Patent ID: 7028935

Claim:
A shredder apparatus for shredding wet chip materials into granular wet chips, said apparatus comprising: a frame; a shaft fixedly attached to said frame, said shaft having a length and a first end and a second end; a bearing assembly disposed on said shaft and located inwardly from said shaft ends; a rotatable rotor having a cylindrical wall and a first end and second end and a length less than said shaft length, said rotor being disposed on said bearing assembly between said rotor ends; a plurality of spaced first shredder members attached to and rotatable with said rotor; a plurality of spaced second shredder members attached to said frame and mounted on but free from rotation with said rotor, said second shredder members being positioned relative to said first shredder members whereby a first shredder member and a second shredder member are adapted to cooperate to shred wet chips; first and second seal members, said first seal member being disposed on said shaft inwardly of said first shaft end and said second seal member being disposed on said shaft inwardly of said second shaft end to substantially enclose and seal said bearing assembly between said rotor and said shaft; and, a drive assembly for rotating said rotor while said shaft remains in a fixed position whereby upon actuation of said drive assembly, said rotor will rotate causing said first and second shredder members to cooperate to shred wet chip material in said shredder apparatus.