Monday. In the cold and wind.

Re: Monday. In the cold and wind.

looks like a machine to treat wood with ultra-sound to kill bugs. Very high tech stuff.

Tech yes but no

Looks like a felling head?

If I am looking at it right, it's a feller's business end? The grabbers hold the tree and that big bar is a chainsaw blade that cuts the tree. Operator then lays the tree down. Takes about 5 seconds per tree or so...

S

Re: Monday. In the cold and wind.

Cuts down trees?

Steve and Dan

are correct as far as they go. Partial credit, but more is needed. You're going to love this when answer is given. Without giving away too much, it has to do with the yellow portion as well as the metal arms and saw. Look closely.

Another view 

Re: Monday. In the cold and wind.

By any chance this device is used under water?

The real thing 

yes

Monday answer

This gets filed under �Why couldn�t I think of that? I�ve been around ROV machines since they were first used for offshore inspection of drilling rigs and I never came close to thinking about the application used for this trivia. Steve and Dan started the ball rolling but Dale took that and added the critical element. He gets the big star today.

The item is a Sawfish, built by Triton Engineering�subsidiary Triton Logging. Basically it is configured as a large Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). Run from topside. It is used to clear cut the forests that have been flooded by hydroelectric projects -- lumber that has been written off as permanently lost. Rights to this lumber are relatively cheap for harvest, because the trees were considered �lost� but there are significant other costs to get it to market. Even so the cost of the finished product is at or less than land based harvesting, and the lumber can be a better grade (see videos)

According to industry sources there are 300 MILLION trees that have been submerged by flood and hydro projects with 50 billion dollars of marketable timber. Without air to cause deterioration this timber is in almost the same condition as before it was flooded. Conservative estimates are one billion (with a B) board feet available. Ootsa Lake in Canada has available lumber worth 1.2 billion dollars alone. Ootsa is one of 45,000 possible locations worldwide.

The Sawfish, about the size of a Volkswagen bus, costing $800,000 to one million dollars (about the price of a Festool router) can log up to 50 trees an hour and perhaps in the process, salvage other submerged stuff too. Triton logging has contacted governments all over the globe attempting to contract to log submerged forests within reservoirs from under one, to a hundred miles long, and the Sawfish can work up to one thousand feet deep. There is a video animation and some pics at http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/14/the-sawfish.html, http://www.tritonlogging.com/video.shtml (play first video for info)(scroll down to second screen for animation) Both are worthwhile.

Basically the sawfish is lifted from a small barge, submerges, and via a �standard� 720 foot long high voltage fiber optic cable drives to a tree, the vehicle�s arms attach to the tree, a lifting balloon is attached to the tree, inflates, a big 54� saw emerges from the ROV and cuts the tree. After the cut, the tree becomes buoyant with the balloon and it floats to the surface trunk up where a barge with grappling hook collects and attaches trees together. Later, the days haul of trees are towed like some chandelier to a shallower area where they are trimmed and loaded for special microwave drying. Some of the lumber recovered is large diameter, old growth, as no one could reach it before the location was flooded. In Indonesia and Africa some of what is cut is rare too. There are now two proofs of concept Sawfish vehicles with more on the books and additional more are being considered by lumber companies other than Triton. Triton�s real business is underwater autonomous vehicles (UAV) and /ROVs. They do international work with salvagers, treasure hunters, offshore oil, commercial marine and U.S. navy security for inspection, navigation, and other stuff we most likely don�t want to know about.

Re: Monday answer

I've never seen or heard of a device like this, interesting. Most trees that have their roots water-logged will fall over easy. Think, much rain, soil get saturated, then ice adds weight to the tree's top, especially evergreens, results: Timmmmmber. Was wonder how that device picks up logs in the hortizal axis. Maybe they send a diver down with an air powdered saw? Thanks for the question and education, Gary.