It breaks my heart to here this :(

Yes, that is awful. However, the article has it wrong. If a rope is caught in a disc chipper, it will wrap around the axle of the disc, and keep getting sucked in, faster as it wraps further from the center of the axle. Reversing the feedwheels will have no effect, as the rope is too small to be stopped by the feed wheels.

Further, as soon as it starts getting wrapped up, it is now no longer being fed in at 70-120 feet per minute rate of most of today's chippers, but at the speed of the disc.
 
Roger is right of course. I think he and I both use a 250xp and that disc spins about 1,100 RPM and is quite heavy. Designing saftey systems to prevent this type of accident is going to be very difficult if not impossible. A stump grinder could also wind up a rope but wood chippers are usually a lot closer to the climber and ropes.

If I'm not mistaken NAT had a fatality with a chipper where the winch cable drew taunt fast and snapped a mans neck. I don't know the fine details but I don't think it got caught up in the disc.

You've really got to watch long large vines with these chippers. I've fed in one inch grape vines before and had them whip by so fast you can hardly see them.
 
Certainly is awful!

Everybody needs to be aware of this one for certain. I have seen a ton of companies working with rope in the vicinity of brush chipping.

I saw this type of situation happen once a long time ago. Happens fast is an understatement. And jammed in there is also an understatement. On the one I witnessed, no one was injured and it took cutting torches to get the rope out.

I was thinking about this while I was reading about the discussion about installing a secondary access line.
 
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watch out for throw lines getting sucked in to the chipper also...this lesson cost me two finger tips, but thats another story all together

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Whoa! I've never thought of that happening.
 
I had a loop of throw line around my leg as it was pulled into the chipper several years ago. It pulled tight and then broke before I knew what happened. I had a silky handsaw attached to my leg. The throw line was around the scabbard and it left a nice groove in the plastic before it broke.

Josh
 
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Neither did I .I should really start a thread and tell my story just haven't gotten around to it yet

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Oh, that's you! Met you at TCIA at George's booth. Talked about your story today. Don't be afraid to tell it, it's something we all need to remember. Thanks,

-Tom
 
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