In this issue of Building & Construction Review, we are delighted to select LS Products BV as our Landscaping Company of the Year.
Great Britain has always been a sport-loving nation and is widely considered the birthplace of popular sports such as cricket, rugby and football. With iconic sporting venues such as Wembley Stadium, Old Trafford to Anfield, millions of fans tune in across the globe for streamed sporting fixtures throughout the sporting calendar. Many athletes and sportspeople start training young and access to state-of-the-art training facilities is a top priority for sports coaches.
Turfgrass is hugely advantageous for sports ground areas for many reasons, such as long-term utility and maintenance costs. Grass fields require diligent, costly lawn care and unsavoury rodent prevention, whereas turfgrass requires low maintenance debris cleaning and edge-growth removal. Beyond the easy maintenance, the quick-drying turf allows for more playtime in real-time, with cutting-edge drainage systems and no cancelled matches due to muddy conditions. Playing on turfgrass is an altogether smoother, dryer and safer experience for the next generation of football players and athletes.
Introducing the Eco Clipper FM4 Sports from LS Products BV- ideal for sporting grounds, with its accentuated smooth cutting decks with fast rotating small blades, ensuring a high quality of cut and a good distribution of the clippings.
Wet weather forecasted? Don’t worry: the clippings are also well spread in wet grass, which makes it possible to operate the mower almost independently during all weather conditions, even adverse ones. The electrically-driven blades, ensure a quiet, economical operation. In addition, the large wheels and clever deck linking system provide good contour following and enable high mowing speeds. The EC-FM4 Sport is a 4.11m wide mower has four independent cutting decks and the forward position provides excellent visibility and comfort for the tractor operator.
LS Products BV is the proud manufacturer of the next-generational Eco Clipper electric mower system, perfected for the turf grower and sports turfgrass industry since 2018.
The Eco Clipper® Mowing System offers many advantages over traditional cylinder and rotary mowers, due to the superior, independently suspended 106cm wide deck section. It is cleverly linked together in larger, flexible contour following mowing decks. The entire design and development of the Eco Clipper® Mowing System delivers a clean cut, even clippings dispersion and excellent following of the ground contours with minimal soil compaction.
The mowing system also adapts to bespoke requirements so customers can attach the decks to different frames: including Carried or Towed. Offering three options, the Front Mower consists of a single deck with two-six sections, a Towed Mower consists of three separate decks of 10-14 sections wide, and a Carried Rear Mower is combined with a Front Mower and consists of 10-14 sections wide.
The Eco Clipper range offers precision contour following, with the added feature of dispersing clippings, even on wet grass! With The Met Office noting that even last Summer was wetter than average, the Eco Clipper is good news for all sports turfgrass managers or turfgrass farms across the country.
The electrically-driven mowers use an intricate special mowing deck design that incorporates small mowing blades and the high-speed mowing system ensures higher productivity. Furthermore, the small blades and electric guarantee fuel efficiency, a factor welcomed by many during the continuing cost-of-living crisis. What’s more the quiet noise levels of the machine keeps sounds to a minimum, ideal for school, college or university environments during lesson times and exams.
The Eco Clipper® Mowing System was the brainchild of Dutch inventor: Syb Leijenaar. The design cleverly evolved from the mowing system originally used on the family turfgrass farm of the Leijenaar family in the Netherlands back in the 1990’s. Over the following decades, the design was part of an extensive R&D process and then in 2019, the Eco Clipper range was introduced to turfgrass farmers across the European continent. During the following year, the 14.11-meter-wide Eco Clipper: RM14 Butterfly Mower and the Eco Clipper TM14 tri-deck mower were both highly successful signature mowers for the turfgrass growers and sports ground sectors.
We caught up with inventor extraordinaire: Syb Leijenaar to find out more about this innovative mowing system, set to revolutionise the turfgrass industry:
“The Eco Clipping mowing system is distinguished from other mowing systems by low energy consumption, low noise and good dispersion of grass clippings even when the grass is wet and high possible mowing speeds. It is also easy to operate and requires little maintenance.
Due to the cost-of-living crisis, the last 12 months have been slower business-wise, although business has been picking up again since the summer months. As an experienced, agile company, we have wisely used the opportunity to spend more time on new developments.
Our current developments are mainly focused on autonomous large area mowing. Our autonomous mowing system will be introduced in the coming year. We offer a 309 cm or a 513 cm wide Eco Clipper mowing deck. The power comes from either a diesel generator or a 61 kWh battery pack. With the battery pack, the system can power for 20 to 25 hectares before recharging again. This makes an interesting combination with charging the battery with solar energy during midday hours.
We are keen on increasing productivity in large area quality mowing and hence lowering the mowing costs for our customers. For the specific target groups like turfgrass growers and sports ground managers, we already have the most productive equipment in the market, due to the large cutting width and high possible mowing speeds.
For the autonomous mower it is important that it can be operated safely without immediate supervision, to save labour. Therefor we have partnered with a Danish firm that fully focuses on safe operation of autonomous equipment in the field.”
The new Eco Clipper Autonomous Mower, will be trialled with selected farms during 2024 and uses three different types of obstacle detection: camera, lidar and radar for safety across dusty environments.
The new Autonomous range runs at speeds of up to 16km/h and surpasses all safety standards with its cutting-edge obstacle detection technology.
“2024 will see the introduction of the autonomous mower on a couple of carefully selected farms. We want at least a year of real-life experience before we will introduce these systems to a wider audience.
We expect to grow gradually in the sports ground market in the coming years. We have received wonderful, positive feedback from our existing users. They like the capacity, quiet running and economic use of fuel. Everyone who needs to replace old mowers should consider an Eco Clipper.”
From training the next generation of best sportspeople, to maintaining turf farms, the Eco Clipper range has something for everyone, throughout all the seasons, including rain. We asked Syb on how it felt to be selected for our Landscaping Company of the Year,
“I feel honoured to be selected for the award. When you work with these products every day you no longer notice that they are different. The award reminds us that we stand out. We are immensely proud of that.”
For more information, on the full Eco-Clipper range please see the website below: