MachineryLink

Great Machinery Ideas Win Silver and Gold

Jim Patrico
By  Jim Patrico , Progressive Farmer Senior Editor
AGCO's Kevin Bien shows off a scale model of the SmartCooling fan that won an AE50 Award for Innovative Technology in 2011. (Photo courtesy AGCO)

One of the perks for journalists is being able to occasionally peek behind the curtain and see things before they are presented to the public. In my case, "things" most often are new farm machines and devices. I love going to product introductions and seeing equipment that even dealers haven't seen yet. Call me a geek, but it's always a kick.

This year, I was privileged to serve as one of nine judges for a new awards program: The Gold and Silver Awards, which are a collaboration of American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM). These new awards will go to "the best of the best." Contestants came from the past two years' winners of the AE50 Awards for Innovative Technology, ASABE's signature award program.

P[L1] D[0x0] M[300x250] OOP[F] ADUNIT[] T[]

I won't reveal what's behind the curtain; there's an embargo on that information. You'll have to wait until the Gold and Silver awards are presented at the opening ceremonies of AG CONNECT Expo & Summit on Jan. 29, 2013, in Kansas City. But I will give you a sample of the contestants I got to see. Some of them have been on the market for a couple of years. Others will soon be coming to a dealer near you. They are all things that make you stop and say, "What a great idea!"

-- DuPont in 2011 introduced to the U.S. market something called the PrecisionPac, a point-of-sale herbicide dispenser that creates a customized mixture from component active ingredients. "The system can utilize up to six blend components to create a practically unlimited range of herbicide products" any or all of the six components in various ratios, says the entry literature. The thing looks like a giant vending machine. A technician punches in numbers, and out comes a customized dry formulation.

-- SmartCooling is a creative cooling fan system for Gleaner S Series combines, which "combines two innovative technologies into one cooling fan package to drastically reduce cleanout of the cooling package from several times per day to once a harvest," according to Gleaner literature. The system can tilt the angle of the fan blades to create more or less airflow, and the fan motor can reverse to blow debris away from the radiator. Cool stuff.

-- "The WaterScout SMEC 300 Soil Moisture/EC/Temperature Sensor provides growers and researchers with an inexpensive sensor for monitoring three important parameters in the soil profile; moisture, salinity, and temperature," says literature from manufacturer Spectrum Technologies. To do its job, the tiny gizmo uses an electrical conductivity (EC) electrode, which is made of a pair of carbon ink pads to create a large conductive surface. Sensors can be read with the hand-held reader or via the company's weather station products.

-- The TeeJet Technologies Sentry 6140 Tip Flow Monitor is the first system that allows users to check flow rates for individual nozzles across a spray boom. "The Tip Flow Monitor utilizes individual flow sensors on each nozzle body to precisely monitor flow rates. An in-cab display provides audible and visual feedback to the operator," TeeJet says. No more wondering, "What's going on at the end of the boom?"

-- The Great Plains Centurion CDA600 Cultivator Drill sounds like a Swiss Army knife for small grains. Great Plains calls it, "a combination cultivator and grain seeding machine with air seed delivery. By using the new on-board weigh system to weigh the product in the hopper, down-pressure is automatically controlled to ensure constant seeding depth and seed-to-soil contact. Also, sequencing the cultivation and seeding units saves time on headland turns."

Large and small, the AE50 winners tickle the engineer that lurks inside most farmers. The Gold and Silver Award winners ought to be even more intriguing to geeks and gear heads alike.

P[] D[728x170] M[320x75] OOP[F] ADUNIT[] T[]
P[L2] D[728x90] M[320x50] OOP[F] ADUNIT[] T[]

Comments

To comment, please Log In or Join our Community .

WARREN HARDY
1/13/2013 | 8:16 AM CST
Hi Jim Are you planning to attend the National Farm Machinery show in Louvl.If so maybe we could meet and talk farm machinery.