This article originally appeared in the July issue of Bioenergy Insight magazine. 

EASTERN FINLAND – Juha Vaahterinen’s grandfather founded Kuljetusliike Vaahterinen OY in 1952, which developed into one of Finland’s first bioenergy businesses in the mid-80s. The company grinds and chips in forests throughout Eastern Finland and sells off the end product. Processing the material they encountered in the forest became a daunting task with the equipment they had six years ago. Brush caused problems for their chippers and the company had no method of processing big logs efficiently. Vaahterinen almost closed the bioenergy business in 2011 when their machines couldn’t handle the job.

“I almost finished the bioenergy business because we had so many problems with other chippers,” Vaahterinen said. “We had too many problems with the brush. Every day, all we did was fix the wood chippers. We only lost money.”

His fleet of equipment needed a dedicated brush grinder.

Vaahterinen connected with the Scandinavian Sales Manager of Continental Biomass Industries, Ulf Österroos, in 2011 and solved the problem with a CBI 5800 wood grinder—a forestry grinder engineered for contractors that need easier transportation and high-volume throughput. Designed as one of the leading options in land clearing equipment, the 5800 is ideal for wood processors who expect to grind brush, pallets, mulch, yard waste, or logs on a daily basis. For a company like Vaahterinen’s that also depends on remote production of compost, they couldn’t have asked for a better wood grinder.

“When I bought the 5800, the problem was gone,” Vaahterinen said. “We had too many problems in the brush, so I almost stopped, but then I met Ulf Österroos and I bought a CBI 5800 and the problem was gone.”

ADDING A CUSTOM-BUILT COMMERCIAL WOOD CHIPPER

The company used the CBI 5800 as a complete solution for processing brush and stumps. When their smaller chippers weren’t adequate for chipping larger materials into high-quality chips, Vaahterinen turned to CBI again and added a truck-mounted ChipMax 484VR to the fleet.

Vaahterinen’s rig takes the most reliable and productive whole tree chipper in the world and mounts it on the back of a truck to meet the mobility needs of his forestry application. Powered by a CAT C18, 765 HP engine and featuring two rotor options, the ChipMax makes high-quality fuel chips custom sized from 12-25 mm or “micro-chips” from 2-12 mm from logs up to 24” in diameter. These wood microchips produce a consistent fiber length that dramatically reduces the overall cost of producing pellets. The premium microchips also improve the function of small boilers, making them a highly marketable end-product.

CBI purpose-builds commercial wood chippers for clients who produce microchips for manufacturing wood pellets, wood chips for boiler fuel, and wood chips for the pulp and paper industry. From concept to completion, the ChipMax 484VR was designed exactly for rugged forestry applications like Vaahterinen’s.

OUT-PRODUCING, OUTPERFORMING, OUTLASTING OTHER WOOD CHIPPERS

“The ChipMax 484VR is an excellent heavy-duty machine,” Vaahterinen said. “You can run that machine day after day after day and it works. I have been doing this work about 16 years and before the ChipMax I had five or six chippers. Every chipper works good when you have clean stuff and small wood, but we have big logs. The ChipMax is very big and very strong. When you buy it, it makes you money.”

The ChipMax 484VR hit the market with an eye on productivity and customer flexibility. Its rotor, chipper box, and feed system are significantly stronger than any other chipper in its class. Out-producing the competition by 50-percent on a daily basis while remaining compact and truck-mounted, the 484VR is a complete biomass workhorse.

SUPERIOR MOBILITY AND ROTATING DISCHARGE CHUTE

Mounted on the back of a truck, with a 290-degree rotating discharge chute, the ChipMax 484VR meets the rigorous demands of today’s forestry applications. The chipper’s mobility, coupled with a hydraulically operated discharge chute, facilitates easy top loading of trailers. A hydrostatic driven blower gives it stronger chip discharge that blasts trailers full of high-quality wood chips. The blower automatically increases power, when needed, saving wear and excess power consumption.

The 484VR’s ability to chip bigger logs opened up the market for Vaahterinen’s business.

“The chippers I had before the ChipMax were so little that we couldn’t chip the big logs,” Vaahterinen said. “When I bought the ChipMax we could, so my business has grown every year, year after year.”

Vaahterinen remains optimistic about the future and hopes to continue growing his family’s business.