Force Requirements of Different Manual Pruning Shears When Cutting Abelia (Abelia Grandiflora) Branches

Abstract

The article is focused on comparative investigation of some pruning shears (bypass) in terms of cutting forces and design when cutting Abelia branches. Three different by-pastype pruning shears were selected to evaluate. Abelia branches were used as a material in the tests. The experiments were carried out at a constant speed of 300 mm/min and 6 replicates in two different diameter groups (4.89 mm and 6.93 mm). The shear force data was obtained using a Lloyd tester and a computer with NEXYGEN software. The diameters of braches were included in the model as covariates and their effect was eliminated from the model and only the effect of the design characteristics of the shears on the force values was investigated. The LSD test was used for comparisons between means and covariance analysis was used for data analysis. The results were statistically significant at 1% significance level. According to the results; the smallest force values were obtained by first shear for both diameter groups (32.54 N-85.11 N). All the data were taken into consideration; it was seen that the first shears performed the same process with less force than the other shears in terms of cutting forces.