Abstract: Lawn and garden maintenance equipment for collecting and shredding debris and chipping branches is provided with wheel support, a housing, and a handle for guiding the apparatus, the housing having a substantially closed bottom wall below a motor-driven disc for rotation about a vertical axis, which disc is capable of chipping branches because of a knife on one side and of moving air because of blades on the other side. A circumfirentially extending screen within the housing is supported in a vertical orientation relative to the ground, which screen is formed of at least two segments, both of which are supported radially inwardly and spaced from the sidewalls of the housing. The air and entrained debris are drawn into and enters the housing through an inlet extending to a centrally disposed axial opening whereby the entrained air and debris are driven against the screen to be broken up into smaller pieces.

Abstract: Multi-purpose apparatus having a single power-driven disc-like element to effect chipping of branches and related debris fed into a disc-mounted blade/aperture configuration on one side of the disc with a vacuum/volume reduction structure having fan blades disposed on the other side of the disc cooperating with a cylindrical screen. The disc and screen are located within a housing having an air inlet for air moved by the fan blades whereby debris can be drawn in from the front end of an air passageway connected to the air inlet and discharged with the chips and debris through the screen out of a single outlet. The outlet is located at the top of a generally volute housing and the apparatus can be mounted on wheels for walk-behind operation with handlebars supporting a debris collection bag attached to the outlet end of the housing. A passageway conducts air into the housing to which attachments can be affixed.