The past week and a half have been busy
July 18, 2013 11:56 am Leave your thoughts
The past week and a half have been busy, to say the least! Last Sunday, there was a flood relief event held at Muskoseepi Park, with local musicians playing all day, complete with a barbeque and amazing, sunny weather. I went to check it out with my roommate, and we ended up staying a good six hours! More importantly, the event managed to raise over $44,000 to help those affected by the floods!
The marginal ground project that is currently taking place started last Monday, and ends this Friday. FP Innovations, who flew a few guys out from Montreal and Vancouver, is working with Weyerhaeuser on this trial project, to determine the impact that different operational equipment has on summer ground. We’ve been hard at work since it started, even working through the weekend, to study the productivity, efficiency, fuel consumption, and ground disturbance of different machines in an area with both soft and wet ground conditions. The trial used two bunchers (wide tracks versus narrow tracks) and three skidders, including a recently developed 6 wheeler.
Myself, with part of the team and a feller buncher working in the background
One of the three skidders, the John Deere 848H
A few of the guys doing a walkthrough of the block's ground conditions
For each bunch produced, I had to use a scale stick to determine log diameters for volume and productivity purposes
I made it into Grande Prairie's Daily Herald Tribune!
Another part of the project was studying fuel consumption, which involved calibrating the fuel meters on each company truck, to ensure accurate fuel usage readings. We would pour 10 litres of fuel into a bucket with markers and calibrate the meter by turning a screw until exactly 10 litres would come out. Each of the four meters we did was off by some amount! We also used a hydrometer, which measures fuel temperature and a buoyancy factor to derive a fuel density. Less dense fuel means more fuel consumption, and vice versa.
Cam, from FP Innovations, calibrating one of the truck’s fuel meters
The hydrometer in action, used to determine fuel density
This internship has been amazing so far, and I can’t put into words how grateful I am to have received it. I’ve gotten exposure to a wide spectrum of what the company does, and having something new to work on each week or two makes it fast paced and interesting. I’m just over halfway through and have learned so much – I’m excited to see what comes next!