New technology increases safety for those working in the wood chipping industry.
When working with hazardous equipment becomes routine, operators tend to get too comfortable. That’s when reaching a couple of inches too far into the infeed chute of a wood chipper could make the difference between a severed limb and a normal workday.
a tree into the infeed chute. Photo: Morbark
“You become very complacent at what you do. You do it day in and day out. You think, ‘This isn’t ever going to happen to me,’” says Jeff Buchanan, owner of Jeff Buchanan Tree Service in Fullerton, Calif.
Since Peter Jensen invented the first wood chipper in 1884, the machines have been revolutionized with a number of features to provide greater safety for operators, including SmartFeed systems, feed control bars, bottom-feed stop bars and emergency pull ropes. Sometimes, though, these components aren’t enough.
“Wood chipper safety is highly focused due to the fact that there have been a lot of injuries in the past,” says Todd Shepherd, sales specialist at Bobcat of Fort Wayne.
Countless fatalities and injuries have increased efforts to provide a greater range of safety equipment.
“There’s a safety bar [on wood chippers] that pushes the machine down because, one time, someone hung on it and pushed materials into the machine with his foot and got sucked into the machine, too,” Shepherd says.
According to U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2013, three fatal occupational injuries occurred involving wood chippers and 130 nonfatal occupational injuries occurred. In 2012, 110 nonfatal occupational injuries occurred, while six fatal injuries occurred. With these numbers in mind, equipment companies are working to find solutions to unwarranted wood chipper injuries and fatalities.
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Among the latest wood chipper safety advancements is Morbark’s ChipSafe operator safety shield, a device designed to stop a wood chipper when a worker’s arms or legs reach too far into the infeed chute. The ChipSafe equipment, an option for the 12- to 18-in. capacity models of Morbark’s Beever brush chippers, was designed with a straightforward concept in mind: to guarantee safety for operators.
According to Morbark, the safety shield works on a system using magnets that stop the feeding mechanism. The operator wears ChipSafe gloves or wrist straps and ankle straps containing the magnets that send signals to stop the machine when the user’s limbs reach the “ChipSafe sensing zone.” Aluminum plates that flank the inner left and right sides of the infeed chute define the sensing zone and receive signals from the magnets. When the gloves or straps reach the plates, the machine automatically shuts down.
the reset box on the side of the infeed chute. Photo: Morbark
In order to revive the machine, the user has to swipe his or her wrist straps over the reset box next to the infeed chute.
“It really is just an extension of your normal personal protection equipment that you wear every day,” says Casey Gross, tree care products sales manager at Morbark.
The ChipSafe operator shield, invented by Buchanan, was developed after a discussion he had with his brother, an electronic engineer, in 2004. Buchanan was familiar with the industry through his company and wanted to enhance chipper safety, so he pursued the idea.
“There’s a tremendous amount of industry injuries that go unreported,” he says.
The drastic difference in the number of nonfatal and fatal injuries supports the fact that many accidents go unreported, Buchanan says. “They [wood chipper accidents] happen more along the line of every couple of weeks.”
Buchanan began by testing the prototype on his own machines, and then he partnered with Morbark after meeting Morbark CEO Lon Morey at a TCI Expo.
“It made sense to partner up with Morbark because they want to increase sales, obviously, but they’re one of the leading members trying to make these chippers safer,” he says.
“ChipSafe sensing zone.” Photo: Morbark
Because of their high infield tables, Buchanan decided to incorporate the ChipSafe equipment on Morbark’s Beever line of wood chippers. Other chippers’ infield tables were too low, making it easy for users to propel their feet into the chippers, says Buchanan.
“About 50 percent of people that go through these machines go through feet first,” he says.
Besides providing increased safety, the ChipSafe shield also forces operators to learn the appropriate distance that their hands and feet should reach into the infeed chute.
“The guys used to be able to put their hands inside the machine and put stuff in there,” Buchanan says. “They don’t do that anymore. When they’re throwing the material in the machine, they stop short of the safety point. So, it has actually taught them to move back into a safer position.”
Buchanan plans to only share this technology with Morbark’s wood chippers, but he hopes to expand this concept to other industries, including rock crushing, farming, food processing and other industries where hazardous machinery is used.
For now, though, he and Morbark are hoping to expand the use of the ChipSafe operator safety shield, which began selling in May. Using this technology, the two hope to continue to revolutionize wood chipper safety— and try to guarantee it.
Article updated 2/4/15