The jury praised the design of PONSSE Scorpion Future Cabin especially for its improved ergonomics and for providing forest machine operators with a comfortable work environment. One of the most prominent changes in Future Cabin is the new one-piece windscreen that extends to the roof of the cabin. It offers even better visibility and work safety in varying conditions.

“The development of the new Scorpion model series started from forest machine operators’ feedback. Development was carried out based on this feedback, and its results were then successfully entered in production. The cabin workspace was modified to make it more practical, and now the cabin is like a quiet office with a view, developed to support the operator’s comfort and wellbeing.” 

says Juha Inberg, Technology and R&D Director at Ponsse.

 “We are more than pleased that our Future Cabin was ranked this high in the iF DESIGN AWARD competition. Thanks for this achievement go to our customers, the project team for their excellent work, and design agency Aivan,”

Inberg says.

A total of 10,776 products and projects from 57 different countries were sent to the competition. This year’s iF jury consisted of 132 high-profile design specialists from more than 20 countries.

“The highly demanding harvesting industry calls for solid professional skills, determination and close cooperation. These are also the characteristics of our partnership with VMC Bois. It feels really good to deliver this machine to VMC Bois, and I would like to thank them for our excellent cooperation.”

Marko Mattila, Sales Marketing and Service Director.

“We started our cooperation with Ponsse after we purchased a used PONSSE Ergo a few years ago. We continued our partnership by buying a few new machines, and today we received the 18,000th PONSSE machine here in Vieremä. Our cooperation has been productive, and we are very satisfied with our partnership.”

Alexandre Collomb, one of the three owners of VMC Bois.

VMC Bois owns four PONSSE machines, and it mainly operates in eastern parts of Central France. Established in 2009, the company currently has 27 employees. VMC Bois is also engaged in sawmill operations, generating energy from chips.

PONSSE Elk – a versatile and agile forwarder

PONSSE Elk is a highly versatile and agile forwarder in the smaller midsize class. Elk offers an unprecedented load-carrying capacity in its size class, and its fuel-efficient engine and large fuel tank extend the refuelling interval. It is safe to say that Elk is an excellent machine for thinning sites where the machine needs to cover long distances. Elk’s responsive engine, impressive torque and sturdy loader make working comfortable, especially when the operator can enjoy the most spacious cabin on the market, including ergonomic controls.

Entered in serial production in 2005, more than 1,000 PONSSE Elk forwarders have been completed, delivered to over 20 countries and tested in real-life conditions across the globe.

Starting as the dream of Einari Vidgrén, Ponsse is a family-owned business that now operates in the harvesting markets of over 40 countries. Environmentally friendly harvesting and customer-driven R&D are strongly emphasised in Ponsse’s business. All PONSSE forest machines are still manufactured in the company’s birthplace in Vieremä in Northern Savonia, Finland.

Ponsse Active Manual is a pioneering service for the industry

The visual Ponsse Active Manual is an instruction and maintenance manual service that works on your mobile device and supplements the current instruction and maintenance manual by offering videos in addition to the manual. The new service makes use of the latest technologies, such as 3D modeling. Active Manual has many benefits for forest machine operators: it is clear, fast, and easy to access.

“These days, people use instruction videos for doing all kinds of things, so it’s natural to also have operating instructions for forest machines available in video form. You can watch the videos whenever and wherever you want over the internet, and they can provide you with instructions for daily operation procedures,”

says Pinja Aho, Visualisation Specialist, Ponsse Plc.

The new service improves the productivity of forest machine operators by providing them with fast and easy access to the most common instructions for the operation and maintenance of forest machines. The service’s videos will improve the utilization rate of forest machines by ensuring access to instructions and support whenever and wherever they are needed.

Active Speed – improved productivity regardless of the stem size

With Active Speed, the harvester head’s operating speed can be adjusted based on the tree species and stem diameter. Equipped with this new function, working with the H8 harvester head is smooth and productive, no matter what the tree diameter is.

“We have developed our product range of harvester heads actively with our customers. Many of our customers work in challenging conditions, which is why their development ideas give us the best possible feedback for product development. With its completely new structure, the new H8 harvester head is ideal for processing large trees,”

says Janne Loponen, Product Manager for harvester heads.

A completely upgraded new structure

The new harvester head can be mounted on Ponsse Ergo and Bear, the strongest harvesters in our product range. The saw box area is even wider, making the harvester head an excellent choice for trees with a high butt diameter. The harvester head’s structure has been designed for easy maintenance, and the frame has been built to be even more durable. A powerful feed, combined with a geometry that firmly supports larger stems on feed rollers, guarantees high productivity and fuel economy. The automatic features of the Opti control system, developed and built by Ponsse, control the feed speed and saw movement, according to the tree diameter, and ensure fast and precise sawing.

All Ponsse harvester heads have been designed to withstand the toughest conditions. They are characterized by a simple and solid structure which is why they can be used in various harvesting applications. All Ponsse harvester heads are manufactured and designed at the Ponsse factory in Vieremä, Finland. The comprehensive design applies to both mechanical components and the electronic control system, controls, and software. The manufacturing process is highly automated, guaranteeing a high level of quality and measuring accuracy.

The Ponsse Elephant King forwarder is the most powerful machine in our forwarder range. The most productive forwarder on the market, offering a superior level of comfort, is particularly economical and efficient when transport distances are long or transported trees are large.

“Elephant King’s technology, tested in extreme conditions in the Russian cold and the Brazilian heat, improves productivity and helps the operator keep going. This forwarder’s cabin offers an enjoyable work environment for professionals who appreciate comfort, safety, and ergonomics. The powerful engine and the 20-tonne load-carrying capacity guarantee that trees are transported efficiently,”

says Juha Haverinen, Product Manager, Forwarders.

When Elephant King is equipped with Ponsse Active Crane, a loader control system for forwarders, productivity in demanding conditions will improve even further. With the Active Crane system, the operator controls grapple movements instead of individual functions, lightening the operator’s workload. Active Crane is easily controlled using two levers, one of which controls the grapple height from the ground and the other controls the direction of movement.

The PONSSE K121 loader offers unprecedented efficiency and speed for load handling in tough conditions.

The Elephant King forwarder with the K121 loader is the most powerful combination at worksites where load handling takes up a large part of working hours. The K121 loader also makes working easier at sites where large trees are handled and on steep slopes where the loader needs to be powerful. The high slewing and lifting power, longer reach, new loader geometry, and good controllability speed up loading and unloading.

“Thinning can also be called improvement felling, as it ensures the productivity of the forest and the high quality and health of trees. The better a forest grows, the better it sequesters carbon. Thinning ensures that trees can be processed into high-quality products that sequester carbon for dozens or even hundreds of years,”

says Tuomo Moilanen, forest specialist at Ponsse.

In cut-to-length (CTL) harvesting, trees are already processed up to the intended length in the forest, enabling thinning to be ecological. When the harvester operator plans trails so that they can also be driven by the forwarder, trees can be both felled and transported without needing to move around unnecessarily in the forest.

“At thinning sites, the distance between trails is roughly 20 meters, and trees remaining by the side of the trail will grow in Finnish conditions 20–25 percent more quickly, because they will have room to grow, both above and below,”

Moilanen says.

Ponsse’s harvesters, forwarders, and harvester heads have also been designed for thinning sites

The six-wheeled Ponsse Beaver and the eight-wheeled Ponsse Fox, Ponsse’s harvesters in the smaller size category, are ideal solutions for first thinning. Ponsse Fox is an excellent choice, especially when operating in soft terrain. High-flotation tracks should be selected as optional equipment for softer terrain to prevent surface damage.

At heavier thinning sites, the Ponsse Cobra and Scorpion harvesters, combined with the H5 or H6 harvester head, are the best choices in terms of productivity. In Ponsse Scorpion, the unobstructed visibility in all directions, together with cabin and crane leveling, makes working smooth even at dense thinning sites. As eight-wheeler machines, both models are also excellent in soft terrain.

While Elk and Wisent are the most popular Ponsse forwarders for thinning sites, Buffalo is also an excellent choice, especially when distances are longer, and the aim is to improve productivity. The forwarder can easily pick up trees from thinning sites when trails are properly protected (with branches) and as straight as possible; the fewer sharp bends there are, the less surface damage is caused.

At thinning sites, the harvester head should be selected according to the dominant tree species. However, it should be considered that damaged trees and other trees in poor condition must also be removed from thinning sites, calling for sawing and feed forces from the harvester head. The harvester head must be reliable at thinning sites because a large number of trees are produced quickly during each shift.

At thinning sites, much rests on the forest machine operator – the operator decides what trees are removed and what are left standing. The forest owner hands over their assets to a professional forest machine operator to receive the highest possible profit, also in the future.

“Our solutions are always based on our customers’ needs, and our forest machines designed for steep slopes are no exception. We test and develop them together with our customers in truly demanding conditions, for example, in China, Brazil, North America, and Central Europe. We have invested in the testing and research equipment required for the development of slope harvesting solutions at our Vieremä factory, and we have even built an artificial slope for testing and studying in detail how our products operate in slope conditions.”

says Marko Mattila, Sales, Service, and Marketing Director at Ponsse.

PONSSE Synchrowinch is one of the most important optional equipment required for cut-to-length (CTL) forest machines when working on steep slopes. It helps the forest machine remain highly productive in an environmentally friendly and safe way compared to alternative manual methods also in demanding conditions. Working on slopes is no novelty globally but, as the environmentally friendly cut-to-length logging method is becoming more common, it will develop in a safer and more effective direction, minimizing any damage to the terrain.

Ponsse’s solutions for working on slopes

• Eight-wheeled harvesters and forwarders, combined with balanced bogies, offer tractive force, stability, and comfort for the operator
• Engines, brakes, and tanks developed for slope conditions
• PONSSE Synchrowinch and other options designed for working on slopes
• Efficiency and productivity of cut-to-length (CTL) forest machines – no need to pull cables or wires manually.
• Smooth working – by using the winch, the machine can be moved smoothly, even in demanding locations

PONSSE Synchrowinch is available for PONSSE Cobra, Ergo 8W and Bear harvesters, and Buffalo, Bison, Elephant, and Elephant King forwarders. The winch is optional equipment installed in forest machines during the installation stage.