To effectively manage a forest resource for both economic and other values good planning is required. The problem is complex since you want to know which forest to cut and when. Often a hierarchical planning structure is applied, including strategic (long-term), tactical, (medium-term) and operational level. Today SCA Forest is one of few forestry companies in the northern Sweden with an integrated forest wood supply and industry. The goals of the company are to supply their own industries with wood and to manage the resources of the forest through a long-term perspective with satisfactory profitability.

Glulam is a product that was engineered to make use of timber in a more efficient way. Bychoosing timber of similar quality and discarding natural defects during production, thedevelopment of a stronger cross-section is achieved.Carbon fiber is a relatively new material with a high tension capacity. This feature is used toexamine how the bending capacity of the beams improve by adhering carbon fiber laminateson the lower edge of the beamsThe strength of the material is tested with three experiments: carbon fiber on the bottom of thebeam (a), carbon fiber attached to the lower sides of the beam (b) and carbon fiber in thebeam, covered with a layer of wood (c)The results show that the first case, where the carbon fiber is attached to the bottom of thebeam, gave the best result with an increase in capacity of 59 % compared to the nonreinforcedcontrol. The other two cases also show an improvement in capacity, beam-type 3had a capacity increase of 47% and beam-type 4 increased with 25 %Tests were also made with glulam beams reinforced with fiberglass, but these tests were notanalyzed in depth because the purpose was to compare the capacity to carbon fiber. Thisbeam improved its capacity by 40.3%.The tests show that carbon fiber as a reinforcement material for glulam is a good choice whenthere is a requirement for stronger cross-sections in both new production and renovation ofold buildings.

Fortifikationsverket which is the landlord for the Swedish national defence has a great problem in their forestry due to the relatively large amount of metal objects in their timber. These metal objects cause different types of economical losses in the timber refinement chain. To enable out sorting of logs containing metal objects already in the harvesting phase, Fortifikationsverket is interested of the possibility to utilize some type of metal detector in a harvesting head for that purpose.The goal of this study was to, with help of a case study, enlighten the problem that metal objects in timber cause for Fortifikationsverket and their customers of timber and to investigate conditions of to mount and utilize some kind of metal detector in a harvesting head at present.The saw timber deliveries by Fortifikationsverket during the time period 2003-2005 was used as a reference volume for calculations of economical losses. In this case study was included two sawmills where timber from Fortifikationsverket were delivered to for further refinement. Factors investigated were the type of damage metal objects caused in these two sawmills and the economical signification of these damages.

Husqvarna is a world leading producer of chainsaws with a well-established brand name. Husqvarna now has an interest in investigating the possibiltiy to expand their production of chains and guide bars to include cutting equipment for timber-harvesters.This project is a technical study which aims to answer questions about cutting equipment for timber-harvesters that have been decided in cooperation with Husqvarna. The questions have mainly been focused on forces, cutting speeds, service and maintenance -as well as general questions regarding the size of the Swedish market.Two methods have been applied to answer the questions. Interviews with retailers of harvesters, producers of harvester heads and harvester drivers.The main findings in this project show that there is a relatively small selection of harvester chains on the Swedish market. In contrast to the selection of harvester chains the selection of guide bars is quite large.

Birch is the dominant deciduous tree species in Sweden but only 16 % is found in pure birch stands. The majority of the birch (51 %) is to be found in conifer dominated stands. Swedish forest land comprises approximately of 23 % mixed stands and one problem is that for mixed stands there are few management recommendations. The underlying aim of this thesis was to study the management of mixed forest stands of spruce and birch to achieve good timber quality of birch. The study was based on a literature study and measurement in a field experiment launched in 1998 by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).

Reporting harvested and forwarded volumes are important for the forest industry as it provides information of the size of the stock and facilitates logistics. Figures from Holmen Skog show low reporting frequency. The purpose of this study is to investigate the reason and find suggestions for improvement. A total of 17 machine operators were interviewed using a questionnaire combined with open questions. The results show that the majority of the machine operators find it simple to use the reporting system, although, some of them reports that it doesn?t always work as supposed to.

Earlier investigations showed that damages on timber from feeding rolls could be within the lower classes of damage according to VMRs classes. Knowledge about differences in productivity between kind types and aggressive types of feeding rolls is necessary because it should influence the question about damages on timber caused by different feeding rolls. In this study the production and timber damage in a harvesting head were evaluated at three levels of pressure (8, 10 and 14 MPa) on the feeding rolls, and with three different types of rolls. One type, the rubber cushioned steel plate roller had 10 mm studs and rubber damping, one ?middle? type made of solid steel with 14 mm studs, and one aggressive type, also made of solid steel with 18 mm studs.

The efficiency of the harvesters work is more often reviewed, than the work of the forwarders. In a local Stora Enso office the differences between the harvesters reported volume of timber, and the actual volume delivered to the industry had been noticed. Therefore, the decision was made to do a review on the forwarders work. The review was conducted together with a worker from Vmf Qbera, who is working daily with wood measurement, in order to get a valid evaluation of the logs. Eight sites were included in the survey, and on each site 50 logs were marked. Approximately one third of the marked logs were pulpwood, and the remaining logs marked were timber.

The purpose of this study is to explain how the value of sawn wood changes when sawn wood are cut in 30 respective 60 cm lengths. The raw material into the saw mill will mainly be bucked in 30cm and 60 cm modules. There will also be two alternatives where the timber will be bucked special lengths, 370, 490 and 550 cm but also in 490 and 550 cm.The method used for the study is to simulate both cutting and sawing the woods. For cutting the simulator Timan is used and for sawing the simulator Timberopt is used. When data is generatedfrom the simulators, calculations of some key figures is done and also how much the revenue need to be increased for the sawn wood in order to cover for the increased costs of changing sawn woodfrom 30 cm to 60 cm modulesThe conclusion is that the single biggest reason, impacting the value of the sawn wood is the cutting at the saw mill.When going from 30 to 60 cm modules, the impact will be that the customers to the saw mill must pay more to increase the revenue by at least 10% for the sawn wood in order to justifice the changein production.It is also possible to increase the value of the products further by bucking the timber in three lengths, 370, 490 and 550 cm, in order to get 12 % increase of the share of longer sawn wood (>= 480 cm)..

The primary purpose of this study has been to investigate the Swedish timber industry?s perception of compression wood. A secondary aim has been to describe particular areas within the production process where compression wood is likely to cause problems. This study has mainly been carried out as a questionnaire. In order to connect the findings to current research, additional information has also been collected by means of a literature review. The questionnaire has been intended for sawmills and wood-manufacturing companies from various production classes and owner categories, as well as from different parts of the country.

A prefabricated timber frame house previously built by Villafabriken AB has been modeled in Autodesk Revit Architectural, a 3D-program based on BIM-technology. This has been done tosee if it?s possible to produce the publications that Villafabriken demands from the designengineer?s work, and examine which possible extra values that may arise compared to traditional 2D-CAD drawing.BIM is short for Building Information Modeling. Everything is stored in a single database and a change in the project file is automatically updated across the project. BIM provides more than just drawings since information from the model can be retrieved in various ways such as lists and quantity schedules.It was possible to produce the publications that Villafabriken demanded using Revit, but BIM doesn?t only mean a new way of drawing, it also require a change in the company?s process were the information from the model is being used..

Stenebergs sockerbruk is a large log-timber construction, purpose built as a sugar refinery in 1739 and is one of Sweden's oldest industrial buildings constructed entirely out of wood. Despite receiving the status of a listed building (in Swedish: Byggnadsminne) in 1977, there exists today a surprisingly low amount of documentation of the building itself. In order to enhance the existing and lacking building documentation, this case study aims to shed light on the building's log-timber built frame, focusing on how it was constructed, how the long lengths of its walls were handled and what type of joinery and tools were used. A thorough investigation of the building is conducted on site, followed by gathering of information which is then presented through text and illustrations. The findings indicate the orientation of timbers, location of joints and scarfs as well as tool marks which together contribute to the forming of a basis of understanding of the building's construction..

The construction and use of buildings in the EU accounts for half of the EU?s extracted materials and energy consumptions, and a third of greenhouse gas emissions. In the past decade, the construction sector has responded to such concerns by focusing on post production energy efficiency. However, new findings indicate that upstream construction processes influence emissions significantly ? necessitating a shift in focus to include material choices and building processes.

Transportation represents 10-15 % of wood supply costs. It is therefore important to improve efficiency in the transport system to decrease these costs. The aim of this study is to map the timber vehicle routing processes used by a sample of timber hauling contractors and to identify possible links between the vehicle routing process and service and economic variables. The study was carried out at Södra Skog in autumn 2008. 15 timber hauling contractors were sampled and interviewed about their work with timber transports.

This study was performed in collaboration with Moelven Skog AB, Örebro district. The purpose of the study was to review existing literature in order to describe the current status of harvester based measurement technology as the way to provide information for calculating payment to the forest owners. In addition to this, a short survey was conducted to find out how a switch to harvester based measurement would affect the administrative workload on timber purchasers working for the district. The literature study shows that the harvester measurement technology is ready to use if it is combined with well-established routines for control of the harvesters, methods for automatic quality indexing of the timber and ways of creating pricelists specially adapted for harvester measurement. Pricing each stem seems to be the most promising method. Stem pricing has several benefits.