Kronos started life as small smithy situated in the the west of Finland, shoeing horses and helping local farmers fix their implements.
It has since grown into a leading supplier of forestry machinery, specifically trailers, and cranes for attachment to tractors.
Forestry award for Kronos
Recently the company was awarded the 2022 Elmia Wood Innovation Silver Award for its latest development in the safe and efficient use of its trailers.
Smart Stabilizer Control is a semi-automatic control system for the support legs on the trailer, automatically lowering and adjusting them to ensure a level platform for the crane to operate from.
This is the third part of the company’s drive to increase the productivity of its products through the use of digital technology.
Powered wheels
The primary product is ‘Smart drive’, a system which controls the speed of a powered trailer independently of the ground speed of the tractor.
It is set to drive the wheels at a speed 5% greater than the tractor and may be used on trailers with either a friction drive to the wheels, or hydraulic hub motors. It automatically switches off at road speeds.
The system will connect directly to a Valtra’s internal CANbus software to ensure that it works smoothly in conjunction with the tractor’s engine and transmission.
Boom tip control
The second innovation which has won many plaudits is the Smart Boom Control system.
The idea is to relieve the operator of having to control the separate rams on a logging crane by having the software do the thinking while the operator simply directs the tip of the crane by joystick.
With all three systems in place on a trailer, forwarding timber is said to become a great deal easier and more efficient.
In effect, the tractor and trailer combination becomes the one vehicle as the drive is distributed to all the wheels when off road.
When amongst the cut timber, it can be automatically stabilised and the crane operated with just one control lever.
