An apparatus and method for protecting a wood chip destructuring device from damage due to tramp material. The destructuring device includes a pair of destructuring rolls operating a pre-established distance from each other and an infeed chute for delivering a stream of wood chips to pass through a region between the destructuring rolls. Said protection system includes a sensing unit and a control unit to detect tramp material present in the chip stream. If tramp material is detected in the wood chip flow, the protection system operates to further separate the destructuring rolls so that the surfaces of the destructuring rolls will not be damaged by the tramp material as the flow of material passes between the destructuring rolls.
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