Allett‘s new battery-powered fine-turf cylinder mower made its world public debut on the company’s stand at IOG SALTEX 2010.
Known as ELMOW, the walk-behind machine is available with a choice of 510mm (20in) or 610mm (24in) wide cutting units, both fitted as standard with a 120mm (4.7in) diameter, 10-bladed cutting cylinder and a powered turf groomer.
ELMOW’s rate of cut is an impressive 220 clips per metre (199 clips/yard), a rate that is maintained irrespective of working speed or variations in speed. Height of cut can be adjusted without tools from 2.4mm to 19mm (0.1in – 0.75in) using Allett’s established quick-height adjuster.
Designed, developed and manufactured at Allett’s engineering centre in Hixon, Staffordshire, ELMOW is aimed at bowls, golf, cricket and tennis clubs requiring a precision mower that produces minimal noise or vibration and zero emissions at the place of work. These attributes will appeal also to professional gardeners, contractors and home owners with fine ornamental lawns to maintain.
Prototype testing over the past year by Allett engineers has shown that a fully-charged battery pack provides approximately four hours’ mowing, the actual time being dependent on grass length, height of cut and mowing gradients.
The battery pack powering ELMOW is a 24 volt, 42Ah gel-type unit located using a ‘slide and click’ system that allows rapid interchange of discharged and fully-charged battery packs, if required. Using its electronic three-stage charger, ELMOW’s batteries take around eight hours to recharge from “empty”, a process normally carried out overnight.
Careful thought has been given by Allett to ELMOW’s operating controls which are laid out on adjustable handles fitted with anti-vibration mountings. Forward and reverse speeds (up to 5km/h and 2km/h respectively) are selected by left- and right-hand thumb controls with individual hand levers provided to engage drive to the cutting cylinder and the two-piece aluminium rear roller. There is also a backlapping button which, when engaged, reverses cylinder rotation while simultaneously reducing cylinder speed by 75 per cent.
For easy mower movement with or without the battery in place, the rear roller drive can be disengaged in an instant by means of a simple lever.
The mower’s powered grooming reel is the same unit as fitted to Allett’s well-established Tournament and C-Range models and uses thin vertical blades at 10mm spacings to lift lateral grasses immediately ahead of the cutting cylinder, promoting a consistently even finish. The groomer can be raised out of work if not required.
An important safety feature is an automatic brake which engages when ELMOW is stationary, releasing automatically when forward or reverse drive is selected.
With full production of ELMOW scheduled to begin in good time for the 2011 mowing season, Allett is now planning demonstrations with a view to taking forward orders over the coming months to ensure that ELMOW production levels match customer demand.
Price of the ELMOW 20 and 24 mowers, including a battery pack and charger, is £5,400 and £5,650 respectively.
Allett Mowers www.allett.co.uk