Research of chipper knives with a modified cutting edge for the production of dimensionally uniform wood chips

Abstract

The paper is focused on the research of chipper knives with a straight and modified cutting edge in order to determine the energy consumption of the chipping process and the uniformity of the size of the fractions of the designed chipper knife for the production of dimensionally uniform chips. The research took place on two different tree species where the representative of the coniferous tree was the common spruce (Picea abies) and the deciduous tree was the winter oak (Quercus petraea). The research took place on a PTO-powered (power take off) disc chipping machine where it was not modified for research purposes. The results showed that a knife with a modified cutting edge is higher in terms of energy consumption than chipper knives with a straight cutting edge. From the evaluation of the sieve analysis for a chipper knife with a modified cutting edge, the energy chip of uniform granulometric composition is a homogeneous bulk material.