Virkesgripen

The aim of this study was to investigate and describe conceptions that been used when people talks about grapples and to put together parameters that the customers sees as important when they chose a grapple from Hultdins. Every year Hultdins manufacturer and sells about 3500 grapples around the world. With so many users its difficult to oblige everyone. To get an apprehension of what kind of grapple the operators wanted a formula with 18 questions was made. For the interviews 20 forestmachineoperators were choicest who had experience from Hultdins grapples, a lot of them also had experience from other grappleproducers and constructions. The study showed that it is the durability the users give priority to. A lot of operators use the grapple to move stones, stumps, etc. to get an even and faster main haul road. That is a big problem because the grapple is not made for that kind of use and the life is reduced. The operators were asked about the grapples qualities during work with timber. Many operators thought that the qualities would improve if the grapple claws were made rounder and wider. If the grapples claws were rounder they also thought that the grapple should get much less stones, moss and soil with it when the grapple is closed to pick up logs from the ground. Other qualities and factors like color and long lubrication intervals, etc. weren't anything the operators cared about. Out on the market Hultdins is well known for all the robust and simple products they designed. During year 2006 Hultdins introduce a further development of the SuperGrip, SuperGrip 2. The construction is a bit different from the previous SuperGrip, the grapples claws is made rounder and also wider even the construction is more vigorous. They also developed an extra size of grapple that operators who perform forwarding both in thinning and final felling will appreciate. The conclusion of this report is that Hultdins made the right decisions when they developed Super Grip 2.Syftet med detta examensarbete har varit att reda ut och beskriva begrepp som används när man pratar virkesgripar och att sammanställa vilka parametrar som kunderna anser vara viktigast när man väljer en virkesgrip från Hultdins. Varje år tillverkar och säljer Hultdins ca 3000 virkesgripar över hela världen. Med så många användare är det svårt att tillmötesgå samtliga användare. För att få en uppfattning om vad skotarförare vill ha för sorts grip sammanställdes ett intervjuunderlag med frågor till 20 maskinförare. Många av dessa förare hade tidigare erfarenhet från andra fabrikat och modeller av gripar. Hultdins som ute hos förarna är känt för att robusta och enkla produkter kom under 2006 med en vidareutveckling av SuperGripen, SuperGrip II. SuperGrip II har en kraftigare konstruktion och ytterligare en storleksmodell, SGII 300 har även tagits fram. Slutsatserna man kan dra av de resultat som framkommit i studierna är att man har satsat rätt vid utvecklingen av den nya gripen