Forest biomass is becoming an increasingly important source of renewable energy, and thereby the demand is increasing. There is currently 213 000 km of forest roads in Sweden that could be suitable for biomass harvesting. Harvest of biomass along forest roads both provides biomass and maintains the quality of the roads. Currently, the volume of biomass along roads can only be assessed post harvest, chipping and industry deliverance. As the decision of whether or not to harvest should preferably be based on more than experience, the TJ-method has been proposed. The TJ-method is a subjective method to quickly determine the dry matter quantity with the assessment being conducted from the roadside.

This report summarize what have been done during the Master of Science Thesis that Klas Schjelderup has written for the company RANOTOR Utvecklings AB. The company is developing modern steam engines and this work should develop a machine to perform tests on a new type of piston seal that hopefully could be used in the future. The steam engines will be both volumetric and energy compact, around 1600hp/literof cylinder volume, and it will have a lot of practical applications.The new type of piston seal is hydrostatic lubricated which means that a fluid is separating two faces that normally is in contact. In this case pressurized water is used to separate the piston seal from the cylinder wall. RANOTOR have earlier formulated that at least the expander in the modern steam engine have to be oil-free, due to other components functionality in the closed water system.

The use of combi-drilling during spring tillage has become very common in southern Sweden in recent years. Combi-drilling leads to fewer passes on the field and better plant nutrient utilisation. An example of a combi-drill is the Väderstad Rapid, which is very widely used in spring tillage in southern Sweden. The Rapid has separate fertiliser and seed coulters, which means that the draught requirement is relatively high. It thus requires large, heavy tractors, which compact the soil and are comparatively expensive to buy and run. A few years ago the Finnish combi-drill Tume Nova Combi came onto the Swedish market.

ProblemThe manufacturing industry is a mature industry where the profit margins are small and the competition is hard. This makes it hard for both manufacturers and resellers to gain market shares and reach reasonable profit margins only by selling products. Therefore Swecon who is reseller for Volvo Construction Equipment tries to find alternative methods and ways to increase their profit. An alternative source of income could be to develop the range of services that are connected to the ground products.PurposeThe purpose of the thesis is to examine how Swecon in southern Sweden can improve their offers of existing services connected to the ground product and investigate the demand of new such services.MethodThis study is based on a qualitative study of five of Swecons local offices and five of Swecons customers. The empirical framework is mostly based on personal interviews but in some cases information was retrieved by using phone interviews.

Hässleholms Renhållare AB är ett avfallsbolag som innehar en oljebehandlingsanläggning på deras centrala avfallsanläggning i Vankiva. På oljebehandlingsanläggningen tar de emot slam från oljeavskiljare och bilvårdsanläggningar samt i mindre mängd förorenade massor. Från behandlingsanläggningen utgår det en vattenfas som leds via ett avloppssystem vidare till det lokala behandlingssystemet för lakvattnet. I bolagets tillstånd för Vankiva avfallsanläggning har det föreskrivits att varje delflöde till den lokala behandlingen av lakvattnet måste kontrolleras för att inte fastställda gränsvärden för olja och tungmetaller ska överskridas. Under våren 2006 kompletterades avloppssystemet från oljebehandlingsanläggningen till lakvattenbehandlingen med en filterbrunn.

More than fifty percent of the world population today lives in cities, and the pressures of urbanisation are particularly present in developing countries. As landscape architects, it is important to gain knowledge about the effect of urbanisation and ways to prevent the negativities. Experiencing the effects in person in a developing country, as well as learning from and about other cultures, enhances the understanding for global situations. Dar es Salaam is located in one of the most rapidly urbanising regions in the world, which puts pressure on the environment and the humans living in it. Lack of means to regulate land development has led to a situation where expansion of unplanned settlements occurs, with spatial disorder as a consequence. This has in the extension led to a decreasing amount of publicly available and qualitative green spaces, and degradation of the few ones that exist. There are facts that strengthen the status of urban parks, which especially becomes relevant in developing countries where many people live in sparse and exposed conditions.

The Swedish pulp and paper industry meets higher demand for energy efficiencyi mprovements with increasing energy prices and changes in the Swedish renewable energy certificate system. One action of energy efficiency improvement is by using secondary heat, that otherwise would have been treated as waste heat, for use in a system with lower temperature demands. The aim of this Master´s thesis is to identify possible secondary heat sources in a typical Swedish pulp and paper mill and to investigate what economic benefits the secondary heat will provide when being used for pre heating of wood chips to a kraft digester.The Master´s thesis focuses on three secondary heat sources; dry warm air, warm water and moisture saturated warm air located inside the pulp or paper mill. Two types of kraft digesters are simulated within this study, a typical Scandinavian digester and a modern twin vessel steam phase digester.Due to quality aspects and low temperature level drying is the drying technology with dry warm air rejected. Using warm water in direct contact with wood chips increases the quantity of water to the evaporation plant and thus reduced pulp or paper production and is therefore also rejected.

När ett haveri inträffar uppstår direkt en mängd olika kostnader i form av underhållsinsatser, reparationsmaterial och administrationsinsatser. Utöver dessa kostnader förloras även de intäkter som maskinen genererar samt täckningen för de fasta och rörliga kostnaderna. Alla dessa kostnader skall täckas av de värdeskapande enheterna på företaget och påverkar det finansiella resultatet negativt. För att förbättra ett företags lönsamhet ökas antingen intäkterna eller så reduceras kostnaderna. Trots detta är det för många företag okänt hur stor kostnaden faktiskt är då en maskin står stilla.Arbetets uppdragsgivare är Konecranes Machine Tool Service (MTS), ett företag som erbjuder underhållstjänster och underhållslösningar till företag inom verkstadsindustrin.

This thesis has treated a three-axis robot which task is to serve a larger test machine tomove the modules to be tested, from the storage to the test site. The robot is composed ofthree linear actuators; two standard components of ball screw type and a custom-builtactuator of trapezoidal type. The work has mainly focused on the custom-built device to seeif it could be replaced with a standard component. Part of the work has been to look into thepicking tool and to see if there are any possibilities to improve its function.The report presents two different proposals which I decided to call Robot 1 and Robot 2 andthey aim to address the problems arising in the purpose-built linear unit and the X-axislinearity problems. Robot 1 focuses on eliminating the problems that arise around therobot's X-axis, with such simple means as possible and without making excessive materialchanges.

AbstractThe overarching goal of this study is to investigate whether teachers of Swedish at upper secondary schools in Sweden feel that they know how to teach critical literacy, especially on the Internet, and also if they know how it is taught. It also investigates the difficulties teachers experience in teaching critical literacy. A secondary goal is to investigate the knowledge of critical literacy among students at upper secondary schools in Sweden. The study is based on quantitative and qualitative research. The research consists of two parts.

The low bearing capacity of roads during the spring thaw and periods in the autumn leads every year to increases costs for Holmen Skog. To reduce costs and increase accessibility Holmen Skog decided to install and test a CTI-system. Central tire inflation (CTI) is a system that makes it possible to monitor and vary a vehicle?s tire inflation pressures from the cabin, while the vehicle is in motion. When tire pressures are reduced, the area of the contact surface between the tire and the road increases, thus reducing the ground pressure. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the CTI-equipped vehicle and analyze if the CTI technology is economical defensible during the thaw 2005.

Wood has always been an important material for people, and it is used for many applications. As for example, fuel for cooking and heating houses, construction materials and for constructing means of transport. Since wood also is a material that with time biologically degrades due to activity by micro organisms and wood fungi it is important to find ways to protect and further lengthen the life span of the material when in service. One method is to decrease the amount of water in the material by impregnation with an hydrophobic oil. The Linotech method which uses only pure linseed oil is one such possible method. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility to at the same time impregnate and stain/colour wood samples of pine and spruce by using the Linotech method.

Volvo Construction Equipment is a world leading company in construction machinery. Tomaintain the best products, development is prioritized. The master thesis regards sound reductionof the hydraulic system on a wheel loader. The background to the master thesis is asimulation made on the hydraulic system, performed autumn 2005. The result of the simulationshows that the energy of the pressure ripple is reduced when the paralleled hydraulicpumps are phase shifted and reduces each others pump pulsations.

SUMMARYFor thousands of years horses have been at people's side. They have been used for transportation at war, to save time, manpower and money. For practical reason, man has forced the horses into narrow spaces. Stabling includes factors as feeding and bedding. In the boxes the bedding materials must be kept clean and maintain good hygiene.

This thesis has treated a three-axis robot which task is to serve a larger test machine tomove the modules to be tested, from the storage to the test site. The robot is composed ofthree linear actuators; two standard components of ball screw type and a custom-builtactuator of trapezoidal type. The work has mainly focused on the custom-built device to seeif it could be replaced with a standard component. Part of the work has been to look into thepicking tool and to see if there are any possibilities to improve its function.The report presents two different proposals which I decided to call Robot 1 and Robot 2 andthey aim to address the problems arising in the purpose-built linear unit and the X-axislinearity problems. Robot 1 focuses on eliminating the problems that arise around therobot's X-axis, with such simple means as possible and without making excessive materialchanges.