Wider, lighter, stronger spray booms 36-42Mtr.

Article Date:20/03/13

The most effective way to reduce spraying costs per hectare is to go wider and spray more in less time. This has an additional benefit of reducing engine hours, labour hours and fuel consumption.

The most effective way to reduce spraying costs per hectare is to go wider and spray more in less time.

This has an additional benefit of reducing engine hours, labour hours and fuel consumption.

Increasing tank volume reduces the number of fills and going faster increases the work rate but nothing is more effective than a wider boom. Combine all three and you get serious efficiency gains. Up until now, going wider has meant a much heavier boom structures which affected the boom’s performance.

The introduction of the B3 and TR5 36 to 42m aluminium truss booms manufactured by Pommier has addressed the weight-versus-width paradox: The aluminium booms are half the weight of their steel counterpart.

B3 and TR5 aluminium booms deliver incredible performance through design and construction techniques learned over 30 years of manufacturing experience.

Pommier exploits the benefits of aluminium by engineering their own profiles, and by using material cross-sections which are larger than what would be possible from equivalent off-the-shelf materials. While strength and weight are unavoidably connected, at some point weight becomes the enemy and hinders boom performance.

The B3 and TR5 booms may look heavier but are in fact half the weight, providing the opportunity to go wider and still be lighter than the steel boom.

Inertia forces created on headlands, cornering and while spraying is dramatically less than experienced with equivalent steel structures.

Trapeze boom centres are the standard for these booms and an optional pendulum centre for AutoTerrain boom height and stability control is available.

Wing tilts are nitrogen dampened to provide smooth ride.

The nozzles are centre plumbed, spaced at 50cm and protected by the boom structure. Steel is used on hinges, pins, locks, where adjustment is required, and where the duty cycle is high. Aluminium is more corrosive resistant and does not require painting. TR5 is a bi-fold boom has five parallel tube profiles, separated by triangulated connecting elements to form the truss and is used on the SARITOR II self-propelled sprayers.

B3 is a tri-fold boom and much deeper through the truss. It uses three parallel RHS profiles and is an option for COMMANDER II trailer range of sprayers. Due to weight savings, the aluminium profiles are larger than what would be possible with equivalent steel structures.

Level and alignment adjustment is well provided for.

The future is to go wider, and the aluminium boom is the way to do so combining strength with width but without weight related issues.

 View more on: www.hardi.com.au