On the Safety of Infeeding Vertical Garden Shredders

This paper addresses consumer garden shredders of the hammermill type with vertical hoppers that are manually fed. The purpose of this paper is to show that garden materials presented to a vertical garden shredder through the inlet hopper will not pull an erectly standing operator’s hand into the flails. In order for an erectly standing operator to contact the flails, it is necessary for the shoulder to move downward. Experiments demonstrate that the operator’s shoulder moves insignificantly downward during pull-in excursions using various garden materials that are attached to the operator’s hand through snagging mechanisms, hand friction, and entanglement.