Grinding

Make a commitment to turf health and reap the benefits

In simple terms, investing in grinding machinery to sharpen your mower blades could be the key to unlocking the full potential of your turf. Purchasing a set of grinding machines is a long-term commitment to superior turf health and financial savings.

So, what’s the point in sharpening mower blades? Well, like any cutting instrument, mower blades become worn and damaged after prolonged use.

The overarching reason for sharpening mower blades is to create the very best growing environment for healthy grass. By accurately slicing the grass with sharp mower blades, almost like a shearing action, you create a perfectly clean cut. The contrast to this would be using a worn or damaged mower blade. That would deliver more of a ripping action when cutting the grass.

Think about your skin. If you are cut with a scalpel during surgery it would deliver a clean cut leaving minimal scarring and recovery time. It is the same with grass.

With less damage, turf is far less susceptible to disease and a lesser need for chemicals, nutrients and water.

You’ll also be able to achieve a really consistent growth pattern across your course or pitch with perfectly cut turf with no weak spots. Overall, this makes for a far superior aesthetic and for those managing the likes of football and rugby pitches, having a healthier grass plant will also add to the durability of the playing surface.

Having your own set of grinding machines in your maintenance shed is also great from a logistics and financial perspective. By owning a set of grinding machines, you will be able to avoid the costs of off-site grinding and take back control of your maintenance programme.

Sending off mowing equipment for sharpening can be expensive. Couple that with unforeseen incidents that would cause mowers to need extra sharpenin, and maintenance can quickly become very costly. With a set of grinders in the workshop, you can fix, grind, and have your mowers back out cutting in less than an hour. n www.bernhard.co.uk

Keeping cutting units sharp and maximise efficiency

Ian Robson of ProSport UK Ltd, the UK & Ireland’s Foley distributer, explains why relief grinding maximises performance:

A vital question for a workshop manager is how to maximise efficiency, 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.

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 R&D has gone into designing a cutting unit to produce the cleanest cut possible.

Why relief grind?

Tests have established that relief ground cylinders stay on cut up to three times longer than spun ground ones and require less horse power to drive the unit. In addition, a relief ground cylinder will withstand the abrasive effects of top dressing far better.

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.

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. 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.

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