QUALITY CONTROL IMPROVEMENT OF HARVESTERS IN COMERCIAL THINNING

In recent years a trend towards intensification of machine operated logging when performing commercial thinning has been observed in Latvia forestry. By intensifying the logging process when the operators of multi-purpose harvesting machines (harvesters) select the removable trees of the commercial thinning and recording of the work performed, it is carried out by a computerized operation system in a harvester. Quite often a local non-uniformity in the density of the residual stand is observed - closer to the strip roads the harvester operators remove more trees than in the middle of the strip. So this problem is very important in the development of high quality forest stands. The aim of the current research is to offer the harvester a device for recording the number of the trees to be removed, which will help the operator control the regularity of the location of the trees to be removed during the operation thus ensuring also a uniform location of the trees, which are to be left in the stand. A theoretical algorithm of controlling the uniformity of forest stand density for the harvester has been developed in this research and also a structural description of the controlling system device has been made.