FEATURE


Tried, tested, and proven
Levesque brothers create innovative processors

by George Fullerton
Pennfield Logging is a bit of a misleading name for a machine and fabrication shop that currently views the Charlotte County aquaculture industry as its primary clientele. Brothers Gilles and Pierre Levesque operate the machine shop business, which, as often as not, has a mechanical logging harvester or other forestry or construction equipment on the floor beside aquaculture projects.

New Lévesque processor with feed rollers, delimbing knives, and grab arms extended. The grab arms allow it to grasp and manipulate tangled stems while minimizing risk of damage to knives and rollers.
(George Fullerton photo)


Make no mistake, Pennfield Logging has a remarkable background and a solid reputation for handling any sort of logging equipment overhaul, as well as developing a sideline in designing and building innovative wood-harvesting processors. With three distinct and proven designs under their belt, the Levesque brothers have just delivered on a new processor that offers several cutting edge innovations, which will set a new benchmark for roadside and at-the-stump processing.
The nomenclature, Pennfield Logging dates back to 1985 when Gilles left a partnership (R&G Levesque) with his brother Reg, and launched his own harvest contracting business. In 1986 Gilles built a large garage for repairing his own equipment beside his house in a modest subdivision in the rural community of Pennfield Ridge. The following year he sold his harvesting equipment and began building and selling hydraulic hose and undertaking repairs to harvesting equipment in the garage, in partnership with Pierre.
Pennfield Logging moved into a new machine shop nearby in 1999, and as the aquaculture industry has expanded, so too has Pennfield Logging, servicing hydraulics and fabricating all sorts of equipment ­ from barges to components for processing lines.
Reg continues, in partnership with brother Sylvan, to run R&G Levesque Ltd., undertaking contract harvesting and silviculture work, along with working their own woodland holdings. Reg and Sylvan are frequent personalities at the Pennfield shop for conversation, filing saw chains, and repairs and overhauls on their equipment.

Necessity: the mother
of all invention
The Levesque brothers' venture into processor design and construction began after repeated mechanical failures with processing equipment led Gilles to announce that he could build a more productive processor than was offered by any manufacturer marketing processors in Canada. That boast eventually led to the Levesques designing and building a processor they called the Target, referring to the length measurements of the processed logs, always being, "on target."
"We still have the remains of that first Target out behind the shop. We took the experience gained from the first Target to build improved prototypes," said Gilles.


A White birch bolt is momentarily suspended in the air after the high speed circular saw made its cut. The Levesque brothers say their design will reduce downtime and log quality issues associated with saw chain cut-off systems, as well as eliminating the need for saw chain lubrication. (George Fullerton photo)


The Levesques were unable to put the Target into production, and their original design was copied by the popular Hornet processor.
The Levesques' success in engineering the Target led them to design the 816 (8' and 16' logs) and the 240 (processing trees up to 24" in diameter) machines that have gone into production with Quebec-based Quadco Equipment. Quadco's L220 is an advanced design update of the original 816.
The newest Levesque processor offers a number of revolutionary design innovations. The first and most obvious deviation from the common processor design is using a 48" circular saw blade, instead of the conventional chainsaw bar and chain cutoff saw arrangement. The circular saw drops vertically to buck logs. The blade was designed for a slasher application with riveted carbide teeth that spin at a constant 1,400 rpm. The saw runs from a dedicated pump, the same configuration as the saw of a fellerbuncher. The saw is guided through its travel by two chrome rods with nylon bushings and has four graphite saw guides.
Gilles said that while seeking an alternative for saw bar oil consumption, the brothers came up with the basic concept for the new processor.
"Every year, thousands of gallons of saw bar oil are consumed. That consumption is a big cost for the contractor operating the equipment, and eventually, it is going to become a serious environmental issue. Our design eliminates the oil issue and brings with it some other operational benefits."
Gilles said he and Pierre began discussing the concept in 2005. In early 2007, Pierre began preliminary CAD drawings and by the end of the year, the prototype was ready for field testing.
As the design developed, the Levesques looked for a solution to a common shortcoming of conventional processors. Typically the processor's delimbing arms are used to grab felled trees from the ground and tangled bunches or skidded piles.
Inevitably, the delimbing arms get bent, dulled, or damaged in this function. In addition, using the delimbing knives to manipulate and pile veneer and high-grade sawlogs occasionally inflicts severe damage to the logs.
The Levesques' solution was to design and fabricate grab-arms, which are specifically created for grasping and manipulating felled stems, as well as bucked logs. The grab-arms extend below the knives and drive wheels, so they are out of harms way while a stem is being pulled and twisted out of the pile. After the grab-arms have separated a stem from the bunch or skid pile, the drive wheels and delimbing knives grasp the stem for processing.
The high-speed cutoff saw provides other benefits from the contractor's perspective and in log quality.
"With saw bars, there is always a performance issue around saw chain sharpness. Dull chains cause slow cuts, which affect overall production. Slow cutting also means stems will break off as the cut is nearly finished, which causes shatter and tear to the fiber. In the sawlog business that means lower log quality, which hits the contractor right in the pocket book. Our hot saw has a lot less chance to contact the ground and become dull, so we see that the cutoff function is much faster and cleaner than the saw bar system. In ideal conditions you can expect to change a saw chain after 20 hours, and bars need to be replaced after hundreds of hours service. We expect that our saw may last up to 4,000 hours," said Gilles.
"The saw bar system often becomes damaged through hitting the ground or getting bent. It is costly to repair those pieces, and it is costly in downtime to make those repairs. Changing saw chains, especially at night, brings a safety risk to operators and there is a safety issue with broken chains hitting the operator cab. Our system will stay sharper longer and provide fast, clean cutoff. Our system has fewer parts, which means fewer service points and improved safety for the operators. The initial cost for the circular saw system is slightly higher than saw bar cutoff systems, but we know it will be far more economical for the contractor over the life of the equipment," he said.

Field testing
The new processor has the conventional arrangement of two moveable and one stationary delimbing knives. Steel feed wheels are 20" in diameter and powered with 76 cc motors. The measuring system features an electronic eye for zeroing the measuring function. The computer on the prototype processor is a C5000 constructed by Endeavour Equipment in Grande Prairie, Alberta. The computer requires only four wires to the processor.

When the Levesques tested their prototype in January 2008, the processor was able to delimb and buck logs and studwood from two days worth of cutting and skidding in about 30 minutes. (Pennfield Logging photo)


When the Levesques went looking for an operation to test their prototype in January 2008, they could not find a conventional fellerbuncher/processor operation in southwestern New Brunswick because of the general downturn in the forest industry. As an alternative they partnered with a two-man, full-tree chainsaw/skid operation in nearby St. George. The Levesque processor was able to delimb and buck logs and studwood from two days worth of cutting and skidding in about 30 minutes.
Preliminary tests went well and the Levesques went ahead with plans to finalize control valve setup and detail the in-frame hose routing.
Pierre pointed out that the processor still lacks a saw for topping the final block of wood processed from the stem.
"We were considering installing a saw bar for the topping function, but that takes us back to the maintenance and safety issues that come with that system. We wanted an alternative, and we looked at the tools we use for cutting and milling steel in our shop. Those tools are compact and pretty well maintenance free. If they can cut steel, then cutting the top off a block of wood will be a piece of cake so we are looking at designing our own unique system," said Pierre.
"We have designed the processor for application right across Canada, and to handle stems up to 20" in diameter. We realize there will be a strong demand for this processor on the West Coast where the trees are bigger and the logs are cut up to 50' in length. For that western application, we expect we will simply beef up the steel in the frame and other components and install a bigger saw. We are confident our design concept will work on any kind of timber," offered Gilles.
"Fellerbunchers are still the most cost-effective system for harvesting wood," said Gilles. "Every fellerbuncher needs a processor to turn that bunch of trees into a pile of logs. We are confident that our newest design will perform and bring a lot of efficiencies to the processing function. We have demonstrated the design for a major harvesting equipment manufacturer and they gave us some positive feedback. Right now, with hard times in the industry, it is hard to get enthusiastic about investing in new equipment designs, but the industry will come back and we will have a new machine that will perform and bring some important safety and environmental features too."