Low noise level chipper

Claim 1

In a low noise level, high speed, wood and brush chipper: a housing having an inlet and an outlet; a cutting rotor rotatable within said housing between said inlet and outlet thereof across the normal path of travel of material moving through the housing, said housing being substantially imperforate between said inlet and outlet and being provided with means limiting incoming air to flow to said rotor without appreciable bypass of the latter about the periphery thereof to the outlet; and a cutter bar mounted in the housing directly below the axis of rotation of said rotor for cooperating with the latter to disintegrate wood materials presented thereto into chips, said rotor including a shaft, a series of massive, solid blocks spaced along said shaft for rotation therewith, a plurality of elongated knives supported on said blocks with their chopping edges in parallel relationship to said shaft and the cutter bar, and fastener means securing the blades on the blocks, said blocks each having a pair of opposed, radial sides and a continuous, broad, flat, peripheral face extending between said sides, said blades lying against said faces of the blocks and said fastener means extending into said faces to retain the blades in place, said blocks defining transverse air escape passages therebetween for continuously releasing air to said outlet during rotation of the rotor.