After substantial design analysis and in-field testing, Morbark introduced its new Advantage 3 high-performance chipping drum at ConExpo. The new drum is designed to significantly improve chip- quality in large-volume wood-chipping equipment and reduces recurring wear-part and maintenance costs by approximately 70 percent, to just a fraction of the cost of conventional chipping drums, the company said.
Most of the significant changes were made to the pocket, knife, and knife-holding assembly where the chips are formed and cut and the maintenance and wear costs are incurred. The new design includes increased clamping force and more durable knives with increased number of possible sharpening occurrences — with extended time and production in between each sharpening. To increase momentum and drum performance, changes were also made to the drum shaft to reduce stress and increase durability.
“Chip quality has increasingly become more important in biomass fuel chips,” said John Foote, Morbark’s vice president of sales and marketing. “We have responded with a high-performance drum designed for high-quality fuel chip that can still fill a chip van in a matter of minutes.”
The Advantage 3 drum is available on all new Morbark drum chippers and can be ordered as a retrofit to any existing Morbark drum chipper.
Morbark Inc., Winn, Mich., manufactures equipment for the forestry, recycling, tree care, sawmill and biomass markets. The company produces a full line of whole tree and waste wood chippers, flails, brush chippers, horizontal and tub grinders, sawmill equipment and material handling systems.
