Sprayer makers quick to adopt new nozzle system

Knight Farm Machinery is exhibiting its SP2050 self-propelled sprayer with the Hypro Duo React nozzle bodies installed at the Cereals Event and offers the system trailed and mounted sprayers too.
Knight Farm Machinery is exhibiting its SP2050 self-propelled sprayer with the Hypro Duo React nozzle bodies installed at the Cereals Event and offers the system trailed and mounted sprayers too.

A new spraying system that gives operators greater control over spray quality and application rate will be demonstrated and exhibited on a number of crop sprayers in the Sprays & Sprayers section of the UK’s Cereals Event arable technology event on June 11/12 near Duxford, Cambridgeshire.

The Duo React nozzle body from Pentair Hypro has positions for two active nozzles. Air valves enable the operator to switch between them from the tractor or sprayer cab and with a suitable spray controller, both nozzles can be used at the same time to achieve particular spray characteristics or high fertiliser application volumes.

“The operator can instantly switch from one type of nozzle to another in reaction to changing conditions, to meet LERAPS and other drift control obligations, or when moving from one crop to another,” points out Roger James, Pentair Hypro product manager. “It’s an affordable, cost-effective solution that gives operators easier, more convenient and safer control over in-field nozzle selection.”

The Duo React compact nozzle body has a fixed single outlet and a four-way turret. A key attraction of the system for crop protection treatments is that operators can change from conventional to low drift nozzles simply by flicking of a switch or tapping a spray controller’s touch-screen.

The Hypro Duo React body with different nozzle combinations including ESI six-stream fertiliser nozzle, Guardian Air low-drift and VPTech angled flat fan.
The Hypro Duo React body with different nozzle combinations including ESI six-stream fertiliser nozzle, Guardian Air low-drift and VPTech angled flat fan.

“Field trials and general experience have shown that using the most appropriate nozzle for different crop structures, targets and prevailing conditions can have a significant impact on the efficacy of crop protection treatments,” notes Roger James. “We believe the easy switching provided by Duo React will encourage operators to improve application precision and effectiveness.”

Pentair Hypro will have a live demonstration of single and two nozzle spraying using a Müller Elektronik controller on its stand alongside the Sprays & Sprayers arena at the Cereals Event, and it will be exhibited on sprayers from manufacturers quick to adopt the new nozzle body.

“It’s great, just what we needed for a neat, two outlet installation that does away with twin spray lines,” says Ian Griffin of Sands Agricultural Machinery. “Nozzle switch-over from the cab is simpler, quicker and safer than going out and spinning a standard triplet or quad body; and it’s ideal for keeping the fertiliser dribble bar in place and still having a chemical spraying outlet.”

Sands Agricultural Machinery is among the first sprayer manufacturers to adopt the Pentair Hypro Duo React system – it has been specified on about 60% of new Vision sprayers ordered this year.
Sands Agricultural Machinery is among the first sprayer manufacturers to adopt the Pentair Hypro Duo React system – it has been specified on about 60% of new Vision sprayers ordered this year.

He anticipates considerable uptake by farmers given that about 60% of SAM self-propelled sprayers ordered since it became available will the system fitted.

“It will definitely go on sprayers used for liquid fertilisers because it saves the added components and other issues involved in a twin-line set-up,” he says. ”But it’s also appealing to users who like to swap nozzles to give different spray qualities and rates.”

John Deere’s version of the system, called TwinSelect, is available on high-specification M900i and R900i Series trailed sprayers and is controlled through the tractor’s GreenStar display. It was developed and tested in close partnership with Pentair Hypro to meet John Deere’s demanding quality and reliability standards.

It saves time in the field and, compared to using a twin sprayline, during the rinsing operation, say the company’s sprayer specialists.

A Knight SP2050 self-propelled sprayer will be exhibited with Duo React, which is now available on all Knight Farm Machinery sprayers. Brian Knight expects a very fast uptake of the system

“The Duo React bodies are perfect for us because it simplifies our current approach of fitting two separate nozzle bodies every half metre, and it fits well into the space available on our booms,” he says. “Our spray controller can automatically select outlet A or B, and also A and B together, depending on the application rate required at any particular point in the field, so it will be of particular interest when applying variable rate fertiliser.”

Joe Allen of Chafer Machinery is also enthusiastic: “It’s a great product,” he declares. “We’ve done something similar by putting nozzles back-to-back on a single sprayline to get away from the added components and complexity of twin line installations,” he says. “But this is a neater solution that places both nozzles perfectly and the body is compact enough that nozzles are still protected from impact damage by the boom structure.”

He anticipates farmers who apply liquid fertiliser through their sprayers will use the Duo React body’s single outlet as a home for a dribble bar, leaving the four-way turret for nozzles and using the pneumatic valves to easily switch between crop spraying and fertiliser application.

Alternatively, the ability to switch between fertiliser nozzles of different sizes – using them singly or both at the same time – will compensate for big variations in operating speed (in hilly fields, for example) and application rates.

In developing Duo React, engineers at Pentair Hypro’s European headquarters near Cambridge responded to in-depth market research showing an appetite among farmers and sprayer operators for an affordable means of easily switching between standard and low-drift nozzles, or nozzles with different spray characteristics.

“We were told they were more likely to change nozzles in the field with such a system, to improve pesticides application precision, optimise treatments and meet safety obligations such as LERAP spray margins,” says Roger James. “But they also told us current designs were too costly, complex and cumbersome – Duo React addresses all those issues.”