The raw material for pulping, wood, is received, stored and processed in a largely outdoor area of the mill called the woodyard. Wood may be received as whole logs, or as wood chips. While the operations performed in the woodyard are apparently quite basic, how well they perform is quite important to the successful operation of the pulp mill. Mistakes made in the woodyard can have a significant overall economic impact. This module describes the three major operations in the woodyard: removal of bark, chipping or grinding of logs into smaller pieces, and storage and retrieval of chips.
Learning Objectives
At the end of this module, you will be able to:
- Describe the role of a woodyard
- Identify hazards within the woodyard
- Identify and describe problems associated with bark in the pulping process
- Describe the operating principles of different types of debarkers
- Identify and describe the components of debarkers
- Identify and describe the components of a disk chipper
- Describe the operation of a disk chipper
- Describe the difficulties encountered with outdoor chip storage
- Identify methods for reducing chip storage problems