Wood-Wool Machine

a machine used to make thin strips of wood shavings (wood-wool) for packing various products and for technological purposes (the shavings somewhat resemble wool in outward appearance, hence the name).

Wood-wool machines are usually used in auxiliary shops at lumber mills and woodworking enterprises for processing low-grade and fuel-grade raw material into wood shavings and at enterprises making shaving-and-cement particle insulation board (fibrolite). The cutting tool in the machine consists of separating and planing knives mounted on a support that makes a reciprocal motion produced by a crankshaft and rod mechanism. The separating knives undercut strips of wood, and the planing knives cut the shaving along the grain. The length of the shaving is the same as that of the stock (the log), the width is determined by the distance between separating knives, while thickness is determined by the rate at which the stock is fed into the knife.

Wood-wool machines are designated as horizontal or vertical, depending on the direction in which the knife support moves. They are also classified in terms of whether the knife support makes an idle stroke or not, as well as in terms of the number of stocks worked at the same time (as 1, 2, 4, and 8-position) and in terms of the number of layers of wood cut in a single stroke (as single, double, triple and quadruple).

Wood-wool machines produced in the USSR can handle stocks 430 to 500 mm in length. For stocks 170 mm in diameter, a shaving can be cut from four stocks at once, and for those 340 mm in diameter shavings can be cut from two at once. The shaving removed is from 0.05 to 0.5 mm thick.