tree Stumps
After you cut down a tree and remove it from the area, you’re left with the stump. If you leave the stump in the ground, it can begin to rot, producing the perfect home for fungi and pests. Stump shredders use a rotating cutting/grinding disk to shred the stump into smaller pieces, making an easier cleanup on the work site.
Delimbers: Remove Branches & Limbs
The next piece of equipment, a delimber, is necessary for the logging industry because it helps remove limbs and branches from the log you just cut with the feller buncher. Usually, this machine is used with a chipper, so the broken-off branches are immediately put through this additional machine to quickly reduce the wood down to a smaller size.
Yarders: Pull or Fly Logs
Workers in the logging industry prepare the log by cutting it and removing its limbs. They then use a yarder and rigging equipment to pull, move, or “fly” the logs to another location on the work site. Employees must use a logging choker chain properly to maneuver these heavy logs throughout the site. Yarders are very tall, yet they work great in deeper landscapes when you’re required to move logs uphill or downhill.
Log Loaders: Organize Piles
Once the yarder brings the log over, an operator in a log loader will then pick up and organize the timber into neat stacks and piles. This employee will organize them directly on the work site or load them onto a truck for transport. In this industry, you need a log loader because the logging site can quickly become cluttered and unsafe if you do not organize it.
Without the above equipment, the logging industry would not be as successful or efficient in cutting timber. Plus, if we didn’t have workers in this industry, construction companies wouldn’t have enough materials to build and construct houses and buildings. If you own a logging company, consider adding this equipment to your fleet.
