Malwa 980 Harvester and Cat^® engines

CUSTOMER:

Malwa Forest

PRODUCT:

Malwa 980 Harvester

LOCATION:

Skene, Sweden

SCOPE OF ENGINE USE:

Cat^® C4.4 IPU EU Stage V,
Diesel Industrial Engine

CAT DEALER:

 Zeppelin, Sweden

A Unique Take On Harvesting Equipment

An entrepreneur like his father, Magnus Wallin started Malwa Forest in 2009. The company designs and builds compact harvester machines for gentle forest management. While there are forestry equipment businesses that might be larger than Malwa, Wallin’s company prioritises conservation and thinning forests without causing long-term damage. Most markets Malwa serves are in Europe, but they also have machines in Canada and Panama.

“Our customers run forestry machines between 3,500 and 4,000 hours per year, in double shifts, six days a week. That’s one of the reasons why we are working with Caterpillar.” — Magnus Wallin, Owner of Malwa Forest

Thinning a forest has numerous benefits

Thinning a forest improves spacing between trees so they have the proper amount of soil to thrive. Trees that are less crowded grow faster and stronger, with a greater resistance to insects and disease. Thinning forests also helps stop the spread of wildfires. In commercial forests, thinning is necessary to produce high-quality lumber.

Introducing the Malwa 980 Harvester

The Malwa 980 is a unique, eight-wheeled harvester, featuring a hydro-mechanical transmission and a 5.8-metre turning radius. The Malwa 980 is engineered with sustainability in mind. “We have high efficiency in our hydraulic systems with low emissions. Our goal is a low environmental impact with all our machines,” says Magnus Wallin.

Conservation is as important as production

The forestry industry is driven by cutting the costs of cutting trees, but Malwa values the quality and efficiency of its machines. “The cheapest price is not always the best. We want forest owners to maintain their properties for 50–60 years, and we engineer our machines to provide quality work,” says Wallin.

Forest conservation is also important to Malwa. Wallin says, “Forestry is under the radar—how we take care of our forests and what products we use. From the beginning, we wanted to take care of our environment and make positive change with forests.”

Wallin provides proof of the sustainability of his machines: “One of our customers did a diesel comparison of one of our harvesters with a competing harvester. The diesel consumption in our harvester was about 32% less per cubic metre. That’s a lot of CO₂. We’re proud of that.”

Healthy trees make for a bright future

Malwa continues to create new ways to help operators reach sustainability goals while performing important forestry projects. They've begun to develop electric harvester machines that operate on rechargeable batteries for use in urban forestry applications. As this market for urban forestry machines grows, Malwa will continue to explore more sustainable power sources for its forestry equipment.

• The Cat^® C4.4 Industrial Diesel Engine is rated from 102—140 kW (116—205 bhp) @ 2200 rpm.
• Malwa Forest uses the Cat C4.4 IPU EU Stage V engine to reduce emissions and reduce noise output for sustainable forestry.