Barking drum and method

A barking drum particularly adapted for the removal of limbs and bark from wood, such as trimmings or trees removed in thinning, said barking drum comprising a generally horizontally oriented rotatable drum which is open at opposite ends, said drum including a series of bark discharge slots at spaced locations about the circumference of the drum and at a plurality of locations along the length thereof, and said drum including a cylindrical pretreatment section adapted for receiving a bundle of the wood, a first plurality of longitudinally extending log lifters carried by the interior of said pretreatment section and adapted for engaging the bundle of wood received in the pretreatment section and imparting a tumbling motion to the wood material so as to separate the bundle while rapidly removing and breaking up limbs and twigs, a conically tapering transition section arranged for receiving the wood from said pretreatment section, a plurality of longitudinally extending log lifters of lesser number than in said pretreatment section carried by the interior of said transition section and adapted for engaging the wood received in the transition section during rotation of the drum and for changing the motion of the wood from a tumbling motion to a parallel motion for effecting parallel barking whereby a more gentle treatment of the wood is achieved producing less wood losses, a cylindrical final treatment section of smaller diameter than said pretreatment section and arranged for receiving the wood from said transition section, and a plurality of longitudinally extending log lifters greater in number than in said transition section carried by the interior of said final treatment section and adapted for engaging the wood received in the final treatment section during rotation of the drum to effect parallel barking of the wood.

A method for removing limbs and bark from wood, such as trimmings or trees removed in thinning, in a rotary barking drum, said method comprising

• feeding a bundle of the wood into a pretreatment section of the barking drum having a plurality of log lifters while rotating the pretreatment section and engaging the wood therein with the log lifters so as to impart tumbling of the wood in the pretreatment section to separate the bundle into individual logs while rapidly removing and breaking up limbs and twigs,
• advancing the wood from the pretreatment section to a transition section having a plurality of log lifters while rotating the transition section and engaging the wood therein with the log lifters so as to change the motion of the wood from a tumbling motion to a parallel motion for effecting parallel barking whereby a more gentle treatment of the wood is achieved producing less wood losses,
• advancing the wood from the transition section to a final treatment section having a plurality of log lifters while rotating the final treatment section and engaging the wood therein with the log lifters so as to continue to effect parallel barking of the wood, and
• discharging the thus delimbed and debarked wood from the final treatment section.