Throwing Power
What if you could enjoy the chip cutting benefits of a drum chipper while also having the the chip throwing capability of a disc chipper? It is seldom argued in the tree care industry that a traditional disc-style chipper can throw chips faster and farther than any traditional drum-style chipper. Yet a traditional drum chipper has its advantages processing bulky material but at the expense of lesser chip throwing velocity. With the introduction of the revolutionary VORTEX® chipping system, you can now have the best of both worlds.
Know Your Role
Cutting and throwing are two separate functions, each requiring a separate set of physics in order to be performed at peak efficiency. In a traditional drum-style chipper, the drum itself is solely responsible for combining both of these processes. However, there is a notable difference in the desired rotational speed of the drum to utilize the most torque for the drum to cut versus the minimum rotational speed required for the drum to throw. For throwing, there are "pockets" built into the surface of traditional drums to carry chips to the discharge port. These pockets demand higher RPM, sacrificing torque needed for cutting, to achieve the speed needed to propel the chips out of the drum chamber with sufficient velocity to exit the discharge without plugging. Plus, pockets allow chips to ricochet within during their move to the discharge, robbing them of the velocity and proper direction needed to discharge most effectively.
Throw chips faster and farther
A Drum To Cut, A Disc To Throw
When it comes to chipping and throwing functions with a VORTEX® chipper, there is a separation of these concerns. A "no-pocket" drum is mounted to a disc-shaped impeller, or rotor, that is nearly twice the diameter of the drum. Together, this assembly rotates within the patented VORTEX® chamber, a semi-cone shaped housing that acts as a bellypan where chips are guided and accelerated into the discharge paddles of the impeller naturally by gravity and forces it creates. This design allows the drum to maintain maximum cutting force and optimum RPM for cutting while the impeller (the disc) gains amplified rim speed, transferred from the shaft to its larger diameter for throwing.
The VORTEX® "no-pocket" drum and impeller (disc) assembly
Get Wind Of This
Within the patented VORTEX® chamber, chips naturally flow unencumbered from one side to the other without added mechanical means once the chips fall from the knife and pass the anvil. Gravity and centrifugal forces pull chips away from the drum and toward the fan paddles on the discharge disc, where they are swiped and accelerated in an unrestricted manner toward the exit of the machine. The discharge paddles follow a greater arc and therefore a faster outer tip speed than that of the drum. This not only creates a dramatic increase in velocity for launching the chips, but it also virtually eliminates plugging. There is no place for the chips to accumulate because the disc is always spinning faster and throwing faster than the drum is chipping. By removing the burden of throwing chips from the drum and using a separate device for the sole purpose of throwing, the flow of chips also does not have to endure collisions within angled transitions and discharge chutes on traditional drum-style chippers. This also allows the operator to select any of the 360 degrees for positioning the discharge to throw chips in any direction without impact on performance. The result is a tremendous throwing ability that outpaces and outdistances any other machine in its class.
No angled transition or chute to create collisions along the discharge pathway
