Tractors are powerful vehicles with large rear wheels, these vehicles are mainly used on farms for farming activities like hauling because they serve as hauling equipments and trailers. Every tractor has a power take-off, which in short means PTO, so what's a PTO? In simple terms, it is a process of taken power from a power source. For example, if an engine is running, a person can off its power with a power source. It's simply an attachment to the vehicle, but it can be a separate machine in most cases. All attached PTOs, can be seen at the end of a tractor, which is at the bottom or between the back tyres of a tractor. However, it's not only tractors that have PTOs, but engines used in industries and for marine purposes also use it, as it helps to improve a machine's performance.
Aircraft are not left out, as these vehicles use PTOs with a constant speed drive. Some aircraft even have different types, especially the jet, which has about 4 types of PTO units.
In the previous years, using a PTO and its other components could cause severe injuries, especially when using it for farming vehicles like the tractors. About 6% of tractor fatalities recorded in the year 1997 resulted from the use of tractors with PTOs by farmers, this was just recorded in the US only. How can an incident occur when using a PTO? Here's a simple reason why it can cause accidents. First a shaft is connected to the PTO, so if peradventure a loosed cloth is pulled towards the shaft, then the person wearing those clothes can be drawn towards the shaft, cutting his bones or leaving serious injuries. The only process of escaping this fatality is when that person quickly pulls himself off those clothes, either by tearing them or by losing them. PTOs are made for good reasons, but it still causes accidents and leads to death, so users have to be careful.
Disabilities are sometimes caused by this equipment, as bones like the limbs get crushed when a user pulls himself from the shaft. So with these issues arising from the use of the equipment, different implements now use protective plastic guards to prevent the risk of having an accident due to shafts. Most countries have even made it compulsory to use these plastic guards. New users will get a manual guide or safety leaflets showing how the equipment should be used.
The four types of shafts rotate anti-clockwise, that is if a person decides to view it from the front of the tractor, but at the back, it will move clockwise. Finally, fire fighting trucks use this equipment, the PTO will easily connect to a water pump, pushing the water to any location because of the mechanical force being transmitted. Firefighters use PTO for running a water pump in their trucks. Farmers use it for hauling purposes, it's used for vacuum blowers, grapple trucks, and many other purposes. Users should always be careful when using machines like these, to prevent fatalities.