Ever thought of a bicycle which can not only run but also cuts grass? If your answer is a NO, then you need to change your answer to a YES because a bicycle can cut grass says Balachandra Karagi, a LEADer of Jain College of Engineering Belgaum. Here’s how he did it.
Balachandra thought of providing a permanent solution for the problem of grass cutting majorly used for cattle feed. Normally grass cutters are operated by hand. But the problem with those machines were that they cut long pieces of grass and those pieces of grass not suitable as cattle feed.
Currently there are other machines which do cut grass into smaller sizes but it uses an electric motor.
The power operated machines faced the issue of power cuts and costs. Taking the same into consideration, Balachandra thought of this novel idea of a grass cutter without the use of electricity. So he came up with the idea of making a grass cutting machine which can cut small pieces of grass.
He made a machine which uses the similar mechanism of a traditional grass cutter, but the major difference is that instead of an electric the machine made by Balachandra uses a bicycle to run the blades. He took a used bicycle, removed the front wheel and connected the rear wheel of the bicycle to the machine with the help of a belt. The front portion of the bicycle is provided a support with the help of a stand. Apart from this arrangement, nothing else is needed. A rider has to keep peddling the bicycle and the grass is supplied to the cutter blades from one end and the blades start chopping the big pieces of grass into small pieces.
Depending on the peddling force of the rider, the cutting process varies. And the specialty of this machine is that there is no need to rotate the bicycle peddles wit
The major advantage of this machine is that it’s a LOW COST cutting machine. If one wants to purchase the machine which is fitted a motor, the machine will cost about Rs. 22,000. There are some government shops which provide the machine on subsidy for a cost of Rs. about Rs. 11,000.
The machine is fitted with a bicycle, the costs can still be reduced from the current Rs.5000.
Currently, Balachandra is planning to improvise the machine to greater heights and make it work more effectively and efficiently and also looking at harnessing power from the same which could illuminate a bulb as well.
1. Major drawback that you need 2 people to do the job which one person should have anyway done it. In a labour starved market in india today, this is a major drawback for this machine.
2. What is so innovative about this machine that it deserved a mention in AAB ? As long as 15 years ago I have seen blacksmiths in belgaum use rim of cycle wheel connected to blower to keep the coal burning.