Multi-Purpose Shredding Plants and Shreddermills are designed specifically to produce various sized product from tree and garden waste.
The feeding system allows large loads of tree cuttings to be loaded into the infeed hopper. The combination of Infeed Conveyor infeed and overhead Feed Roller moves the vegetation to the shredder to ensure efficient shredding.
The following information discusses some major considerations in regard to shredding green waste with slow speed shredders.
As a general rule when composting, the smaller the particle size the faster it will break down. The bigger the surface area of that small particle, the faster is will break down.
So, combine these two statements.
Shredded product is torn apart and therefore has a larger surface than chipped product which is clean cut. If shredded product is the same physical size as chipped product, then because of its greater surface area, it must break down and compost quicker. Also shredded product allows more air circulation in the windrow and so breaks down quicker.
In addition to this, shredded product tends to lock together and hold, whereas chipped product will not lock together and will more readily wash away during heavy rain when used as landscape cover.
Shreddermill plants are capable of producing a range of different products and include:
Other products that can be processed through the Refiner include paper and cardboard. Tyres can be shredded by by-passing the Refiner.
Ideally, the raw infeed material should be clean of all contaminants and be ideally sized to suit the machine size. Practically, the infeed material will include a variety of contaminants including mud, concrete, steel, wire, plastics, etc and the actual arboreal waste will contain large logs, tree stumps, the odd sleepers, etc.
A shredding plant will not self destruct on any of these. By removing most of these first, valuable production time and life of cutters is increased.
If foreign material presents itself to the shredder and is gripped by the cutters but can not process it, the machine will sense this as an overload and stop, go into reverse, then start forward again. Sometimes it will shred this on the second or third attempt, but of course, there will be times when it will not shred it. Physical removal is then necessary, but damage is unlikely. The maximum number of reversals allowable can be preset and an alarm system (optional) can be included to advise the operator of the problem. If unshreddable product is in the machine, the rear door of the feeder can be opened and the feeder reversed to eject the unshreddable material.
With this system of control (available only on slow speed shredders) the shredder will not self destruct as do chippers and some hammermills. Even the best of hammermills sustain some damage due to foreign material passing through them, and usually lengthy delays are caused to effect repairs prior to proceeding.
The infeed material dictates the end product. If the feed stock is clean tree waste, the end product will be immediately useable for ground cover or mulch, depending upon what size the end product is. If however garden waste is included, then the end product is not sterile (due to weeds, etc, unless properly composted) and it is then more suited for land fill night-cover.
Most machines are fed by using a front end loader having either a specially designed grab arrangement or a four in one bucket. The latter is by far the most common. Mobile machines are offered with optional grab cranes to load material.
Maximum production is achieved by loading the infeed conveyor and apron feeder to the height of the infeed side of the loading hopper. This assists the operator identify unshreddable items which may slow down production.
Chippers and hammermills operate at very high noise levels and this can be objectionable to operators and nearby residents.
Shredding machines function at about 85 dBa at a distance of 3m. You can carry on a normal conversation alongside a shredder without raising your voice. The shreddermill is a little noisier when the mill is in operation.
Because of the high speeds incorporated in the design of chippers and hammermills, dust production can also be a problem.
This applies specifically if the machine is fed by a front end loader. The loader picks up from the ground and inevitably collects a lot of dirt as well, then feeds it to the machine. Shredders, because of their slow speed, do not create as much dust.
So with a Multi Purpose Shredding Plant or Shreddermill, manufactured by Brentwood, you can have a machine which is:
These machines are simple, practical and user friendly. They operate automatically and can be easily operated by just one person on a front end loader.