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A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

October 8, 2020/in Machinery, News, Press Release/by Adam Butler

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. The main criteria to consider during the design phase of a cutting unit is: A high quality of cut thus ensuring a healthy […]

Success for Hogweed Eradication Programme

October 8, 2020/in News, Press Release/by Amy Stinton

Success for Hogweed Eradication Programme: The River Tyne Hogweed Eradication Programme was declared winner of the Scottish Helping it Happen Awards run by Scottish Land and Estates. Receiving recognition in the Enhancing our Environment category, the project was supported by Bayer and has succeeded in eradicating any flowering plants of giant hogweed over 48 miles […]

A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

October 8, 2020/in Machinery, News, Press Release/by Adam Butler

Success for Hogweed Eradication Programme

October 8, 2020/in News, Press Release/by Amy Stinton

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A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

October 8, 2020/in Machinery, News, Press Release/by Adam Butler

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!

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!

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!

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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Success for Hogweed Eradication Programme

October 8, 2020/in News, Press Release/by Amy Stinton

Success for Hogweed Eradication Programme: The River Tyne Hogweed Eradication Programme was declared winner of the Scottish Helping it Happen Awards run by Scottish Land and Estates.

Receiving recognition in the Enhancing our Environment category, the project was supported by Bayer and has succeeded in eradicating any flowering plants of giant hogweed over 48 miles of the banks of the River Tyne and its tributaries for the second year running.

Success for Hogweed Eradication Programme

James Wyllie, voluntary project co-ordinator, explains they have seen a huge success with this invasive species project even though it is only in its second year.

“While we have had some setbacks due to Covid-19, thanks to the support of Bayer, landowners and volunteers, the project has delivered,” says James.

The programme is run by volunteer ‘spotters’ who use an online mapping tool to plot sightings of giant hogweed. They work in conjunction with the landowners and farmers to control the plants.

“Our maxim is that ‘no hogweed plant should be allowed to flower’, and with the capacity to produce up to 10,000 seeds each, this is vital.”

The project has involved intensive monitoring. As soon as a plant is ‘spotted’, the landowners can pinpoint the offending weed and control it, either with the use of Roundup or a spade.

“Ideally, we want to control the plant ahead of stem extension, so they aren’t able to flower and spread seeds. However, if a plant is missed and allowed to flower, it must be cut off below the ground, the head removed, bagged and disposed of safely,” says James.

“As a team we’re proud to receive this award as it shows the hard work that has been put into this unique project by all the volunteer landowners and spotters, is being recognised and valued.”

Project support

Colin Mumford, Bayer technical manager says both the non-native giant hogweed and Japanese knotweed can have a severe knock-on effect to the entire food chain and ecosystem, by rapidly reproducing and taking over land to the detriment of native flora and fauna, so it’s vital to do everything possible to eliminate these damaging species.

“Bayer are really pleased to be able to support this successful project, which has been driven by volunteers and landowners who are certainly worthy of this award. We’re keen to continue to support where we can, so these weeds that are damaging our environment can be tackled and kept under control,” he explains.

Colin adds that these invasive species are a rising cause for concern, so it’s important projects like this take place around the UK to help eradicate these problematic weeds.

For the latest industry news visit turfmatters.co.uk/news

Get all of the big headlines, pictures, opinions and videos on stories that matter to you.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for fun, fresh and engaging content.

You can also find us on Facebook for more of your must-see news, features, videos and pictures from Turf Matters.

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

Success for Hogweed Eradication Programme

A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

Success for Hogweed Eradication Programme

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

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.

Success for Hogweed Eradication Programme

Success for Hogweed Eradication Programme: The River Tyne Hogweed Eradication Programme was declared winner of the Scottish Helping it Happen Awards run by Scottish Land and Estates.

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