Avaliação de tempos e movimentos do forwarder na extração de toras de eucaliptos para celulose e biomassa

Abstract

A multinational company in the pulp and paper sector, aiming to utilize all raw materials, invested in energy production from eucalyptus biomass. This initiated a mixed mechanized harvesting system, where all eucalyptus wood is used, both standing green trees and dry, dead trees found on the ground in the field. In this context, difficulties have been noted in handling the skidding of logs destined for biomass. Information regarding operational capacity, forwarder performance, and harvesting efficiency is of great importance in the planning and management of mechanized systems, aiding in decision-making aimed at their optimization. This study aimed to evaluate the times, movements, and average productivity of mechanized log hauling operations for pulp and biomass, and to identify the most time-consuming process steps in the cycle and the main operational difficulties. Log hauling for pulp showed better productivity (66.19 m3/h), being 3.2% more productive than biomass hauling (64.13 m3/h). The most time-consuming steps in the cycle were the same for biomass and pulp: picking up bundles (24.32%), loaded movement (18.91%), and full crane (15.29%), and for pulp picking up bundles (23.90%), loaded movement (22.28%), and full crane (19.04%). Biomass showed clear bottlenecks in handling and adjustment steps, with the most critical being bundle picking and bundle arrangement (7.7%). The cellulose production process showed better distribution across stages, making it more efficient, but it still faces bottlenecks with cargo handling.