Hello my name is John Gittins I'm Engineering and Innovation Manager at Allett Mowers I'm stood in
the test container behind me is a Stirling this has been on test since our launch to the public
at Saltex 2021. We've just come to the end of testing and now we've said go for launch.
So what's involved in testing? So we use a three-pronged approach really so it's safety
testing, reliability testing and performance testing. So safety testing; her at Allett we
always design to the most applicable standard and safety testing involves flash testing so that's
just checking the insulation is equivalent to the voltage we're putting through it,
guarding obviously so you don't get any pinch points you guard all your belts and the cylinder
as much as possible also we do noise testing and vibration testing just to make sure the user's
not at any risk. So next is reliability testing and here the rig behind me plays a significant
role in that at Allett so we're looking at how well components such as belts, bearings , gears,
motors and rollers and any wearing parts last through the product life cycle.
So how do we check for reliability? So we keep an eye on temperatures on the mower as it's on
the test rig we also remove parts intermittently and measure and inspect for how much wear has
occurred. We normally test for a seven year life and we achieved this in four weeks. It's quite an
aggressive program and we do run 24/7. So how do we monitor the machine when it's on the test rig?
So new for this year is a camera and that lets us keep an eye on what's going on on the rig
and really invaluable this year has been the data logger that's a massive advancement for
us it uses the internet and things so we can look at current, volts, temperature
all remotely from anywhere in the world really. It beams that straight to my phone so i can look
at what's going on and even over Christmas and New Year we could see what was what's happening
and if we had to come in to take action or not. So the other stage of testing is performance testing
this is invaluable for us here at Allett to help us improve and develop our products .It's really
good to get the voice of the customer in the product first we take the mower ourselves and
use it in different scenarios and we also send it home with Austin we all know Austin so he can use
it on his lawn and get his feedback. The data for the rig behind me all came from his lawn.
Mark Marshall is a pro gardener from Macclesfield he's had a Stirling for some time now so he's been
lifting it in and out of vans trying all the different cartridges and giving us really good
feedback on all the features . It's also important to get reliability testing in in real life.
Because here at Allett we sell worldwide it's really important for us to get a good handle
on the different grass varieties and climates around the world especially their effect on our
mower and how well we perform so we send mowers to Australia, Germany and the USA. So we've sent a
machine to Australia where temperatures can reach up to 40 degrees ambient also in this container
we can raise the temperature to 40 degrees ambient by shutting the doors and putting some heaters on.
We can check that on on our data logger so we can see what's going on. So how does the test rig
work? Basically it's an old shipping container and we repurposed to make a little test cell . We've
got a battery that sits in there that is connected to a transformer. Because we run 24/7 we can't
really run off a battery because we'd have to be here all the time to swap them over. Next so
it's a whole test rig machine so we're tipping the mower every 30 seconds we do a tip cycle so that
brings the mower back to test the structural integrity of the chassis and the handlebars.
Next we load through the cartridge here we use a hydraulic motor and restrict the output so it puts
a varying load on the cylinder motor after that we've got it on a little rolling road here which
uses an old Buffalo roller we've purposely made it run eccentrically so it puts a vibration into the
machine that replicates running over an undulating lawn. So to vary the load on the rear roller we
again run that through another hydraulic motor and then we can vary the load on on that as well
and the important part is this is the data logger so it's capturing all the data
temperature sensors and current from the mowers as it's running and we can check that live and
save it for future reference and analysis. So the valve that controls all the loading is situated
up here on the wall and that is controlled by the programmable controller on the wall here.
Early in 2019 we designed this test rig at Allett. We designed it so it was modular so we can test
any size of mower we've tested Uplift 86E's in here C34E's and now we're testing Stirlings.
Each year we improve the test rig to make it better. So why do we test mowers? Our customers
demand a world-class product here at Allett we have a strong reputation for long-lasting mowers
we still supply spares for the first mowers we designed and developed in 1965.
We want to prove new features that customers have thought of on our products.
We send machines all around the world to test them in different climates and grass types.
We use customers of different profiles to test machines such as pro gardeners like Mark Marshall,
groundsmen like Gary Barwell at Edgbaston and homeowners this lets us get feedback from all
working conditions. So now we've completed the testing on the Stirling we've given it
the green light for launch and you can hope to see it in your garden soon.