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US 4,057,192 AGranted
Tree harvesting machine
AssigneeMorbark Industries, Inc.
InventorLeward N. Smith
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Machinery for reducing forest products to wood chips wherein a bed conveyor, a powered roll mounted for vertical movement above the bed conveyor, and powered, generally vertical side roll means downstream of the generally horizontal roll, feed a tree or log to a chipper disc. The chipper disc has at least one opening, and a knife positioned at the opening to cut products conveyed to the disc into chips and propel them through the opening with rotation of the disc assembly. The machine includes improvements which are more specifically set forth in the following material.
Claims8
In a machinery for reducing forest products to wood chips:
- a chipper disc assembly having a front face and a rear face and at least one opening therein leading from the rear face to the front face;
- means for rotating said disc assembly in the direction of rotation at a chip cutting speed;
- a feed mechanism for moving the said products to the rear face of said disc assembly comprising:
- a longitudinally disposed live feed bed to which said disc assembly is angularly disposed;
- a top roll crosswisely disposed to the live feed bed and vertically movable to crush limbs down to the trunk of a tree being fed toward the rear face of the chipper disc assembly;
- generally vertically disposed side guides having tree engaging surfaces thereon disposed downstream of said roll;
- at least one of said side guides comprising roll with vane means thereon for revolving a forked tree partly about its axis;
- and means for revolving said rolls and live bed at coordinated tree feeding speeds in directions of rotation to move a tree toward the chipper disc assembly;
- a disc assembly housing including a rear wall with an opening to admit said products, a front wall, and a perimetral wall with an opening to egress chips;
- and
- disc knife blade means for said opening positioned to cut said products with rotation of said disc assembly into chips and propel them through said opening forwardly.
8 more elements
In a machinery for reducing forest products to wood chips:
- a chipper disc assembly having a front face and a rear face and at least one opening therein leading from the rear face to the front face;
- means for rotating said disc assembly in a direction of rotation at a chip cutting speed;
- a feed mechanism for moving the said products to the front face of said disc assembly comprising:
- a longitudinally disposed live feed bed to which said disc assembly is angularly disposed;
- a top roll crosswisely disposed to the live feed bed and vertically movable to crush limbs down to the trunk of a tree being fed toward the rear face of the chipper disc assembly;
- generally vertically disposed side guides having tree engaging surfaces thereon disposed downstream of said roll;
- and means for revolving said rolls and live bed at coordinated tree feeding speeds in directions of rotation to move a tree toward the chipper disc assembly;
- laterally spaced teeth means stationarily positioned upstream of said top roll a spaced distance above said live feed bed against which a tree butt may be engaged to aid in positioning the tree centrally on the live bed;
- a disc assembly housing including a rear wall with an opening to admit said products, a front wall, and a perimentral wall with an opening to egress chips;
- and
- disc knife blade means for said opening positioned to cut said products with rotation of said disc assembly into chips and propel them through said opening in the disc assembly.
8 more elements
In machinery for reducing forest products to wood chips;
- a chipper disc assembly comprising:
- a generally triangular heavy flywheel disc part with spaced apices, having reduced thickness circular segment plates attached thereto as wear plates, said assembly having a front face and a rear face and at least one opening therein leading from the rear face to the front face of the flywheel disc part;
- means for rotating said disc assembly in a direction of rotation at a chip cutting speed;
- a feed mechanism for moving the said products to the disc assembly;
- a disc assembly housing including a rear wall with an opening to admit said products, a front wall, and a perimetral wall with an opening to egress chips;
- and
- disc knife blade means for said opening positioned on the flywheel disc part to cut said products with rotation of said disc assembly into chips and propel them forwardly through said opening.
4 more elements
In machinery for reducing forest products to wood chips;
- a chipper disc assembly comprising a generally polygonal heavy flywhel disc part with spaced corners having reduced thickness circular segment plates attached thereto to bridge the corners thereof, said assembly having a front face and a rear face, and at least one opening therein leading from the rear face to the front face of the flywheel disc part;
- means for rotating said disc assembly in a direction of rotation at a chip cutting speed;
- a feed mechanism for moving the said products to the rear face of said disc assembly;
- a disc assembly housing including a rear wall with an opening to admit said products, a front wall, and a perimetral wall with an opening to egress chips;
- disc knife blade means fixedly mounted within said opening in the heavy disc part and projecting from the rear face of said disc assembly to cut said products into chips and propel them forwardly through said opening with rotation of said disc assembly, said feed mechanism comprising a longitudinally disposed live bed to which said disc assembly is angularly disposed;
- a top roll is crosswisely disposed to the live feed bed and vertically movable to crush limbs down to the trunk of a tree being fed toward the front face of the chipper disc assembly;
- generally vertically disposed side rolls having tree engaging surfaces thereon are disposed downstream of the said roll and laterally inbored of the ends thereof, and one of said rolls has helical vane means thereon for revolving a forked tree partly about its axis to permit it to move easily into the chipper housing opening;
- and means is provided for revolving the rolls and live bed at coordinated tree feeding speeds in directions of rotation to move a tree toward the chipper disc housing.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.