Advanced system recovery for feed system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9533310-B2
Application number	US-201414171525-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 3, 2014
Priority date	Feb 3, 2014
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

A feed system for a woodchipper including a material-interface member for feeding material into a chipping mechanism of the woodchipper, an actuator for moving a material-interface member into interfacing and non-interfacing positions with the material, a sensor for detecting an operational parameter of the woodchipper, and a controller to direct the actuator. The controller operates by receiving the operational parameter of the woodchipper, establishing a normative operating value, and determining if the woodchipper is a first status or a second status based on a comparison between the operational parameter and the normative operating value. If the woodchipper is a first status, the controller instructs the actuator to move the material-interface member into the interfacing position. If the woodchipper is a second status, moving the material-interface member into a non-interfacing position.

First claim

Having thus described various embodiments of the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent includes the following:

1. A woodchipper comprising:
a feed inlet for receipt of a material to be chipped therethrough;
a material outlet through which the material exits after being chipped;
a chipping mechanism disposed between the feed inlet and the material outlet for chipping the material; and
a feed system including—
a material-interface member for feeding the material towards the chipping mechanism during operation of the woodchipper,
wherein the material-interface member is configured to be moved into an interfacing position with the material, and to a non-interfacing position with the material,
wherein the interfacing position is defined by the material-interface member being a first location relative to the chipping mechanism such that the material-interface member can feed the material to the chipping mechanism;
wherein the non-interfacing position is defined by the material-interface member being at a second location relative to the chipping mechanism such that the material-interface member cannot feed the material to the chipping mechanism;
an actuator for moving said material-interface member between said interfacing and non-interfacing positions;
a sensor for detecting information indicative of an operational parameter of the woodchipper; and
a controller for controlling operation of the actuator based on said information indicative of an operational parameter detected by the sensor.

2. The woodchipper of claim 1 , said controller including a non-transitory computer readable medium having a computer program thereon operable to instruct the controller to implement the following control logic steps:
establishing a normative operating value for the operational parameter;
receiving the information indicative of the operational parameter detected by the sensor;
determining if the operational parameter detected by the sensor is a first status or a second status, wherein the first status and the second status are determined by a comparison between the normative operating value and the operational parameter;
if the operational parameter is the first status, instructing the actuator to move said material-interface member to said interfacing position; and
if the operational parameter is the second status, instructing the actuator to move said material-interface member to said non-interfacing position.

3. The woodchipper of claim 2 , wherein the first status is that the operational parameter is above the normative operating value and the second status is that the operational parameter is at or below the normative operating value.

4. The woodchipper of claim 2 , wherein the second status is that the operational parameter is outside of a range defined by the normative operating value.

5. The woodchipper of claim 2 , wherein said step of instructing the actuator to move said material-interface member to said non-interfacing position comprises an instruction to cease movement of the material-interface member.

6. The woodchipper of claim 2 , wherein said step of instructing the actuator to move said material-interface member to said non-interfacing position comprises an instruction to move the material-interface member upwards and away from the material.

7. The woodchipper of claim 2 , wherein the first status and the second status are determined by a comparison between the normative operating value and the operational parameter and are performed at a time T 1 ,
said controller being operable to implement the following additional control logic steps at a time T 2 that is after time T 1 :
repeating said step of determining if the operational parameter detected by the sensor is a first status or a second status, wherein the first status and the second status are determined by a comparison between the normative operating value and the operational parameter;
if the operational parameter is the first status, instructing the actuator to move said material-interface member to said interfacing position; and
if the operational parameter is second status, instructing the actuator to move said material-interface member to said non-interfacing position.

8. The woodchipper of claim 2 , wherein the operational parameter is a speed of the chipping mechanism, and the normative operating value is a minimum speed of the chipping mechanism.

9. The woodchipper of claim 2 , wherein the operational parameter is selected from the group consisting of: a speed of the chipping mechanism, an acceleration of the chipping mechanism, a force exerted by the actuator, a force exerted by the chipping mechanism, a load on an engine that rotates the chipping mechanism, and the amplitude of any vibrations of the woodchipper.

10. The woodchipper of claim 1 ,
wherein the actuator comprises a hydraulically actuated cylinder,
wherein the material-interface member is a feed wheel configured to rotate so as to feed the material toward the chipping mechanism while the material-interface member is in the interfacing position.

11. The woodchipper of claim 1 , wherein the controller comprises a microprocessor having an associated non-transitory computer-readable storage medium a computer program stored thereon.

12. A woodchipper comprising:
a feed inlet for receipt of material to be chipped therethrough;
a material outlet through which chipped material exits;
a chipping mechanism disposed between the feed inlet and the material outlet and for chipping the material; and
a feed system including—
a feed wheel for interfacing with the material to feed the material towards the drum during operation of the woodchipper,
wherein the feed wheel is configured to be moved into an interfacing position with the material, and to a non-interfacing position with the material,
wherein the interfacing position is defined by the feed wheel being a first location relative to the chipping mechanism such that the material-interface member can feed the material to the drum;
wherein the non-interfacing position is defined by the material-interface member being at a second location relative to the chipping mechanism such that the material-interface member cannot feed the material to the drum;
a hydraulic cylinder for moving said feed wheel between said interfacing and non-interfacing positions;
a sensor associated with the woodchipper to detect a rotational parameter of the drum; and
a controller for controlling operation of the hydraulic cylinder based on the rotational parameter detected by the sensor,
said controller including a non-transitory computer readable medium having a computer program thereon operable to instruct the controller to implement the following control logic steps:
establishing a normative operating value for the rotational parameter;
receiving the rotational parameter detected by the sensor;
determining if the rotational parameter detected by the sensor is a first status or a second status, wherein the first status and the second status are determined by a comparison between the normative operating value and the rotational parameter;
if the rotational parameter is the first status, instructing the hydraulic cylinder to move the feed wheel to said interfacing position; and
if the rotational parameter is the second status, instructing the hydraulic cylinder to move the feed wheel to said non-interfacing position.

13. The feed system of claim 12 , wherein said step of instructing the actuator to move the feed wheel to said non-interfacing position is an instruction to cease downward movement of the feed wheel toward the materia

Assignees

• Altec Ind Inc

Inventors

• Dumpor Zlatko
• Patrangenaru Vlad P

Classifications

• B02C18/2283

  using rollers (B02C18/225 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B02C25/00 Primary

  Control arrangements specially adapted for crushing or disintegrating · CPC title

• B02C18/2225

  Feed means · CPC title