Wood chipping apparatus, and methods of making and using same

A wood chipping apparatus comprising:

• a housing with an infeed mechanism for receiving material to be chipped and a peripheral wall with a discharge chute for expelling chips therefrom;
• said infeed mechanism including two powered horizontal rollers and two powered vertical rollers whereby said rollers have adjustable speeds to accommodate different chip sizes;
• a chipper disk element rotatably mounted on a drive shaft within said housing about an axis of rotation and having a peripheral edge spaced closely adjacent said peripheral wall;
• said chipping element including front and rear surfaces;
• said rear surface being located substantially in a plane;
• at least one knife for cutting said material to form wood chips;
• a plurality of fan blades for inducing an air flow which assists in moving the chips to the peripheral edge of said chipper disk element and peripheral wall out through said discharge chute for expelling chips therefrom;
• said perimeter of said chipper disk element being spaced from the perimeter of said housing providing a space therebetween through which chips can pass around said edge from said back side to said front side, as they are moved to the perimeter of said chipper disk element and housing by centrifugal force and said fan blades;
• at least one knife aperture for mounting said knife and through which chips pass from said front to said rear of said chipper disk element;
• said chipper disk element further including chip deflecting means mounted to said rear surface and arranged at an acute angle from said plane of said rear surface for deflecting wood chips in a direction along said axis of rotation of said disk away from the rear surface of said chipper disk element and away from the space between said edge and said peripheral wall to minimize the number of said chips passing over said edge to said front surface of said chipper element;
• said chipper disk element including a chipper base and chip pockets;
• said chipper base being provided with three replaceable wear plates forming a semi-circle;
• said chip pockets being provided with three replaceable wear plates;
• an engine connected to a gearbox by a first belt;
• hydraulic cylinders for adjusting said first belt;
• a second belt for connected between said gearbox and said chipping disk element;
• an hydraulic belt tensioner for tensioning said second belt;
• a power on demand hydraulic system;
• and
• said discharge chute includes an upper chute portion which can rotate relative to a lower chute portion by way of a gear-to-gear mechanism.