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- Title
- Using disposable chipper knives to decrease wood fuel processing cost
- Author/Creator
-
Spinelli, Raffaele |
Magagnotti, Natascia
- Description
- For many years, tool manufacturers have proposed disposable micro-knives as a solution to both the vulnerability and the frequent maintenance problems of standard full-size knives. The study compared disposable micro-knives and standard full size-knives for replacement time and management costs. It also quantified the cost of severe damage caused to conventional knife set-ups, following accidental introduction of metal contaminants inside the chipper. In this case, damage can amount to over 30,000 €. Adoption of disposable micro-knives may avoid such severe damage and mitigate its consequences. The simpler replacement procedure also allows a 15% reduction of knife replacement time, compared with the standard knife option. On the other hand, these same benefits are also obtained with other measures, such as the adoption of a swing-away counter-knife and the use of a pneumatic wrench for knife replacement. However, disposable micro-knives do offer a significant reduction of knife-related cost, due to an extended sharpness retention. Savings may amount to 30% of the knife-related cost of a conventional knife set, or about 18 Euro cents per tonne. Further studies should investigate the reasons for the better performance of micro-knives, with a view in improving the durability of both knife types.
- Relation
- Fuel Processing Technology / Vol. 126, pp.415-419
- Relation
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuproc.2014.05.026
- Year
- 2014
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Subject
-
FoR 0904 (Chemical Engineering) |
FoR 0306 (Physical Chemistry (Incl. Structural)) |
biomass |
energy |
time study |
maintenance |
wood
- Collection(s)
- Research Publications
- Resource Type
- Journal Article
- Identifier
- ISSN: 0378-3820
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