Vegetation cutters
Faster and safer
In almost all mine affected countries an independent agriculture is of crucial significance. It is the only way to prevent famines or yearlong dependence on food aid programmes in overcrowded refugee camps.
• In many regions which are agriculturally profitable it is impossible to use heavy demining machinery like track-type vehicles, because they would destroy the thin layer of humus. Therefore those regions are manually demined, at best with the help of light mobile devices.
• The first step has to be the removal of vegetation which is strenuous work. Regular detector work is impossible in an overgrown field that has not been used for years, because the deminer needs free space to swivel the detector.
• And, apart from the “regular“ mines, other dangers are lurking in the undergrowth: hidden charges which are released by thin, almost invisible wires. They make the cutting of vegetation an enormously time-consuming, hard and dangerous job. To make this process faster and safer, MgM introduced hydraulic vegetation cutters to the world of demining years ago. These are mounted to mine-protected and armored trucks. They made the vegetation cutting part of the demining process many times faster and completely safe.
• During the last few years these new machines have been used increasingly. Like this the risk is reduced considerably and the procedure has become much faster. This armoured vegetation cutter with a hydraulic drive is able to cut a former agricultural surface, densly overgrown with shrubs and small trees, down to lawn level. Even trees of 15 cms in diameter are chopped to pieces in a moment, leaving only a stub.
• Even if the movements of the hydraulic arm release a wired mine there is no danger for the operator: steel-plating and bullet-proof glass protect him against an explosion.
• After the vegetation cutter has finished the detector work starts. Only then the machine proceeds to the next section. Detected mines and unexploded ordnance are neutralized. At the end of the operation the area is clearly marked and officially derestricted and given back to the population.
MgM Non-Profit-Innovations:
All inventions and developments of MgM are published. We invite all mine clearance organisations of the world expressively to copy these freely. With full intent we do not limit this offer through copyrights or patents.
