Groundskeeping Journal Issue 2 2020 | Page 29

SPECIALIST MOWERS Eco Clipper ® the new name in electric wide area mowers To grow good quality turf you must preferably not cut off more than 1/3 of the length each cut. Traditionally this is done by cylinder mowers. well-maintained cylinder mower provides a nice clean cut, resulting in healthy grass. The cylinder mower generally has a high maintenance demand and it does not cut well in wet grass. Also traditional rotary mowers are not good in the wet. During wet and warm conditions this can result in a pause in the mowing schedule resulting in a huge amount of clippings which have to be collected. A To solve this situation, a Dutch turf grower began experimenting with small sharp blades on small rotors and learned how to obtain the clean cut of the cylinder mower, while being insensitive for weather conditions. In order to make a wide mower with many small blades, it was decided to use electric motors for driving the blades. This prevents a clutter of V-belts, gearboxes and PTO-shafts or even worse, hydraulic motors with risk of oil leakage and poor efficiency. The turf grower’s son, Syb Leijenaar, made a commercial product out of it, starting with a 10m wide electric mower for turf growers. Later, smaller versions were introduced including a 4m wide front mower for sport grounds and parks. These mowers were adopted quickly among turf growers in the UK and mainland Europe. Practically all these mowers are still in service. Development stopped in 2008, but the demand and requests were still present in the market place and for even wider mowers, with that a new line named Eco Clipper® was being introduced last year. The Eco Clipper® mowing system has evolved with the experience of many years of use in different countries around the world. The cutting quality and clippings dispersion under wet conditions have been further improved, driving speeds while cutting have been increased resulting in saving in both time and fuel. The base of the system is a deck section of just over one meter wide, cleverly linked together for excellent contour following and low ground compaction. Add to this the low maintenance need and it is a very economical mowing system that delivers a high-quality cut. In the UK, the Eco Clipper® mowing system is distributed and supported by Vanmac Ltd. We are starting with turf growers with models with a working width of up to 14m wide. The 4m and 6m wide front mowers are suitable for large parks and sport grounds. Ecoclipper www.ecoclipper.com GroundskeepingJournal.co.uk | Sept/Oct 2019 29