The head mechanic at Major’s, Duane resulting fibre from the grinder is then moved to the trailer loading area by a John Deere 544 front-end loader, which also loads the trailers. Dean says that the biggest challenge they face is volume. “We produce in excess of what the mill needs,” he explains. “That can be a good thing though, as it provides us with a ‘surge pile’ so that we can optimize the prod- uct. The Corner Brook mill wants a variety of products, not just 100% of the same thing. They want a mix that will keep the boiler fed and give them the level of heat they require. So for us, it is key to manage our production in a way that gives us enough of the right mix in the surge pile to provide them with exactly what they need – not too dry or too wet, and the right size. They have been really pleased with the smaller sized product that we have been able to produce because it flows better and that means improved material handling for the mill.” Grinding Slash Into Cash. 2009 Industrial Tub Grinder McCarthy, along with Desmond Major, have spent many hours tweaking the Morbark grinder to handle its diet of predominantly roundwood. “The machine was originally de- signed to process bark and debris wood, so we had to make some modifications, mainly with the inserts on the drum, which we call teeth,” says McCarthy. “The teeth just weren’t aggressive enough, so we tried a few different types before finally going to feller buncher teeth. We originally tried some from one of our own bunchers that was here in the yard. We started out with just bolting the teeth on, but they turned too much, so we went to welding them to a block.” That worked fine in the winter with green wood and when everything was frozen, but Desmond says that when things heated up in the summer, the steel melted on the buncher teeth. At that point, they saw a magazine ad for Quadco inserts that were made for a horizontal grinder. “We thought we would try them,” adds Desmond. “They were too tall and were hitting the anvil, but we were able to work with Quadco on a customized version that is shorter. They were working well until we tightened up the tolerances on the Morbark during routine maintenance. At that point, they started hitting the anvil again, so we asked Quadco to take another quarter inch off the length.” Eventually, Major’s went with a combina- tion of 10 customized inserts from Quadco and eight of the original Morbark inserts. It’s a combination that McCarthy says provides the best combination of product quality and cost effectiveness. “This combination works for about 90% of the wood we process, but we will have to change things up for some species or sizes,” he says. “For example, we tried to run some small diameter spruce, and it was getting jammed up and wouldn’t feed right, so it wasn’t very efficient. For this, and wood that is more brittle, we have to go with all Quadco teeth.” 888-402-4638 www.duratech.info/canada2009 30 CanadianBIOMASS FINDING THE METAL Another project that Major’s Logging is work- ing on is a wood waste diversion project be- tween CBPP and the City of Corner Brook. The city wanted to divert wood material from the municipal landfill, and CBPP agreed to complete a trial to process the wood waste into hog fuel for the mill. This required an- other modification on the Morbark, which included adding a magnetic roller and two pans beneath the machine’s output belt. The magnetic roller catches any steel before MARCH/APRIL 2010
Canadian Biomass March/April 2010: Page 30
