Happy 21st to the Super-S boom

Amazone’s unrivalled Super-S boom now comes with a £75/metre saving

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When it was introduced back in 1994, Amazone’s Super-S boom dramatically altered the concept of sprayer design. Today, having delivered thousands of sprayers to customers, it is a look which has stood the test of time as a market leader, and although this year marks its 21st Anniversary, the ingenuity is still as young and unrivalled now as it was then.

The central pendulum frame, with its three-fold suspension system, ensures that, in work, the boom is always guided evenly above the crop. The spring and shock absorber package makes sure vertical and horizontal roll movements are avoided and the shortened pendulum means that when working on slopes, the boom follows virtually parallel to the main frame of the sprayer ensuring ruts and ground undulations do not affect the boom. Yaw damping, the worst form of boom movement, is jointly handled across the complete boom via a combination of rubber buffer blocks and slide plates.

At the heart of the boom is the patented Amazone conical and hardened tapered pin, which fits precisely into the boom section’s pivot points, whereas the point contact of the taper means zero play in any direction and thus a complete lack of wear and tear over the years. The result – even after many years of use, Amazone sprayers still keep that optimum boom functionality.

In widths from 15 m to 28m, and available on UF mounted sprayers as well as UG and UX trailed sprayers, the Super-S boom is lighter than other booms which helps stability but with its labyrinth construction – what we put down as aircraft wing design - is, nevertheless, extremely strong.

The hydraulic vertical folding technology, pioneered by Amazone with the H-boom back in the 1980’s, means that the boom is ‘flat-packed’ behind the rear of the sprayer enabling the Super S-boom to achieve its especially narrow transport width of just 2.4 m on the road, meaning ‘where your tractor can fit, the Super-S boom goes to.’ In addition, the boom sits absolutely fixed in its transport hooks, preventing rattling and wear during fast road transport or on rough going. Access in and out of the tractor is unimpeded by the booms going down the sides of the cab and no drips or damage can occur to the tractor in transport. Also off the tractor, then the UF mounted sprayer takes up little space in the shed – a win/win situation all round.

One person to see the benefits of the boom system was Bob Beard of C.R. Beard Farmers Ltd, farming near Sutton-on-Trent, Notts, who, after 14 years of use, reluctantly parted company last year with his 18 metre UF1201 Amazone sprayer for something different, in his case a 24 metre UF1201 Amazone sprayer! ‘You fundamentally know when a piece of kit is right,’ commented Mr. Beard - and now 16 years on, including the couple of seasons he has had with his new 24 metre UF1201, his intuition didn’t let him down.

Another stalwart of the legendary Super-S boom is Will Smith who farms at Church Broughton in Derbyshire and has also had two Amazone UF sprayers back to back; and the verdict here is that the Super-S boom comes in for particular praise, ‘I just couldn’t fault it, it showed no signs of deterioration, slack or free play, the strength and quality of the boom really has impressed me. I’ve had other makes of sprayer in the past and none have held up nearly as well’.

And with spraying speeds and acreages covered increasing all the time, the development has continued unabated throughout its 21 years life to ensure that freshness of reliability is maintained with improved folding systems, break backs and nozzle protection. And of course, DistanceControl automatic boom height guidance is available on all boom widths as well as DUS boom purge and recirculation also being a common option to ensure maximum nozzle reliability and optimum cleanliness.

The Super-S pedigree can also be found in the Super-L boom for the UX trailed sprayers and Pantera self-propelled with widths up to 40 metres. As they say from little acorns oak trees grow.

In this exciting Anniversary year you can benefit from a saving of £75/metre boom width off the buying price of any new Amazone sprayer that is equipped with the Super-S boom: that equates to £1,800 off a 24 metre wide UF1801 sprayer, for example.