Ensure peak performance and longevity from your wood chipper

Wood chippers like the JENZ HEM 922 DQ are indispensable for forestry, landscaping, and large-scale agricultural operations. Maintaining a wood chipper is not just about keeping it running – it’s about optimizing performance, reducing fuel consumption, extending the machine’s lifespan, and ensuring operator safety.Mike Symons, forestry lead at CRJ Services, emphasises that chipper maintenance is essential to producing high-quality wood chips that meet customer specifications. But beyond that, it’s also crucial for reducing fuel consumption and making the most of the operator’s time.Components in machines can experience excessive wear, especially when logs, brash or roots have become contaminated with sand or mud. Even though wood is a lot softer than the steel components inside chippers, the large throughput of material will eventually wear the steel away.As the exclusive dealer for JENZ in the UK and Ireland, CRJ Services not only sells JENZ chippers but also provides service contracts, expert advice, and genuine aftermarket parts. Let’s dive deeper into why maintaining your wood chipper, like the JENZ HEM 922 DQ, is critical and how you can ensure your machine stays in top condition.

Maximising Performance and Efficiency:

Wood chippers are high-performance machines, and regular maintenance helps them retain their efficiency. For example, customers in the UK often require wood chips in specific grades such as G30, G50, or G100. These grades are critical for power production because the chip size influences efficient burning and material handling. If your chipper’s blades are dull, the chips might be inconsistent in size, leading to inefficient burning, blockages in ducts, or pipework choke-ups caused by wood dust.

Fuel Consumption and Productivity: Maintaining sharp blades and well-functioning components not only improves output quality but also optimises fuel consumption. Symons notes that smaller chip sizes require more energy to produce, which accelerates wear on the chipper and increases fuel consumption. Dull blades require more energy to process material, causing the engine to work harder. This can lead to overheating or higher fuel costs, directly impacting your operation’s profitability.

Reducing Wear and Tear: Continuous exposure to tough materials, such as wood and occasional debris, can wear down key components. Regular maintenance reduces this wear, which, in turn, extends the life of your high-value machine. This is crucial because once wear affects knives and other critical parts, chip size becomes inconsistent, requiring more passes through the chipper, burning additional fuel, and slowing down the workflow.

Ensuring Operator Safety: A well-maintained machine is a safe machine. Loose components, clogged discharge chutes, or dull blades can create dangerous working conditions. Regular inspections and maintenance reduce the risk of malfunctions, helping operators stay safe.

Minimising Downtime: Regular maintenance also minimises downtime. If a machine unexpectedly breaks down, it can leave both the operator and chipper idle, especially at remote sites. Scheduling regular inspections and having replacement parts on hand ensures that you avoid costly disruptions.

Key Tips for Maintaining Your Wood Chipper

Blade Maintenance:

• Regularly inspect and sharpen chipper blades at least once or twice daily to avoid dullness, (failing to do so can strain the engine and produce inconsistent chips).
• Counter-knives need replacing every 200–300 hours.
• Maintain the correct clearance between the rotor and counter-knife for optimal performance.

Wear and Tear:

• Chutes and blower hoods can suffer wear from abrasive wood chips.
• Protect these parts by using hardened steel wear plates or hardfacing coatings to extend their life.

Foreign Object Damage:

• Install sacrificial wear blocks around the rotor to prevent damage from foreign debris like rocks, which can wear down the rotor and supporting steel.

Routine Inspections:

• Check belts, blades, feeding mechanisms, and look for loose parts or leaks before and after each use to catch problems early.

Lubrication & Hydraulics:

• Regularly lubricate moving parts and check hydraulic fluid levels.
• Inspect hoses to prevent operational failures in harsh environments.

Site-Specific Maintenance:

• Clean and stack material before chipping to avoid debris contamination.

Mike notes that with proper maintenance and servicing, wood chippers such as the JENZ HEM 922 DQ, can remain in operation for over 20 years. Professional servicing with high quality genuine parts, typically after every 250 hours of operation, can minimise power consumption and extend the service life of a chipper. By adhering to a strict maintenance schedule, operators can ensure their machines continue to produce high-quality wood chips efficiently, even after decades of use.