New products - Whole-tree chipper from Vermeer

Vermeer has entered the whole-tree chipper market with an eye on the biomass market.

The WC2300 drum chipper has been designed to produce chips for the growing biomass market. There are two drum knife options, a double-edged or babbitted single-edge cutter knife. In addition, there are two different knife-mounting depths of cuts, which results in different chip sizes. One machine can therefore produce different end products.

One of the main features is an innovative infeed system that includes variable speed, dual-infeed conveyor chains. It also has a conveyor head pulley with integral grip bars and an aggressive large-diameter infeed roller with crush capabilities. All this enables large and difficult material to be easily pulled into the chipper, with reduced multiple handling of the material by the operator. The infeed conveyor chains are individually tensioned to accommodate uneven chain wear. This allows single chains to be replaced at a time.

To reduce downtime, the chipper features wear components that are easy to replace. For example, the drum, discharge chute, cutter housing and infeed conveyor floor are designed with bolt-in replaceable wear parts.

The WC2300 drum chipper is compact and manoeuvrable. The tongue has a grapple grip collar area, allowing a skidder to pick up the tongue and move the chipper to a new location. The chipper can be remotely controlled (for example from the cab of the loading machine). The down pressure of the infeed rollers can also be remotely controlled. Four different pressure settings allow for optimal matching of pressures with the material being fed.

A feed-sensing control system (SmartFeed) monitors engine revolutions per minute (rpm’s). If the engine rpm’s drop below a certain level while feeding large material, the feed rollers stop and automatically reverse for a short while. Feed roller jams are also detected and overcome by automatically moving material backwards and forwards.

Direct chipping into a trailer is possible with a double-pivot chute which allows for vertical (22 degrees up and 14 degrees down) and horizontal (14 degrees left and right) hydraulic adjustment. Further key specs are included in the table below.