The 4300B drum chipper is the latest in a long line of high quality chipping and grinding machines produced by Peterson. The 4300B drum chipper is suited for high volume biomass producers who have a wide variety of feed material, from logs up to 26 inches (61 cm) in diameter, to brush and small feed stock.
Peterson Corporation has multiple solutions for biomass applications – from horizontal grinders, to disc and drum chippers – providing a processing solution for almost all conceivable feed stocks.
Drum chippers “If the application is just for making biomass fuel chips, few machines will beat the productivity of a Peterson 4300-series drum chipper,” the company stated.
Processing tops, unmerchantable wood, and residues left over from a logging site is the drum chipper’s specialty and, depending on the way they are setup, can produce a chip from 3-31 mm (1/8-1¼ in). Peterson drum chippers use a heavy-duty knife that produces a clean, cut edge to the material and a more consistent product size compared to ground material. The 4300-series drum chippers offer secondary screens to process twigs or branches that may get missed. These ‘spears’ can cause material blockages in a biomass plant’s augers. Product consistency is
Powered by a C18 Caterpillar engine, the 4300B is powered by 765 horsepower (570 kW). At 52,000 pounds (23,586 kg) and 8 feet 4-3/4 inches (255 cm) in width, the 4300B is a high production chipper whose dimensions do not require any oversize permits for road transportation.
extremely important to biomass chip buyers, so it is very important for the biomass chips not to have too many fines or spears in the product. Like a disc chipper, Peterson drum chippers have adjustable knives that allow for a wide variety of chip sizes, depending on what end product the company is looking for. Peterson drum chippers can be equipped with a top load or end load spout depending on how the truck fleet is configured. Chip accelerators are used to increase load density in the chip van. Peterson’s 4300-series drum chippers are equipped with a
six-pocket drum in standard form, but for applications looking to make a 3-6 mm chip, Peterson offers a 12-pocket drum to make ‘microchips’. “As more pellet producing plants come online, procurement buyers are seeing the advantage of a machine that can make 0.25 in chips which can go directly to the dryer,” Peterson said. “Many pellet plants today start with longer more conventional 1 in chips that need to go through a costly hammermill reduction stage before the dryer.” Production from Peterson drum chippers will vary with wood species, chip length, and tree size.
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015 | International Renewable Energy 63