Towable Disc Wood Chipper for Branches and Brush

Overview

How it works

Branches are fed by hand into a hopper. Powered feed wheels draw the wood into a rotating steel disc that carries knives, and the knives cut it into chips that leave through a discharge chute. A disc design makes chips of fairly even size, which is useful when the chips are used as mulch, bedding or fuel.

What it can handle

The chipper is rated by its largest feed opening, about 7 inches of branch diameter. In practice, the real capacity depends on the species, how much the branch forks, how wet the wood is, and how sharp the knives are. Dry hardwood with many side branches is harder to feed than a straight green stem of the same size. What you cut most often decides the engine size.

Where it is used

Tree surgery crews, landscape contractors, municipal green-waste teams and forestry maintenance. Because the machine tows behind a truck or tractor, it can go from site to site.

What can be specified

• Engine type and power
• Trailer axle and brake arrangement for your road rules
• Discharge chute type and direction
• Feed safety devices and emergency stop
• Spare knife sets

Safety

A hand-fed chipper is a hazardous machine. The operator must wear the proper protective gear, keep clear of the feed area and follow the safety instructions delivered with the machine. Guards and stop controls are specified according to the rules of your market. Pictures on this page come from different scenes and do not show a single serial-number machine.

Delivery and spares

The chipper is shipped on its trailer or on a frame, depending on the container plan. We recommend ordering extra knives, bolts and feed-wheel parts with the machine to avoid waiting for spares.

Compared with sawmill equipment

A disc chipper turns branches, prunings and brush into chips, so it works at the opposite end of the timber chain from a sawmill. Sawmills make boards from logs. The chipper handles what the sawmill, the farm and the city park cannot sell: limbs, tops and slabs. The chips are used for mulch, animal bedding, composting or boiler fuel.

Because the machine is hand-fed, it is best with branches and brush, not with whole logs or large knotty trunks. The disc type also gives uniform chips, which dry faster and burn more evenly than the shreds from a hammer shredder. If you plan to chip bigger wood, or run it all day, ask about a drum chipper or a hydraulic feed model. Most buyers are tree services, farms, landscapers and small biomass users who tow the machine from site to site.