Study of the environmental and economic parameters of the Mounty-4000 machine for primary wood transportation in the Republic of Bulgaria

The article analyzes the operation of modern technology for the primary transportation of wood in mountainous areas, showing the prospect of using mobile rope installations based on trucks equipped with a remote-controlled carriage, as well as a manipulator with a processor head for processing trees or logs, sorting assortments and their loading onto timber transport. The purpose of the presented work was to conduct theoretical and experimental studies of the environmental and economic parameters of the operation of Mounty 4000 in the primary transportation of wood in mountainous areas. In the course of the theoretical studies, the operating cycle of the “mining processor” was structured and, as a result, a mathematical dependence of the costs of its operation was obtained. For each component of cycle time, during a production experiment in the mountainous conditions of Bulgaria, distribution laws and statistical characteristics of their durations were obtained. The hypothesis of normal distribution was confirmed by the Pearson test at a given significance level of p=0.05. During the simulation experiment, the dependence of the damageability of tree trunks left in the cutting area on the intensity of felling, the density of the planting and the distance of pulling the timber under the line of the supporting rope along the installation route was established. The level of significance of the main factors influencing the total costs (for felling intensity β/α= 0.67; apiary width β/α= 0.74; forest stock β/α= 0.84) and damage to trees (for felling intensity β/ α= 0.95; forest stock β/α= 1.0; apiary width β/α= 1.52). The values of favorable areas of the most significant influencing factors were determined when the level of damage to C2 trees is below the required standards - 12%. The results of the conducted research are recommended to be used at the design stage of logging operations for a comprehensive assessment of the functioning of equipment from economic and environmental positions. For this purpose, a computer program has been developed “Program for justifying the technology and system of logging machines” (certificate of state registration No. 2023662656).