Australian Forests & Timber News, September 2012 – 31
biofuels & chipping
Whangarei company increases chip volume with new drum debarker M
ARUSUMI’S CHIP mill at Whangarei in Northland. New Zealand, has replaced an existing drum debarker with a new drum system which was designed and manufactured by the Southern Cross Engineering (SCE) Group at its Christchurch workshop. The existing drum was 9 feet in diameter by 60 feet in length and comprised two sections. These two sections were constructed from 25mm plate with angle iron lifters and straight bark slots. Angle iron lifters are very hard on the debarking process, are very noisy and create large amounts of shock loading throughout the process. Maintenance is also a major issue with angle iron lifters so it was decided to replace this older-style drum system with new technology. The new drum system consists of a 9 foot by 60 foot drum shell, which was constructed in one section using 32mm plate and with hardened bark lifters 900mm long; between these lifters there were angled bark slots. The new drum was designed to run on the existing rubber tyre system and has subsequently provided a 2-3% reduction in white wood loss and an annual chip volume increase of 12,000 tonnes per year. The hardened bar lifters resulted in
a much smoother debarking action and allowed the logs to be lifted, so that bark removal was done between log-to-log contact and not by hammering the logs against the steel components. Barking efficiency was also increased and the bark carry-over in the chip was well under the 1% that was required. This new drum shell was also easier to keep in alignment
on the rubber tyres and was much quieter in operation. “The debarker has met our expectations for bark removal and reliability,” said Rijan Veldsman, Marusumi Site Manager. “The whitewood content is at an acceptable level and, because the new drum is significantly heavier, it is much more stable on the drive system.”
The SCE installation team removed the old debarking drums, re-aligned the rubber tyres and installed the new drum debarker in the one week shutdown time that was allotted for its installation. The SCE Group is now looking to offer this new drum debarker for use in other chip mill processing systems when existing drum shells become due for replacement.
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