Those lovely palm trees have a dark side. They're difficult to prune, requiring maintenance far above terra firma, and can harbor bees and rats. Engineering ingenuity, however, has come up with a way to trim these trees safely without leaving the ground.
By Rosaleen Welsh, Senior Associate Editor
As a palm tree grows, its oldest fronds dry out, turn brown, and eventually fall off. For aesthetic reasons, it's often preferable to speed up this process by manually removing the dying fronds. However, this is not the easiest task to accomplish.
Most palm trees are "trimmed and skinned" with knives or chain saws by someone perched on a tall ladder or in a cherry picker, a bucket-shaped device mounted to a truck. Both methods can be dangerous and expensive. They can also damage the ground around the palm trees. In an effort to overcome these obstacles, a company in southern California has invented a device designed to ease the maintenance involved with palm trees.
Luminato Worldwide Inc. in San Bernardino, CA, has created a patent-pending device that can trim away unsightly and hard-to-reach fronds on palm trees. It's called a palm tree trimming machine. Tom King, the vice president and general manager of Luminato Worldwide, says it provides "tremendous cost savings to the consumer" while resolving many safety and environmental concerns.
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The remote-controlled palm tree trimming machine weighs about 300 pounds.
Rainer F. Heckmaier, the inventor, describes it as a self-propelled, remote-controlled, lightweight machine designed to be easily transported. It requires as little as three feet of clearance to be operated, does not damage turf, and can be used in high wind conditions. Weighing about 300 pounds, it not only cuts dead fronds but also skins tree trunks, removing unattractive stubble. Because it is operated remotely from the ground, it eliminates the dangers associated with chain saws and knives and removes the possibility of being attacked by bees or rats nesting among fronds. Here's how it works:
The tree trimmer has three identical uprights, each with two tires, which are placed against the tree. One tire is attached to a 90 Vdc planetary gearmotor from Groschopp while the other is an idler wheel that doubles as a distance gauge for a Delta Chop Saw motor/blade and the machine cage itself. The tires are set at adjustable pre-determined angles so that the tree trimmer can climb and descend in a corkscrew fashion. The uprights are assembled on the tree using positioning/stabilizing bars, which are located at the top, creating an equilateral triangle. At the bottom of the uprights are springs that tie the uprights together. These springs are stretched using a ratchet, pulling the machine to the tree and holding that relationship as the tree's diameter changes. Below the machine cage is an electrical buss assembly, which contains electrical conductors and outlet connectors to the motors. The saw blades, which are 14 in. in diameter, are positioned horizontally to skin the tree and to take off dead fronds as the machine climbs. Once that is accomplished, the blades can be repositioned vertically to remove green and fruit-bearing fronds at the top of the tree.
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The planetary gearmotor features a durable powdered coating finish.
The Groschopp gearmotors used in the tree trimmer are engineered for performance and quiet. They have a powder coating finish for an attractive, rugged appearance and use a high-tech synthetic oil lubricant, instead of standard greases, to provide protection against friction and wear while reducing operating temperatures. A high oil viscosity index and low internal friction combine to reduce power consumption – as much as 5 percent in some gearbox applications.
Groschopp's Chuck Brunsting describes these gearmotors as having "the ultimate in mechanical strength, long life, and quality in a compact, cost-efficient package." He says they go about their work "quietly and efficiently" thanks to a refined tooth profile. The initial design of the planetary gearmotor met industry standards for noise patterns, but Groschopp came up with a "super quiet" design to meet consumer demand for less noise. As a result, engineers "designed out" noise and "designed in" power and peace.
Other features of the gearmotors include a shaft that is 1.5 in. long and 0.75 in. in diameter, a NEMA 34 configuration, an extruded aluminum housing, and a spring-loaded rubber-coated lip seal.
More information on these planetary gearmotors is available by contacting Groschopp, 420 15th St. N.E., Sioux Center, IA 51250, calling (800) 829-4135, writing in xx on our reader service card, or visiting www.groschopp.com.
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