Patent ID: 8113453

Claim:
A fragmenting rotor assembly for comminuting waste wood and other fragmentable material, the assembly comprising: a drive shaft and mechanism for driving the drive shaft in a direction of rotation about a longitudinal drive shaft axis; a hammer support carried by the drive shaft and projecting radially relative to the drive shaft axis and including a radially outer hammer head; a fragmenting knife removably secured to the hammer head and having a reducing edge disposed in a radially outer cutting position; and a deflecting member carried by the drive shaft and having a radially outer end disposed in a position and configured to deflect fragments away from at least a portion of the fragmenting knife, at least one of the hammer support and the deflecting member being carried by at least one rod of a plurality of circumferentially-spaced axially-extending rods that are carried on the drive shaft by axially-spaced rotor members, the deflecting member being disposed adjacent a radial plane of rotation of the hammer head for motion in a circumferential deflecting path radially short of a circumferential cutting path of the reducing edge of the fragmenting knife carried by the hammer head and radially beyond a circumferential path of at least a radially inner portion of the fragmenting knife extending a radial distance short of the radial distance to the fragmenting knife reducing edge; the fragmenting knife having a second reducing edge and is removably secured to the hammer head such that one of the reducing edges of the knife is positioned in a radially outer cutting position and the other reducing edge of the knife is positioned in a radially inner stowed position relative to the drive shaft axis of rotation; the radially outer end of the deflecting member being positioned to move in a circumferential deflecting path radially beyond a circumferential path of the fragmenting knife reducing edge carried in the inner stowed position on the hammer head; and the radially outer end of the deflecting member being positioned to move in a circumferential deflecting path radially beyond a circumferential path of one or more bolts holding the fragmenting knife to the hammer head.