INFINICUT and UltraGroomer™ delivers quality courts

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INFINICUT and UltraGroomer™ delivers quality courts: Having seen them in action on the world-famous Wimbledon courts, The Lensbury Club in Middlesex are one of a growing list of clubs taking delivery of an INFINICUT® mower for use on their grass tennis courts.

Along with a set of UltraGroomer™ cassettes from the TMSystem™, Grounds and Gardens Manager Peter Craig says the improvements in the quality and appearance of the six courts hasn’t gone unnoticed by the club’s members.

INFINICUT and UltraGroomer™ delivers quality courts

INFINICUT and UltraGroomer™ delivers quality courts

Following an 18-year term at the Hurlingham Club – during which, he started looking into the INFINICUT® – Peter re-joined The Lensbury in 2018. “We started to see some famous venues using the INFINICUT® mowers and I was lucky enough to see them in action first-hand on the courts at Wimbledon which only further sparked my interest” he explains. “When I returned to The Lensbury, I organised for the team to have a demonstration and they loved it straight from the off”. They became the proud owners of a 22” Fixed Head INFINICUT® shortly after its launch at the end of 2018.

“It gives such a fantastic quality of cut and finish – the definition of stripe is excellent and the HOC and bedknife adjustment systems could not be simpler. The fact that it’s battery powered and therefore more environmentally friendly has always been a major plus-point for me; but even more so now, with the courts at The Lensbury located very close to a residential road. In the past, this meant we were unable to use machinery before 8am but, because the INFINICUT® is so quiet in operation, we can get out and mow at 7am. This means we effectively gain five additional working hours a week, where necessary.”

Recently, the club also purchased a set of UltraGroomer™ cassettes from the TMSystem™ range for early and in-season verti-cutting. “We’re running those in our Jacobsen GP400 triple to remove any lateral growth and clean the surface up. We’ll use these as soon as we start getting some consistent growth in April/May, then will aim to cover all of the courts once a month after that”. The UltraGroomer’s are also in use on the site’s ornamental lawns. “Improving these areas was one of my key goals when I returned, and these cassettes have contributed towards bringing the lawns up to the standards we’re achieving elsewhere.”

The grass courts are a major attraction at the Lensbury Club, with a strong membership regularly playing on them. “They’re over the moon with the condition of the courts. We’ve previously had some of the world’s leading players using the courts for tournament preparations and, while this isn’t currently the case, the quality of the courts are certainly good enough once again to host that level of play should they return.”

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A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

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A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!: The main requirement for a mower is of course to cut grass, therefore Baroness always make this their primary objective when designing cutting units.

A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

The main criteria to consider during the design phase of a cutting unit is:

  • A high quality of cut thus ensuring a healthy grass plant and a superior presentation.
  • Simple and infrequent blade adjustments.
  • Low maintenance costs.

The common denominator between all three of these is the material used to make the blades from, which in turn allows other design features to be exploited:

Relief Grinding

Relief Grinding is a process that not all reel mower operators support, usually due to bad experiences in the past and not fully understanding the science behind the practise.

As most reel mower operators will be aware, blade relief is where the trailing edge of a reel blade is ground away at an angle to reduce the surface area of the cutting tip.  The thinner the cutting tip surface area is, the less friction will be produced between the cutting reel blades and the bedknife, and this in turn will reduce wear to the bedknife.  This is important because the bedknife is the blade which will lose its edge first due to it being subjected to multiple reel blade passes per single reel revolution, and if you can keep the edge of the bedknife sharp then you will maintain a high quality of cut and a healthy grass plant.

To reap the maximum benefits from relief grinding the blade material used must be of a very high quality.  If the blade was made of a soft material, then the very thin cutting edge produced by the relief grind process would wear away very quickly, and this would result in constant blade adjustments being required, which would then increase operator workload and frustration.

Achieving a hard blade is not just a matter of using a heat-treating process.  Whilst heat treating will make any steel hard, it can also make it brittle, so to make a blade hard and strong it is crucial to use a suitable alloy coupled with a carefully controlled heat treatment process.

Baroness use a carefully formulated alloy of Nickel, Chrome and Molybdenum to make their blades from, and this very hard wearing and tough material allows the cutting edge to be relief ground down to just 0.5mm, thus keeping friction, heat and wear to a minimum.

Back-Lapping

Back-lapping is another process that not all reel mower operators support, and this is usually because the reels that they have been trying to back-lap are not compatible with the process.

A reel blade which has not been relief ground will be very wide at the cutting tip, but when it becomes blunt it is usually just the leading edge of the blade that becomes rounded.  However, to make this reel blade sharp again, all the material back from this rounded tip will need to be removed.  To remove all of this material using back-lapping alone would take a long time, and by the time this material was removed, the back-lapping paste would have worn away the cutting edge of the bedknife, thus making the process counter-productive.

A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

If on the other hand the reel blades have been relief ground, then the cutting tip would be very thin and will therefore only require minimum material to be removed to make the reel blade sharp again, which could be done very quickly without wearing the cutting edge of the bedknife away.  As the blade material that Baroness uses enables the relief grind to be taken down to a cutting edge of just 0.5mm, the full benefits of back-lapping are utilised.

A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

Therefore, relief grinding, coupled with a good quality blade material, is key to quickly and easily keeping your blades sharp at a minimal cost, which in turn will improve the health of your grass plant.

#LessstresswithBaroness

www.baronessuk.com

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Expanding the integrated instart range

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Expanding the integrated instart range: The all new 575iSi and 675iSi Series™ single cylinder, 4-stroke, air–cooled petrol engines, are now available with Briggs & Stratton’s award-winning InStart technology. No priming, choking or pulling is needed to start the engine, the innovative system featuring a lithium-ion battery, is integrated directly into the engine to deliver instant starting.

The iSi engine range is equipped with an integrated lithium-ion battery system that makes charging simple; the battery is non-removable meaning the charging cable connects directly to the engine. One full charge of the lithium-ion battery provides up to 200 starts and will last the whole mowing season*.

Expanding the integrated instart range

Expanding the integrated instart range

OEM customers specifying the 575iSi and 675iSi Series™ InStart® on decks can offer end-users either push-button or key starting options.

EASY MOWING

Combining the power and performance of petrol together with starting at a touch, the 575iSi and 675iSi come standard with Briggs & Stratton’s innovative Just Check & Add oil system. With Just Check & Add, easy operation is taken to a new level whereby the engines require no oil changes throughout their operating life – just an occasional top-up.

The 575iSi and 675iSi can also be upgraded to feature the optional Mow N’ Stow® storage technology making storing the mower easier than ever. With Mow N’ Stow the engines allow the user to store the mower vertically, reducing storage space by 70%, and allowing for easier blade access for superior under deck cleaning.

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A new deal for Newquay Golf Club

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A new deal for Newquay Golf Club: Dan Kendle, head greenkeeper at Newquay Golf Club, says it is great being back at work after lockdown with his full team, on a busy golf course, with the added bonus of using several new John Deere course maintenance machines supplied by local dealer Masons Kings at St Columb.

Newquay’s scenic seaside location on the Cornish coast overlooks the world famous surfing venue of Fistral Beach, with the golf links guarded by pot bunkers and fringed with marram grass dunes – so when the wind is up, as it often is, it’s a course to be reckoned with.

A new deal for Newquay Golf Club

A new deal for Newquay Golf Club

Dan managed the course on his own during lockdown before the club opened again for play in May, mainly cutting grass and doing a bit of spraying to keep the course as tidy as the pandemic restrictions allowed. Since the rest of the greenkeeping team returned to work, he reckons they were just about on top of everything again by early September.

“And we needed to be, as we’ve been getting twice as many visitors compared to a normal year, as well as picking up new members,” says Dan. “On some days the club’s taken double the usual amount of green fees, which seems crazy but the demand has been there from the off.”

The first of the club’s new John Deere machines, a 2500E hybrid electric triplex greens mower, was delivered in September last year, with the remaining machines arriving this spring and summer. These included a second 2500E plus a 7700A PrecisionCut fairway mower and a new 4049R compact tractor plus front loader.

The compact replaced a 30 year old John Deere 1550 utility tractor, and the club had bought a number of Gator utility vehicles from Masons Kings before, but this was Newquay’s first John Deere fleet deal. The mowers have been bought on a five-year John Deere Financial operating lease, while the tractor is on hire purchase, and all service and maintenance operations are carried out on-site.

“Our previous mowers were coming to the end of their lease period, and for this new deal we were looking at new options, particularly in terms of dealer support,” says Dan Kendle. “Masons Kings is a very local dealership with a good reputation for reliable service and back-up, so it made sense for us to speak to them and have some machines in on demonstration.

“Everyone in the team had a go on the new machines, and we were all impressed with their operator comfort and user-friendly features. The quality of cut in particular sealed the deal for me, and I like the password protected TechControl system on the 7700A, which allows me to set the mower to get the same consistent results whoever is operating, in all conditions.

“The hybrid electric 2500Es also come into their own when cutting the practice putting green and the greens closest to the houses that surround three sides of the course. Their quiet operation keeps the neighbours happy while also reducing fuel consumption and the chance of any hydraulic leaks.

“As with all new machines, there were a few issues during the initial set-up but they were all sorted out very quickly by John Deere and Masons Kings, which was important. We’ve continued to receive great support and back-up from the dealership’s salesman David Barnes and technician Gavin Hearne, even during lockdown, so we’re very pleased all round as it shows we made the right decision.”

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GA Plant take first GreenMech EVO 165P SUB-750

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GA Plant take first GreenMech EVO 165P SUB-750: GA Plant and Tool Hire in Swindon have become the first company to take delivery of a brand-new EVO 165P SUB-750 woodchipper from GreenMech.

Delivering the performance required by domestic and small commercial contractors, the EVO also meets the spec for Owner/Director Angus Lacy-Hulbert when it comes to ease of maintenance, ensuring the machine is serviced and ready for tight hire turnarounds.

GA Plant take first GreenMech EVO 165P SUB-750

GA Plant take first GreenMech EVO 165P SUB-750

With a 3” chipper on their hire fleet previously, Angus spotted the gap for a larger, road-tow machine and sought advice from local arborists on the options available. “We naturally gravitated to GreenMech. Being British engineered and backing up good product with local service and support is an ethos we like to follow ourselves” explains Angus, who established GA Plant and Tool Hire five years ago. A demonstration of the new 6” SUB-750kg EVO 165P sealed the deal and it was delivered by their local dealer, GA Groundcare, in September 2020.

“One of the major plus points was the ease of maintenance – the EVO has centralised greasing points which keeps the ongoing maintenance quick and simple. We also purchased the blade sharpening unit which means we can sharpen the blades as and when required, in-house, dramatically reducing downtime between hires. Being sub-750kg was critical for our largely domestic client base, delivering powerful performance in a package that can be towed on a standard car license.”

Within a week of delivery, the EVO 165P SUB-750 was out on its first hire – a domestic customer with 12 conifers to process. “Incredibly, the client completed the whole job in under an hour! They returned the machine with the biggest grin, complimenting it not just on performance but how simple and user-friendly it was to operate.”

The GreenMech EVO series sets a new standard for torque, bite and throughput to deliver exactly what is demanded by today’s industry professionals. Originally launched in road-tow format, the EVO 165D was joined by the fixed-track EVO 165DT in Autumn 2019 and then by a higher 45hp Limited-Edition option. The newest SUB-750 machine combines all of the proven EVO performance with a powerful yet economic 37hp B&S Vanguard petrol engine.

Angus concludes, “Together with performance, back up support is also incredibly important for us – our machines ultimately make no money if they’re out of service. Ashley at GA Groundcare is just down the road and is always on the end of the phone, even at weekends, with helpful support and advice if we need it.”

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