THE COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY

In association with

TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL TEACHERS’ COLLEGE

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

TEACHER EDUCATION

NAME : SICHILIMA PATRICK

STUDENT NO : 19767

COURSE : EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

PROGRAM : BSc DTTE

LECTURER : MR CHISALU A

ASSIGNMENT NO : 03

TITLE : RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL

DUE DATE : 5TH JUNE, 2021

LEARNING BY DOING

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 DOMESTIC WOOD SHREDDER MACHINE

Introduction

Tests of the material for chipping refer mostly to parts of a tree (trunk or branches) [CITATION
Spi11 \l 1033 ], tree species (softwood or hardwood)] and moisture content in wood (fresh or dry).

Background

The wood shredder was invented by Peter Jensen (Maasbüll, Germany) in 1884. Wood shredder
rapidly became the main business of his company, which already produced and repaired public-
and woodworking-machinery. Shredding is a traditional European method of tree pruning by
which all side branches are removed repeatedly leaving the main trunk and top growth. In the
Middle Ages, the practice was common throughout Europe, but it is now rare, found mainly in
Central and Eastern Europe. The purpose of shredding is to allow harvest of firewood and animal
fodder while preserving a tall main trunk which may be harvested for timber at a later date. It
was formerly practiced in Britain although [CITATION Rac86 \l 1033 ] notes that "The medieval
practice of shredding – cropping the side-branches of a tree leaving a tuft at the top – vanished
from Britain long ago.

Literature Review

Types of wood shredders

Disc shredding process

In both the chemical and mechanical pulping processes, the logs are cut into smaller parts i.e.
wood chips by for example a disc chipper before fibre separation. The chipping is normally
performed in a disc chipper, where the basic design was developed in 1889 [CITATION Kea79 \l
1033 ].

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This wood shredder can be categorized by the parallel-sided drum along with knives involved in
the horizontal direction. An arrangement of shred breaker is done behind the rotating knives in a
perpendicular direction to the blades.

Human-powered wood shredder

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 Figure 2. Pedal powered Leaf Shredder

Engine operated wood shredder

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 Figure 3. engine powered shredding machine

Tractor Operated Wood Shredder

Figure 4: Wood Shredder tractor operated

DESIGN OF MACHINE

Nowadays burning of tree branches and tree leaves destroy the ozone layer and it is time
consuming. A number of wood shredding machines are used to get rid of this issue as explained
above. While various kinds of wood shredding machines are available on market, our design is
different from them. When compared to normal shredding machines, our wood shredder machine
has the advantages of being less expensive, highly efficient and have little maintenance cost.
Another main advantage of this machine is that the machine does not require skillful personnel to
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handle it. The main aim of this project is to simplify the work of wood shredding and making
everyone capable to do this work.
The machine is aimed for domestic use and in rural areas where such machines are not available.
The main objective is to fabricate an economically efficient wood shredder. If we can achieve
our goal successfully in completing this project, it will be a better practically dependable solution
for homely needs. In pursuit of the practical works of the project I will be able to practice and
develop my skill in several machining process and different machineries. Needless to say, we
hope to put our theoretical knowledge into practical systems.
Materials and construction
The machine frame is made up of rigid mild steel. The motor can be housed at the base of the
frame. The motor is coupled with the gear assembly using pulley and belt mechanism. The table
on the frame consists of a rectangular slot. Cutters are mounted on shaft supported by bearings
which is mounted on the machine frame. When the wood or tree leaves come in contact with the
rotating cutters or blades then the shearing action takes place. Due this shearing action, the large
size waste converted into small micro size. This small size wastage will decompose faster than
the macro size. The clearance between the rotating blades depends upon the size of the wood
used for chopping. The chopped organic waste comes out of the machine and undergoes
decomposition. The machine will have two rigid stands in front and to wheels for moving at rear
part of the stand.
The wood shredder has the following parts, which forms the main elements of the machine.
 Main frame
 Table
 Electric Motor
 Belt and Pulley
 Gears
 Shafts
 Cutting Wheels
 Switch
Drawings and images of already existing machines

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 Fig 5. CAD model (source) Fig 5.1 Fabrication model

Conclusion

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Going through this research, we conclude that machine is better option to shred the wood instead
of using manual operated shredder, engine powered and tractor powered as it no gas emissions,
easy to assemble and disassemble, machine cost is less compared to other shredder machine and
also highly skilled labours are not required. In this we are looking forward to design a machine
by considering the various factors into consideration. The machine is made for domestic use,
therefore the work carried out by this machine is less.

References
Adamchuk, V eta-al. (2016). Developing a new design of wood chopper for grape vine and fruit tree
pruning and the results of field testing. Agronomy Research, 1519-1529.

Carlini, M et-al. (2013). energy characterization and potential uses. Waste wood biomass arising from
pruning of urban green in Viterbo town:.

Dickerson, A;. (2018). CYCLING LEAVES. PEDAL-POWERED LEAF SHREDDER, 5-25.

Fortuna, B etaal. (2010). decoration and maintance of green areas. The characteristics analysis of torque
and rotation speed of working unit of branch grinder, 1.

Keays, J.L. (1979). History of wood chipping.

Kuptz, D.et-al. (2014). chipper type and machine setting. Biomass Conference and exhibition, 23-26.

Luo, G.Q et-al. (2017). Pyrolysis of whole wood chips.

Rackham, O. (1986). The full fascinating story of Britain's landscape. The History of the Countryside:.

Spinelli, R. (2011). wood characteristics on the performance of a mobile chipper. Impact of Number of
Operators and Distance to Branch Piles on Woodchipper Operation, 85-95.

Timmons, D and Mejía,C.V. (2010). Diesel fuel dependence? Biomass and Bioenergy. Biomass energy
from wood chips, 1419-1425.

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