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Rover Mower Products

The Research and Development Division of Rover Mowers Limited of Eagle Farm in Brisbane retained Gilmore Engineers to examine continual improvement in the cutting performance of their 20" cut lawn mowers. An extensive research and development program was undertaken on the cutting performance of the Rover swing-back blade design. The aim was to identify improvements which would provide additional competitive advantage for this well known and well proven Australian product as it ventures further overseas in the coming years.

Understanding the Issues: The project began by identifying the physical mechanisms and factors which were important to cutting performance. These had to be well understood before modifications could be proposed which would provide improvement and also conform to safety and noise standards.

Theoretical and Experimental Analysis: A theoretical analysis of the typical grass cutting action was performed prior to designing and manufacturing many experimental prototype products. Numerous experimental tests followed which were scientifically formatted for maximum gain. They included:

Visualisation: A lawn mower was modified to incorporate acrylic windows on the main cutting deck to allow visualisation of the cutting action and grass movement.

Strobe Visualisation: A strobe light was used to “freeze” blades for visualisation under full dynamic conditions.

Aerodynamic Tests: The vortex air flow from grass level up into the grass catcher was assessed using hot wire anemometry techniques.

Grass Tests: All prototypes were tested on a scientific multi-variable basis while cutting grass. A rating system was specially developed to enable the relative performance of test strips to be evaluated against a standard benchmark.

Noise Measurements: Noise measurements were performed on the best prototypes.

Overseas trials: Detailed experimental testing of the final prototype was performed in New Zealand, and also in Europe to ensure that product enhancements developed in Queensland performed to expectations in the conditions to which they would be exposed in other markets.

Good News!! Proposed modifications which will provide an additional marketplace advantage for Rover Mowers in the future were found to be 100% successful. The changes were not only found to improve cutting performance, but they also greatly increased the life of the replaceable cutting blades.