What is BS EN 16517 - Design and construction of mobile yarders about?
BS EN 16517 discusses agricultural and forestry machinery. Agricultural and forestry machinery relates to the mechanical structures and devices used in farming or other agriculture. BS EN 16517 gives safety requirements, and the means of verification, for the design and construction of mobile yarders for logging of forest products and their mounting. BS EN 16517 counts for all logging operations with cable yarders both in sloped and flat terrain.
In addition, BS EN 16517 specifies the type of information on safe working practices (including residual risks) meant to be provided by the manufacturer. BS EN 16517 deals with the significant hazards (as listed in Table 1), hazardous situations and events relevant to mobile yarders used as intended and under the conditions of misuse foreseeable by the manufacturer
Note 1: Emission of noise (with regard to airborne noise) is not covered by BS EN 16517.
Note 2: BS EN 16517 is not applicable to:
- Rope splicing
- Ancillary loaders or cable cranes
- Cableways for material transport (other than wood)
- Skidder winches (skidding)
Note 3: The specifications of the cabin in BS EN 16517 are only relevant for the yarder or a yarder loader combination. The cabin and the chassis of the vehicle (prime mover), to which the yarder is mounted are not part of BS EN 16517.
Note 4: BS EN 16517 is not applicable to mobile yarders manufactured before the date of its publication.
Who is BS EN 16517 - Design and construction of mobile yarders for?
BS EN 16517 on the design and construction of mobile yarders is useful for:
- Agricultural machinery manufacturers
- Forestry machinery manufacturers
- Design engineers
- Quality control personnel
Why should you use BS EN 16517 - Design and construction of mobile yarders?
There are many types of such equipment, from hand tools and power tools to tractors and the countless kind of farm implements that they tow or operate. Cable yarders in the context of BS EN 16517 are machines consisting of a yarder (including all components), ropes (cables, lines) and a transporter system (carriage, rider block or butt Rigg) where the trees/logs/wooden biomass is hooked on to the transporter. The yarder is mounted on a chassis (wheeled, tracked or sledge frame) and is designed for a quick change of location. In most cases, the logging operations change position on a 1–3-day frequency. Typical operation for cable yarders is the close collaboration of mechanized components with workers, often in rough terrain. Cable yarding includes a lot of manual work in very difficult terrain where the weight of the tools and ropes has a direct impact on the operators' ergonomic workload.
Ergonomics plays therefore an important role in choosing adequate working coefficients for all elements. A review of the relevant literature; historical experience and operation of cable yarders have indicated a wide range of working coefficients (safety factor) with a focus on 2, 5 to 3 for the skyline and mainline. BS EN 16517 is a type-C standard as stated in EN ISO 12100. BS EN 16517 is of relevance, in particular, for the stakeholder groups representing the market players with regard to machinery safety including machine manufacturers (small, medium, and large enterprises) and health and safety bodies (regulators, accident prevention organizations, market surveillance, etc.). Using BS EN 16517 you can specify safety requirements, and the means of verification, for the design and construction of mobile yarders for logging of forest products and their mounting.