SHAPE Magazine 1 / 2013 - SCA

“ A doubled speed in the
terrain compared with
a wheeled forwarder
implies up to 20 percent
higher productivity.”
The HFT project is
one of the biggest
collaborations within
the industry in the quest
for a more effi cient
and environmentally
sound forestry.
“Another advantage with the rubber tracked
vehicle is that vibrations and shocks from the
uneven ground are eliminated in the track system,
which makes it more comfortable for the drivers,
and the vehicle can be made lighter,” says Carl-
Gustaf Löf, head of civilian vehicles at BAE Systems
in Sweden. “As the cabin also can be lower,
this gives less of the pendulum eff ect, which today
is a bit of a strain for the driver.”
The technology, specially designed for advanced
military vehicles, is already in use in the civilian
market with tracked vehicles for customers such as
energy companies, which need remote access to
maintain the electrical grids or explore for
oil and gas.
“Three years ago we also took our hybrid electric
drive to the civilian market, to give mining
vehicles a more effi cient drive line,” Löf says. “The
result is a faster machine that consumes less fuel,
which also will be very benefi cial for this new type
of forwarder.”
BESIDES THE ADVANTAGE of lower fuel
consumption, using the military mobility
technique on the forwarder would create
a much faster machine. A forwarder normally
travels at a speed of 5 kilometers per
hour. A CV90 can make 70 kilometers per hour.
“A doubled speed in the terrain compared with a
wheeled forwarder implies up to 20 percent higher
productivity,” says Löf.
So far the tracked forwarder only exists virtually.
3-D models of the forwarder have been
implemented into a virtual world where the design
properties can be tested, verifi ed and altered. In
this virtual landscape the forwarder is maneuvered
and tested on diff erent terrains.
“It’s not as exciting as a normal computer
game,” Löf says. “It’s more like a game for design
engineers, as the environment is very mathematical
and doesn’t have any exciting graphics, but it is
a perfect tool to verify important properties of the
design early in the process and capture and alter
potential design fl aws. This means that we can
come up with a very mature design before we start
building, and we can be confi dent that we have a
high degree of compliance from the beginning.”
The plan is to be able to start building the fi rst
prototype in 2013 and have it ready in early 2014.
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