UX AmaSpot trailed sprayer

Trailed sprayer with intelligent sensor nozzle system for the reduction of application rates in crop protection

Advertisement

With the intelligent AmaSpot sensor nozzle system, in 2015, AMAZONE introduced in cooperation with the companies Rometron and Agrotop, an innovation in the sector of part-area site specific crop protection application. At Agritechnica 2015 this system was awarded a silver medal for its innovation.

Since then, AmaSpot has been developed further and AMAZONE now offers the UX AmaSpot in 4,200 l and 5,200 l tank capacities. It is equipped with a special AmaSpot boom, in a 24 m working width that includes all the specific components such as the sensors and PWFM nozzles. Since spring 2017, a number of pre-series machines have been operating in Russia and Kazakhstan. Now additional machines have been transported to these arid regions and now, also in Europe, first-hand experiences will be gained with AmaSpot.

With the AmaSpot system, AMAZONE offers its customers the possibility to abandon a complete area, total herbicide application and to treat only part-areas where, in fact, weeds and volunteers prevail.

For detecting the targeted plants, the AmaSpot system features the GreenSense fluorescent sensors. Thanks to its chlorophyll detection ability, it can differentiate between green plants and bare ground. With a sensor spacing of 100 cm along the boom, and a resolution in 4 sectors within the sensor, strips with a width of 25 cm are scanned. This results in a very high precision for the application of crop protection agents.

When a GreenSense sensor detects a green plant the relevant nozzle is switched on and off with centimetre precision, even at speeds of 20 km/h or at night. In addition to the GreenSense sensor, the system features a special nozzle technology which can be controlled with the highest precision. In a split second the nozzles can open or close and thus only treat that specific area of weeds with the crop protection agent.

This nozzle works according to the pulse width frequency modulation (PWFM) principle. Here, a valve regulates, within the high frequency range of 50 Hz (50 switches per second), the frequency of the closing and opening nozzle. By this high switching speed, the system is able to infinitely vary the spray rate from any individual nozzle from 100 % to 30 % or to switch off each nozzle individually. Due to this PWFM regulation, the spray pressure and thus also the size of droplet is always maintained.

In addition, blanket coverage and a part-area site specific application can be combined. So, for example, 30 % of the application rate can be sprayed across the total area and elsewhere, where the sensors detect areas with weeds, the rate can be increased to100 %. This ensures that only areas with heavy weed populations receive the full application rate. The combination of the three components (Sensor – Nozzle Switching – Nozzle) on the AMAZONE sprayer allows the very precise application, such as, for example, of glyphosate with the important objective of reducing the overall application rate.

These enormous savings can also have additional operational economic advantages due to the reduction in the number or refills per day and thus a substantial increase in work rates. With the UX AmaSpot, AMAZONE offers a new application technology which results in enormous spray chemical savings as well as increases in output and helping to save the environment in the sector of total herbicide application.