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US 8,127,611 B2Granted
Timber harvesting apparatus
AssigneeFibre-gen Instruments Limited
InventorsNigel James Sharplin, Peter Charles Stratton Carter
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The use of a harvester head, processor head or merchandiser to deploy or place probes into a standing tree, felled stem or trunk, log, cant or the like whereby a time of flight of a stress or acoustic wave can be measured for the purpose of comparing a relationship to a threshold for the purpose of attributing a characteristic to be harvested, processed or broken down tree, stem or trunk, log, cant or the like.
Claims40
A harvester head or processor head adapted to grapple a trunk of a standing tree, a trunk of a felled tree or a log, comprising
- a deployable grapple to hold the remainder of the head relative to the trunk or log,
- a saw adapted to make a transverse cut in a desired location in the trunk or log when the head has grappled the trunk or log,
- a drive to move the processor or harvester relatively along the grappled trunk or log,
- a datum determining system to either treat or detect as a datum (i) the end being cut or to be cut as the tree is being felled, the end of trunk of the already felled tree or the end of the log, or (ii) the fresh end to be cut in the trunk of the already felled tree or in the log,
- a length determining system to measure the positioning of the saw for a processing cut from the datum determined by the datum determining system,
- first and second probes each deployable and capable of being withdrawn from deployment so that each penetrates the grappled trunk or grappled log at places longitudinally spaced on the trunk or log, the undeployed condition keeping the probes away from the trunk or tree to reduce exposure to damage when there is relativity of movement between the head and the trunk or log,
- an impact device or sound generator to provide a stress or sound wave input into the trunk when the probes are deployed in use,
- an electronic processor determining the time of flight of a longitudinally moving component of the stress or sound wave between the probes by involving wave sensing at the second probe and wave generation or wave sensing at the first probe,
- the electronic processor providing feedback to an operator or a control system, or both, as to the value of the time of flight, or a derivative thereof, or the relationship thereof to a threshold.
6 more elements
A processor head or harvester head able to grapple a trunk of a standing or felled tree, to transversely cut a trunk and, when not cutting transversely, of driving itself along a grappled trunk, the processor head or harvester head comprising
- first and second probes, each deployable to penetrate at least the bark of the trunk that is grappled and is being held stationary relative to the head, and each capable of being withdrawn from the deployed condition,
- and wherein, whether through a probe or otherwise, a stress or sound wave generator of the head causes a stress or sound wave to travel longitudinally of the trunk at least from or past a first probe to a second probe spaced longitudinally of the trunk, and a processor determines an elapsed time of flight of the wave between the probes.
A method of harvesting, said method comprising
- grappling a trunk of a standing tree with a harvester head,
- deploying two probes from the head into the tree at positions spaced longitudinally of the trunk,
- causing a stress or sound wave to travel longitudinally in the trunk from or past the first probe to be received by the second probe,
- using processing means associated with inputs from at least one sensor or receiver, or both, associated with the second probe and at least one or more of a transmitter, sensor or switch associated with the first probe to obtain a time of flight of the stress or sound wave between the probes, and
- using the output of the processing means to cause automatically or with operator intervention at least one of
- (i) the head to fell the tree,
- (ii) the head to mark the tree,
- (iii) the head to fell the tree and to migrate on the felled tree to a distance from the felling cut and there to make a second cut, and
- (iv) the head to fell the tree and to migrate on the felled tree to a distance from the felling cut and there to make a second cut and to mark or have marked the resultant log.
6 more elements
A processor head or harvester head able to grapple a trunk of felled tree or a log, said processor head or harvester head comprising
- first and second probes, each deployable to penetrate at least the bark of a trunk or log that is grappled and is being held stationary relative to the head, and each capable of being withdrawn from the deployed condition,
- and, whether through a probe or otherwise, a stress or sound wave generator of the head causes a stress or sound wave to travel longitudinally of the trunk or log at least from or past the first probe to the second probe spaced longitudinally of the trunk, and a processor determines an elapsed time of flight of the wave between the probes.
A method of processing, said method comprising
- grappling a trunk of a felled tree or a log with a harvester or processor head,
- deploying two probes from the head into the trunk or log at positions spaced longitudinally of the trunk or log,
- causing a stress or sound wave to travel longitudinally in the trunk or log from or past the first probe to be received by the second probe,
- using processing means associated with inputs from at least one sensor or receiver, or both, associated with the second probe and at least one or more of a transmitter, sensor or switch associated with the first probe to obtain a time of flight of the stress or sound wave between the probes, and
- using the output of the processing means to cause automatically or with operator intervention at least one of
- (a) the head to mark the trunk or log,
- (b) the head to migrate relative to but on the trunk or log to a distance from the felling cut or a fresh cut and there to make a second cut,
- (c) the head to migrate relative to but on the trunk or log to a distance from the felling cut or a fresh cut and there to make a second cut and to mark or have marked the resultant log,
- (d) the head to migrate relative to but on the trunk or log to a distance from the felling cut or a fresh cut and there to make a second cut and to debranch or have debranched the resultant log,
- (e) the head to migrate relative to but on the trunk or log to a distance from the felling cut or a fresh cut and there to make a second cut and to mark or have marked the resultant log and to debranch or have debranched the resultant log.
7 more elements
A harvesting machine, the harvester head of a harvesting machine, or a harvesting head suitable for incorporation in a harvesting machine, comprising
- the harvesting head directly or indirectly carries first and second longitudinally spaced probes adapted, when engaged with a tree or tree stem or logs thereof, to sense a stress wave travelling longitudinally in the tree, tree stem or log, the apparatus including means
- (i) to initiate the longitudinal stress wave travel so that it will travel from one, or past the first probe, to, or past the second probe,
- (ii) to determine an elapsed time of travel between the probes, and/or
- (iii) to generate a decision signal for the fate of the tree/stem/log to the harvester operator and/or some responsive tree/stem/log marking or log making device.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.