For many centuries, leather was tanned using tree bark; workers, known as “bark peelers” would do it all; cutting down the trees, manually peeling off the bark and then carrying the bark to the tannery.
Today’s wood processing industry and its debarking tools have come a long way; these tools are composed of many replacement parts such as debarking shoes, debarking holders, debarking inserts and spikes.
Definition
Debarking is used to refer to the procedure of using a debarking tool to remove bark.
Types of debarking tools
Essentially, four types of debarking tools exist:
1. Drum debarker
Best suited for debarking pulpwood, this debarking tool has been used for centuries. The logs are moved into a rotating ribbed drum; the rotation tosses the logs around and the friction of the logs hitting one another as well as the sides of the drum removes the bark. The bark gets released through openings in the drum. To help the debarking process, water is added to the drum; this process is also known as hydraulic debarking.
2. Ring debarker
This debarking tool is made up of a ring of cutting knives. Logs are fed into the machine in a rotating motion; as the log turns, the bark is peeled off. This device is quickly becoming the debarking tool of choice for mills producing quality hardwood and softwood lumber.
3. Rosser head debarker
A popular choice for debarking hardwood; this debarking tool cuts the bark from the log. The logs enter the debarker by a conveyer and a rotating cutter head removes the bark; this method of debarking is slower, but the machine costs less.
4. Flail debarker
This type of debarking essentially involves chains that repeatedly hit the logs; the repeated action loosens and removes the bark.
A Canadian company, Monmet has deep roots in the wood processing industry; Monmet rebuilds, refurbishes and replaces a variety of parts for drum chippers, hammer mills and debarker tools.
http://www.ritchiewiki.com/wiki/index.php/Debarker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawmill