Testing Facility for Forest Machines

Abstract: The report is the final course and master’s thesis of the Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering programme at Luleå University of Technology. The work has been performed in cooperation with Rottne Industri AB. The company is one of the leading actors on the Swedish market regarding development- and manufacturing of forest machines. Rottne Industri AB has detected a need of performing practical tests of the fully assembled vehicles in order to verify the performance and support the development. The objective of the master’s thesis has been to accomplish a pre-study of the design of a testing facility intended for complete forest machines. The purpose of the pre-study is to acquire a decision base for a future investment.
The master’s thesis has been carried out as a product development process including the main parts needfinding, concept design and detail design. Engineering tools as 3D-modelling and computer simulations have been applied in order to simplify- and support the work. The project includes a variety of working areas as hydraulics, measuring technique, material science and mechanics.
The pre-study has resulted in a design of a testing facility for complete forest machines. The testing facility includes five main test areas and covers tractive tests, vibrations tests, lifting tests, weighing and dimension measurements. The five test areas have been the base for the overall-design. The tractive tests are based on a hydraulic winch and allow dynamic tests. The vibration tests include implementation of already existing equipment in order to determine the amount of unhealthy vibrations. The lifting tests are created to measure the maximum lifting capacity of a vehicle’s crane. Weighing and dimension measurements are performed in a combined solution in order to verify the mass and maximum dimensions of a vehicle. The testing facility has been designed specially for Rottne Industri AB and their needs and requirements. Test accuracy, simplicity and usability have been in focus for the design. The outcome of the work is a suggestion to Rottne Industri AB of how to design a testing facility. The future work covers a decision regarding an investment.