Technical


A short close finish with sharp flail blades


Clippings mulched to degrade faster


force absorbed by the powering implement, allowing it to be engineered to a level where it can be a flexible tool. Heavy hammers and chains have been replaced, but the core technology remains the same to be successful at this finer end.


How the fundamentals relate to groundcare today


A common problem faced by the commercial grounds maintenance teams of today is the variation of grass and material that must be maintained in one space. It is very common now for areas of a park to be left naturalised and only maintained once or twice a year. These are positioned next to high finish areas that are cut regularly. There is then the amenity grass in the middle‐ground which is being cut less regularly due to cutbacks. A flail mower can be a real solution to maintain all of these areas with one mower.


The historic, free‐swinging element is the key to the flails core advantage. However,


there are several other advantages that are important to recognise to get the most from a flail mower in all conditions. It’s ability to tackle the rougher cuts is well established and often held to less scrutiny, but how do you get the best out of a flail to maintain rougher areas as well as finer turf?


Full width open intake and equal size discharge


The key to the flail’s cut capacity is that it can eject cut material over the entire width of the cutting unit. The intake is as large as the output. When considering a rear discharge rotary mower trying to do the same job, the majority of cut material taken from one sweep of the blade is primarily trying to get ejected through a gap that is only 25% of the intake which, when overloaded, can lead to clogging and balling of grass. Use the flails advantage to take off more material in one pass and always have an evenly spread discharge.


Short distance from cut point to ejection point


Another benefit to the cut capacity is the short distance from where the grass is cut to where it is discharged. Each blade is cutting a section of grass then discharging it without having to travel through uncut material. After a rotary blade cuts the first blades of grass in its path, it must travel through the remaining swath of uncut material. This allows a flail to handle tough sections of grass in amongst regular cutting. Use the flails advantage to take out tough growth sections in amongst regular grass and maintain a consistent finish.


Low Impact energy


The design of a flail has multiple short, lightweight blades on a shaft spinning at a high number of revolutions per minute. This gives the cutting edge the speed it needs to provide the acceptable cut consistency. However, due to vastly reduced blade mass,


PC APRIL/MAY 2018 I 141


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