Rope v chipper

[treequip]

Back in the days of three strand a retired climbing rope used for lowering found its way into a 7” chipper, it was still attached to a large(ish) branch that reared up as the line wound in and wiped out 2 labourers who didn’t have their eye on the ball (cuts and bruises).

 

It wound itself around the main shaft and stalled the engine. It made a god awful mess inside the chipper which took several hours to hack out, I would advise against putting a rope in your (still under warranty?) chipper on those grounds alone, you can simulate the same effect with a winch or truck pull if you need to.

[Big J]

I remember a few months back a chap in Florida met his maker after getting tangled in a rope that was being fed through the chipper. Head first too.

[Currie]

 

This is exactly what happened to me a few months ago.

 

I was working on a willow with the chipper close by, no drag to speak off. Groundie was grabbing big bundles of small diameter brash and throwing into the hopper, did'nt notice he'd also grabbed my rope, not the end, a part of it along the length. First I knew was a tug on the rope and then the chipper (TW 190) stalling. I guess I was lucky the chipper cut the rope pretty well, the tug was'nt particularly strong. Quite impressed how much rope was chipped.

 

Can't say I was cross with him, I should have routed my rope out of the brash pile, he could have been a bit more aware and maybe stopped the chipper, happened quickly though. It was one of those straight forward everyday jobs, we were both daydreaming a bit. Lesson learnt.

[RobArb]

I'm sure there was also a thread on here somewhere on another death in america when a guys rope (that was for some reason round his neck) got trapped in the chipper and popped his head off!

 

Also a few weeks ago a fellow colleague nearly put my rope into the chipper whilst I was still up the tree, it got to the rollers but not the blades sure to another eagle eyed colleague, I was not best pleased:sneaky2:

 

Sent from Rob's GalaxySII

[Taupotreeman]

Back in the days of three strand a retired climbing rope used for lowering found its way into a 7” chipper, it was still attached to a large(ish) branch that reared up as the line wound in and wiped out 2 labourers who didn’t have their eye on the ball (cuts and bruises).

 

It wound itself around the main shaft and stalled the engine. It made a god awful mess inside the chipper which took several hours to hack out, I would advise against putting a rope in your (still under warranty?) chipper on those grounds alone, you can simulate the same effect with a winch or truck pull if you need to.

 

Cheers for the heads up treequip. I'm more interested in seeing if it is possible for a rope to wrap itself around the drum or disc of a chipper and to see the effect that has on a climber if still attached to the rope, how much time they would have to free themselves should something like this happen and where the weak point is i.e. rope, climber or chipper.

[Currie]

 

Sorry, I'm an image download novice, hope this works.

[Taupotreeman]

It's becoming more and more obvious that it is possible for the rope to actually get entangled in the chipping mechanism rather than just being cut by the blades. Question is now; how this effects the man on the end of the rope.

[Taupotreeman]

Currie, was anyone attached to that at the time or was it a loose rope?

[PeteB]

When I first started working for GreenMech some 12 odd years ago, we had a couple of machines back in to the service dept with rope damage. I remember that one was while the climber was still aloft and the line parted under the strain. For a while though, the chipper was a high speed winch!

 

The rope wrapped about the main rotor shaft and indeed, changed the shape of the housing and popped the bearing. No one got hurt, thankfully.

[skyhuck]

It's becoming more and more obvious that it is possible for the rope to actually get entangled in the chipping mechanism rather than just being cut by the blades. Question is now; how this effects the man on the end of the rope.

 

Badly!!!!!!