Forest Engineering
Welcome to Forest Engineering
Do you want to be a highly skilled engineer in an industry that plays an important economic, social and environmental role in New Zealand? If yes, then forest engineering might be for you! Forest engineers help design, construct and evaluate the operational systems that make the forest industry ‘work’. This can include designing and building new roads and forestry equipment, planning harvest operations, integrating new technologies and optimising transport logistics. It also means looking after the environment. These roles involve the ‘hands-on’ application of engineering skills.
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News
Machinery on Steep Slopes
Hamish Berkett has submitted his Master’s project which involved studying steep terrain harvesting machines. His study used GPS and digital inclinometers and collected data on 22 machines, including four machines in Austria and Norway. The results showed that machines frequently operate on very steep slopes that exceed the recommended NZ safety guidelines. New equipment design can help improve the stability to avoid roll-over accidents.
Forest Engineering co-hosted major conference in Europe
The School of Forestry was pleased to co-host the major European forest engineering conference in 2011. The conference was the 44th International Symposium on Forestry Mechanisation (FORMEC). It was held in Graz, Austria with more than 220 people attending. More information: http://formec.boku.ac.at.
Industry field trip to the Austrian/Italian Alps
In October 2012 Associate Professor Rien Visser led a small group of NZ forest industry managers on a tour of modern steep terrain harvesting equipment in the Austrian and Italian Alps. Very impressive was the high level of technology and automation that was integrated into their new machines.
Contact
rien.visser@canterbury.ac.nz
Forest Engineering
School of Forestry
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch 8140
New Zealand
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