Heavy rakes (plough rakes)

Rakes have been used in demining for many years and can provide a cheap, effective and safe method of sifting the ground when used with well designed SOPs. The Heavy rake is used when the ground is hard, and after it has broken the ground, a "Light rake" (or Leaf-rake) is used to move the loosened soil back to the base-line. SOPs for the safe use of rakes can be found starting at page 32 in Chapter 5 of the Demining Handbook.

Rakes can be especially useful when there is heavy ground contamination with metal or minerals, and when there is a need for cost-cost sustainable equipment and methods to be used.

The design of SD Heavy rake is based on the rules required to ensure that a tool does not separate or fragment in an anti-personnel mine blast. Working from an original design of Heavy-rake head used by the NGO Norwegian People's Aid in Sri Lanka, the SD design uses blast-resistant materials and includes a 1.75 metre long tubular stainless steel handle.

The SD Heavy rake tines are made using 10mm stainless steel round bar with "plough-share" feet that are designed so that the tines do not enter the ground if the rake-head is banged down onto the surface.

The rake head should be placed onto the surface gently (for safety) and then pulled back towards the user. The shaped feet dig into the ground automatically, ploughing as they are pulled forward.

We can make the rake head with tines spaced to the customer's specification, but recommend that narrowly spaced tines work best in a wide range of soils and are known to have lifted most small mines to the surface safely.

Users have expressed amazement at the ease of use and the low weight of the rakes. The tubular stainless steel handles are lighter than many wooden handles.

SD Order No. SKU3028 - Heavy rake.

Open and save or print a PDF data-sheet about using the SD Heavy rakes.

Open PDF data-sheet on blast-resistant tools and print or save.

All SD tools can be adjusted to meet your requirements
but significant changes should always be blast tested
to ensure that safety has not been compromised.