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Background: Riding lawn mower injuries are the most common cause of major limb loss in young U.S. children. Our study objective was to investigate the circumstances surrounding pediatric riding lawn mower injuries and to identify potential contributing risk factors and behaviors leading to these events. Methods: Followers/members of both a public and a private lawn mower injury support and prevention Facebook page who had or were aware of children who had suffered a lawn mower-related injury were invited to complete an electronic survey on Qualtrics. Duplicate cases and those involving push mowers were removed. Frequencies and chi-square analyses were performed. Results: 140 injured children were identified with 71% of surveys completed by parents and 19% by an adult survivor of a childhood incident. The majority of injured children were Caucasian (94%), male (64%), and ≤ 5 years of age at the time of the incident (63%). Bystanders were 69% of those injured, 24% were lawn mower riders, and mower operators and others accounted for 7%. The lawn mower operator was usually male (77%), being the father/stepfather in almost half. Overall, 59% of injuries occurred while traveling in reverse, 29% while moving forward. Nearly all (92%) had an amputation and/or permanent disability. Subgroup analysis (n = 130) found injured bystanders were younger than injured passengers with 71% versus 45% being < 5 years of age, respectively (p = 0.01). Over three-quarters of bystander incidents occurred while moving in reverse as compared to 17% of passenger incidents (p < 0.01). Amputations and/or permanent disabilities were greater among bystanders (97%) as compared to passengers (79%, p = 0.01). Only 3% of bystanders had an upper extremity injury as compared to 21% of passengers (p = 0.01). Seventy-three percent of bystander victims had received at least one ride on a lawn mower prior to their injury incident. Conclusions: Child bystanders seriously injured by riding lawn mowers were frequently given prior rides likely desensitizing them to their inherent dangers and leading them to seek rides when mowers were being used. Engineering changes preventing blade rotation when traveling in reverse and not giving children rides (both when and when not mowing) may be critical in preventing mower-related injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the explosion of urbanization, more and more small residential areas with high population density, tiny houses, and narrow roads are formed. As a result, it is challenging for large fire engines to penetrate these areas in the event of a fire incident. In this paper, a compact firefighting vehicle was designed based on the SNAPPER LT140H331KV lawn mower. The vehicle is equipped with a water sprayer system and a folding frame water tank. The water sprayer system transmits power from the lawn mower transmission's power take-off shaft via the belt and chain drive, which can spray water at a height of about 13 m with a flow rate of 38 L/min. The 500-liter folding frame water tank has a rectangular shape that can be folded and dragged as a trailer. The water sprayer system and folding frame water tank not only have a simple, compact structure but also do not affect the lawn mowing function. This fire truck has a maximum speed of about 15 km/h and can move in a minimal road width of only 1.3 m, which is accommodation for residential areas within a 1÷2 km radius with narrow roads, high density of population and houses in least developed and developing countries (e.g., Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), where the normal fire engines are difficult to access in time. Besides, the vehicle can be used for watering and spraying pesticides on gardens and small premises. The study has proposed a valuable solution to take advantage of vehicle functions to improve their convenience and usefulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Nanchang University (Engineering & Technology) is the property of Nanchang University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The continuous increase in the cost of fuel and the effect of emission of gases from burned fuel into the atmosphere when operating engine powered lawn mower has necessitated the use of the abundant solar energy from the sun as a power source of a lawn mower. A solar powered lawn mower was designed, fabricated and assembled on the basis of the general principle of mowing. The components of the lawn mower are; direct current (DC) motor, rechargeable battery, solar panel, galvanized steel blade of various thicknesses and shapes, and a speed controller. The required torque needed to drive the galvanized steel blade was achieved through the DC motor. The speed of the DC motor was controlled by the speed controller with the resistance in the circuit and allowed the motor to drive the blade at varied speeds. The battery recharged through the solar charging circuit, which comprises of a solar panel and charge controller. Performance evaluation was conducted on the developed mower with various thicknesses (1 mm, 1.5 mm and 2 mm) and shapes of the cutting blade (two, three and four blades). It was found that the cutting efficiency of the mower ranges from 70.50% - 84.10%, also the cutting capacity ranges from 0.05 ha h-1 - 0.27 ha h-1, the uncut area was also found to range from 15.90% - 29.50%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction The most important adverse effects of noise on humans have reduced work efficiency and physiological damaging effects such as increased heart rate, high blood pressure, permanent and temporary hearing loss, impaired vision, disrupting the body's balance system, causing nervous disorders and even nervous disorders. Much of the occupational disturbance is due to acoustic vibrations in agricultural mechanization, which is affecting a large number of farmers. In this regard, most of the noise and vibration come from two-stroke or four-stoke engines that are used in lawn mowers, sprayers, pits and more. These high-vibration equipment causes a great deal of damage to their operators. Portable lawn mowers are popular for working in urban and rural areas due to their low cost, low maintenance cost, high maneuverability and affordability. Therefore, the possibility of optimizing the muffler of a small combustion engine for a lawn mower was investigated and studied in the present stud. Materials and Methods To optimize the existing muffler, geometry of the factory muffler was first redesigned in solidworks 2014 software. Then the optimized muffler, along with the factory muffler exported into ANSYS CFX software and simulated in terms of velocity and pressure distributions. To evaluate the built muffler and compare its performance with the factory standard muffler, the mufflers were then mounted on a DOMA's lawnmower model WPGD501 with a 42 Cm engine volume and tested outdoors in a radius of 5 m. All sound recording tests were performed in steady state at a distance of lm with a 45٥ angle and position along the exhaust outlet to reconstruct the user's ear position. A digital thermometer TEM-8820 and a PSA-vol digital barometer were used to measure the sound pressure and an environment temperature. Results and Discussion The results showed that at 3000 rpm, the sound pressure level of the modified muffler decreased by 6.4٥/o compared to the modified muffler. The same decrease in sound pressure level was achieved at 5000 rpm, equal to 4.5٥/٠. The results of this study showed that with increasing engine speed, pressure changes in the muffler had an upward trend. These changes in the modified muffler increased by 0.02 kPa at 3000 rpm and by 0.07 kPa at 5000 rpm. According to the outputs of the FFT diagrams, the intensity and amplitude of the output frequencies from the modified muffler significantly decreased almost at most frequencies. Therefore, effective pressure difference (APrms) was used for the further investigations. The results of this study showed that the pressure changes in the muffler had an upward trend with increasing the engine speed. These changes in the modified muffler increased by 0.02 kPa at 3000 rpm and by 0.07 kPa at 5000 rpm. Conclusions According to the results of the present study, by optimizing the internal muffler geometry of the lawn-mowers by installing internal blades and neutralizing the sound intensity inside the muffler, it is possible to reduce the sound pressure level by 4% to about 7% over the original muffler. It is a very simple and inexpensive method for the manufacturer of such engines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cost of fuel is getting increased and the effect of gases being emitted from the burnt fuel is weakening the ozone layer. Carbon emission has also become a big challenge in today's world. Therefore, by using solar power, we can reduce carbon footprints. Lawn mowers are becoming popular now-a-days. Grass cutting being a tedious work for human beings, can be simplified by using an automatic grass cutter, which can be performed without a physical person being present. While cutting the grass, there are some obstacles, which obstruct the cutting of grass and sometimes the blades of the machine get damaged, so it is necessary to avoid obstacles. For that we have to identify the obstacles first and then we have to change the path of the lawn mower. Supplying power to the lawn mower is a big issue while designing the model. In this paper, the authors have used a solar panel to charge the battery and the power stored in the battery is utilized to power the electric motors, which will rotate the blades to cut the grass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fatal lawn mower related injuries are a relatively rare occurrence. In a forensic setting, the primary aim is to reconstruct the injury mechanism and establish the cause of death. A relatively rare, but characteristic type of injury is a so-called projectile or missile injury. This occurs when the operator or a bystander is impacted by an object mobilized from the grass by the rotating mower blades. This type of injury often leaves only modest external trauma, which increases the risk of overlooking an entry wound. In this paper we present a case of a fatal lawn mower related projectile injury which was initially overlooked, later interpreted as a possible gunshot homicide, and finally identified as a lawn mower related projectile injury when autopsy revealed a piece of metal thread in the main bronchus to the right middle lobe, hemopericardium, and right-sided hemothorax. To our knowledge, this injury mechanism has not previously been reported as a cause of death. This case illustrates the importance of postmortem radiological imaging and interdisciplinary cooperation when establishing manner and cause of death in unusual cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sulky is a single-wheeled platform attachment on which the operator of a commercial walk-behind lawn mower rides while standing. The effects of sulky vibration on operator comfort and health have not been investigated. In this study, tri-axial accelerometers measured sulky vibration during mower use by two commercial mowers on varied terrain and 12 volunteer mowers over a controlled course. The accelerometer data were processed according to methods established in ISO 2631. Results indicate the mean frequency-weighted root mean square (RMS) acceleration sums fall into the ‘very uncomfortable’ range for vibration of standing persons (1.9 ± 0.48 m s−2). Additionally, vibration dose values indicated that the mean vibration dosages exceeded the daily exposure limit values established in Directive 2002/44/EC (z-axis A(8) value of 1.30 ± 34 m s−2; VDVexpvalue of 28.1 ± 6.25 m s−1.75). This information suggests that modifications including vibration damping should be added to the sulky to reduce rider discomfort and health risks. Practitioner Summary: This study investigated the effects of vibration during use of a commercial lawn mowing sulky. Findings from accelerometer data suggest that the vibration experienced by sulky operators is significant enough to cause discomfort and health risks which may lead to personnel turnover or long-term effects for the operator. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Examination of a commercial riding mower found intermittent function of seat interlock switch in that powered rotation of blades and drive wheels would occasionally occur when operator left seat. Testing confirmed that this magneto shorting seat switch would occasionally show open or high resistance across contacts when plunger was released by seat. Evidence of opposing expert alleged switch plunger binding due to galling was not revealed during testing. The mower design resulted in leaking battery acid contaminating the seat switch terminals. Extensive switch testing and analysis (including dynamic X-ray viewing, SEM imaging and energy dispersion, and chemical sampling) revealed sulfuric acid contamination and corrosion of switch internal contacts that inhibited consistent electrical continuity. Concluded was that mower design and maintenance, rather than off the shelf switch design flaw was cause of accident, which affected the civil trial outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experimental and computational studies were performed to determine the effects of different blade designs on a flow pattern inside a double-spindle counter rotating mower deck. In the experimental study, two different blade models were tested by measuring air velocities using a forward-scatter LDV system. The velocity measurements were taken at several different azimuth and axial sections inside the deck. The measured velocity distributions clarified the air flow pattern caused by the rotating blades and demonstrated the effects of deck and blade designs. A high-speed video camera and a sound level meter were used for flow visualization and noise level measurement. In the computational works, two-dimensional blade shapes at several arbitrary radial sections have been selected for flow computations around the blade model. For three-dimensional computation applied a non-inertia coordinate system, a flow field around the entire three-dimensional blade shape is used to evaluate flow patterns in order to take radial flow interactions into account. The computational results were compared with the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery & Traumatology is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)