Vermeer first introduced its Fuel Chip Attachment (FCA) in 2009 to help customers produce fuel chips for the growing biomass market. The company recently enhanced the attachment, which is designed for use with Vermeer HG6000 or HG6000TX horizontal grinders equipped with the Series II Duplex Drum.
The fuel chip attachment changes the action of the cutting drum from ripping and shredding to a chipping action — offering the ability to produce a more uniform sized end product. It also offers versatility, allowing the use of one machine to process wood waste into mulch one day and biomass the next — simply by changing out the cutting mechanism in a few hours.
Installation of the fuel chip attachment can be completed in about four hours by removing the bolt on cutter blocks — used for normal grinding — from the drum hammers. Then a series of 10 ring assemblies are mounted to the outside of the Series II Duplex Drum and secured to the existing drum hammers. The rings help provide depth control during the chipping process.
Attached to each ring are two 5/8-inch (1.6cm) 5-by-3.5-inch (12.7 x 8.9 cm) or 3/4-inch (1.9 cm) 5.4-by-3.5-inch (13.7 cm x 8.9 cm), double-edged knives that can be flipped and sharpened for extended life.