Tag Archive for: workshop

Green-tech holds forestry workshop

Green-tech holds forestry workshop: Green-tech recently held their first Forestry Workshop at Tubex Manufacturing Site in Wales. The workshop is the first of several being run exclusively for Green-tech’s customers and has been declared a huge success.

The informative day included a tour of the Manufacturing Site based in Aberdare.  Visitors witnessed the production process from start to finish with the arrival of the raw materials, through to processing, finishing and finally dispatch.

Green-tech holds forestry workshop

Green-tech holds forestry workshop

A presentation that followed explained the working partnership between Green-tech and Tubex, a brand of Berry Global, and how the Aberdare site is at the forefront of full circularity in tree shelter manufacture. They support this with their Collection and Recycling Scheme, which ensures responsible disposal of tree shelters, and closes the loop to increase the usage of recycled materials. Green-tech is an official Tubex partner and the largest distributer of their products. Green-tech’s premises in North Yorkshire has recently been announced as an Official Tubex Collection & Recycling Programme Drop-off Hub.

The Green-tech delegates were given a detailed overview of the new Tubex Nature™ Tree Shelter and the recent upgrades were explained.

Green-tech’s Sales Director Richard Gill comments, “The day was a huge success. 21 of our customers joined us for an informative and interesting day at the Tubex manufacturing site. It was fascinating to see the scale of the operation and the process of recycling shelters and production of new tubes. It provided a great opportunity to bring all parties today – the manufacturer, us as the intermediary and the end user. We rounded off the day with a private dining experience which was enjoyed by all.”

Pete Stevens at Tubex, “It was great to host Green-tech and some of their customers.  We have a close working relationship with Green-tech, so we enjoyed showing them our facilities and explaining our planned developments. Its always nice for us to actually meet the end user and I was proud to see how impressed they were and to have the opportunity to answer their questions regarding our planned R&D and to take away their feedback which was incredibly useful.”.

Green-tech is the largest supplier of tree planting protection materials in the UK. They offer traditional shelters and a choice of biodegradable and environmentally friendly alternatives including the Tubex Nature™ Tree, Rainbow Terra shelters and the NexGen range.

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Suppliers team up to host Surface Management Workshop

Suppliers team up to host Surface Management Workshop: A number of leading suppliers from across the industry are joining forces on Thursday 1st June 2023 to host the first Surface Management Workshop.

Taking place at Stamford AFC, the one-day event consists of talks, trade displays and working demonstrations aimed at grounds professionals responsible for both natural and artificial sport surfaces.

Suppliers team up to host Surface Management Workshop

Suppliers team up to host Surface Management Workshop

DLF, GKB, Iseki, British Sugar TOPSOIL and Vanmac are among the list of brands signed up to support the day, offering advice and practical guidance to those working on surfaces – be it natural or synthetic – from all corners of the sporting sector. The venue, Stamford AFC in Lincolnshire, has been chosen to provide ease of access to visitors and the opportunity to watch a range of equipment in-action on the club’s natural turf football pitch and artificial surface, used by the club and the students at the neighbouring Stamford College.

The free-to-attend workshop will commence at 10am with an introductory presentation covering key maintenance do’s and don’ts, followed by an opportunity to get hands-on with a range of products and machinery that is key to the upkeep of sports surfaces. Experts will also be on hand throughout the day to offer advice and answer your technical questions. Following lunch and a closing Q&A, departure will be at approximately 3pm.

“With advice available and a wide variety of products on show from seed and soil, through to a vast selection of maintenance machinery, we’re excited to be able to offer something to all types of turf professional – from those working within schools and colleges, cricket grounds, through to contractors and winter sports venues from grass roots to top-flight level” explains Tom Shinkins of GKB Machines. “The aim is to discuss some of the major industry issues and give attendees sound tips and ideas to take away and implement at their own facilities.”

Those interested in attending can confirm their place with an email to Samantha Hodge on samantha.hodge@britishsugar.com

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Maximise workshop efficiency: Relief grind your cutting units

Maximise workshop efficiency: Relief grind your cutting units: Ian Robson, of ProSport UK Ltd, the UK & Ireland Importer/Distributor for Foley Company, explains why relief grinding maximises the performance of reels by giving a factory finish every time.

Avital question for a workshop manager is how to maximise efficiency and minimise labour and maintenance equipment costs. One area to achieve excellent savings is to look at how you maintain the sharpness of your cutting units.

Maximise workshop efficiency: Relief grind your cutting units

Maximise workshop efficiency: Relief grind your cutting units

Firstly, why is having sharp cylinders (reels) that are the correct shape so important anyway? The answer is obvious – unhealthy turf brings a whole host of other issues which are costly to correct.

Therefore, prevention is a far more economic approach than a cure.

A huge amount of research and development has gone into designing a cutting unit to produce the cleanest cut possible with the least amount of fraying and tissue damage to the plant. The result is that all manufacturers of grass cutting equipment supply new units with relief ground edges.

WHY RELIEF GRIND?

Tests carried out by leading manufacturers have established that relief ground cylinders stay on cut up to 3 times longer than spun ground ones and require less horse power to drive the unit, resulting in greater fuel efficiency and less stress on the hydraulic power systems. In addition, a relief ground cylinder will withstand the abrasive effects of top dressing far better than one spun ground because the relief edge on both the bed-knife and the cylinder allows the top dressing to clear the cutting blades easily, helping to prevent the dulling effect seen on spun only units.

Continual relief grinding also decreases the squeezing and tearing of the grass as the units get dull, and most importantly it allows the cylinder to be returned to a factory specification perfect cylinder as quickly as possible.

The overall cleaner cut achieved by relief grinding gives a better after-cut appearance, increased recovery rate due to the clean cut of the grass and reduces the stress on components because less horsepower is needed to drive the cylinder.

As a reel wears flat and loses shape (becomes coned), more stress and strain is put on the cutting systems.

A 5-gang cutting unit with relief can require up to 4.5 HP (5 x 0.88HP = 4.5HP) to drive the cutting units therefore a 35HP engine has 30.5HP remaining to drive the rest of the traction system. A 5-gang unit which has been spun ground only, can require up to 13Hp (5 x 2.59HP = 13HP) leaving only 22HP to drive the rest of the traction system.

Maximise workshop efficiency: Relief grind your cutting units

Maximise workshop efficiency: Relief grind your cutting units

So, it has been established that relief grinding your cutting units saves you money not only by reducing workshop maintenance time with far fewer grinds but also through a reduction in fuel costs and replacement parts.

It is also important to acknowledge what relief grinding does for a reel. By removing metal from the trailing edge of the blade it forms a relief angle, which reduces the contact area of the cutting edges, resulting in less friction, longer wear life.

Typically, when a new mower is delivered the reels will be a perfect cylindrical shape. Over time the blade naturally loses shape, and the sharp edge it arrives with becomes flat and dull, often meaning the reel is no longer a perfect cylinder from end to end. This is referred to as ‘coning’ and a natural point for grinding to take place. The decision then sits between touch-up and spin grinding, or relief grinding.

If there is sufficient relief still on the reel then a quick touch-up is fine but once more than 50% of the relief has gone my advice would be to relief grind again and remove any coning. Failure to remove the coning will eventually be seen in an uneven cut appearance of your turf.

Foley machines are set-up for both choices, and some models, such as the ACCU-Sharp, ACCU-Pro and ACCU-Master, have automatic grinding pre-sets and adjustment systems to decrease time and labour.

But, the main question mentioned at the beginning comes back; how to get the most out of your workshop resources by choosing the most effective method to sharpen your cutting units. The answer is to trust the manufacturer’s judgement and return the reels as close to the original factory standard as possible, and for that, relief grinding is the best option. The bonus is this method also maximises performance and gives the best cut.

Weedfree Landscapes reduce workshop costs

Weedfree Landscapes reduce workshop costs: Grounds Maintenance Contractors Weedfree Landscapes have reported a 95% reduction in servicing and workshop costs thanks to switching to Aspen Alkylate Petrol.

For the last two years, they’ve been using Aspen to power all of their 2-stroke equipment which has not only contributed to more efficient machinery performance, but made for a safer and cleaner operator experience.

Weedfree Landscapes reduce workshop costs

Weedfree Landscapes reduce workshop costs

Weedfree Landscapes undertake a wide variety of ground and winter maintenance services for a number of commercial customers in and around the East Midlands and South Yorkshire. Commercial Director Tim Bower explains that he was familiar with the Aspen product but that it was following a demonstration at SALTEX that they decided to trial Aspen 2. “Straight away we noticed the reduction in noxious fumes. For the operator this brings fantastic health benefits, especially during prolonged periods of exposure, but it also makes for a cleaner working environment which is desirable when we’re working in public spaces such as schools for example.”

Being virtually free from sulphur, benzene and solvents, Aspen Alkylate Petrol is 99% cleaner than regular pump fuel when comparing the level of hazardous hydrocarbons. This means that Aspen burns cleaner, not only reducing the harmful impacts for the operator and the environment but helping to preserve and extend the life of engine components. “Without doubt, we are definitely seeing a reduction in the number of faults and replacement parts we’re using. With Aspen being premixed with a premium biodegradable 2-stroke oil means you know you’re getting the perfect mix every time eliminating issues with equipment clogging up, reducing downtime and giving us quite substantial cost savings.”

Tim orders Aspen by the pallet, which is then stored safely on-site in a dedicated cabinet meaning it couldn’t be quicker or simpler for the team to fuel up for the day ahead. “There’s no unnecessary trips backwards and forwards to the filling station which again results in more time and cost savings. When you begin to add up the savings that come with using Aspen – the convenience factor and the associated financial benefits, together with the improved efficiency of our machinery, it really makes commercial sense.”

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