A Short Supply Chain to Guarantee Wood-Chip Quality

It is important to know the origin of the wood chip and to verify the whole transport chain, from the forest to the processing plant. This can be done using electronic customized devices to monitor the entire process: these technologies, already used in other fields, are based on the transmission of GPS data via GPRS-UMTS-HSDPA connection. In the wood chip supply chain application they must be adapted to the context, properly tailored to interface with the electronics onboard the machine and to generate usable arrays of data, including performance and quality. In this work the entire chain is controlled by means of a novel electronic architecture onboard the machine, interfaced with a communication system connected to a central server acting as a supervisor. All the machines are equipped with a GPS receiver, a data communication module and a CAN (SAE J1939) interface: machines data are sent to a central server, through an internet connection, and collected in a database ready for web services. A communication protocol has been designed to optimize data transfer and to minimize the cost. To increase the product value, an automated integral sensor (capacitive type) for wood chip humidity determination was implemented. With the fleet management system installed on the machine, cruise controls data (using a GPS system) are acquired, other than all the machine states (through CAN line inside the machine) and wood humidity. The data base (MySQL standard) permits, moreover, to the system administrator and to the user to manage all these information. Another important result is the web access that permits to monitor the fleet situation (route, engine status, time of journey, climatic conditions) at any moment with a screenshot. The capacitive sensor for humidity measurements gives good results, especially in the case of chips with dimensions comprised between 34 and 64 mm and an initial humidity (on wet basis) of 45%.