Hose and fittings supplier Hydraulic & Automation Warehouse (HAW) Cape Town, recently supplied hose, fittings, accumulators and other products to tractor-drawn and mounted farming equipment manufacturer and distributer Rovic & Leers for use on a custom-designed maize planter.

“A farmer from Lichtenburg visited the Rovic & Leers stand at last year’s Nampo Agricultural Show, in Bothaville. He enquired about a 21-m-wide, 24-row planter that could also incorporate a fertiliser system capable of carrying 18 t of fertiliser,” says HAW technical sales representative Raymond Forlee.

At that point, the biggest planter the equipment manufacturer had in its range was 12 m wide, with a carrying capacity of 8 t.

Realising that farming equipment is becoming more powerful and that bigger implements can assist farmers in reducing their input costs, the Rovic & Leers engineering team completed a provisional design and quote for the customer.

The farmer accepted the quote, enabling the equipment manufacturer to build and assemble the planter. HAW was contracted to measure, assemble and supply the hose assemblies to complete the connection of the system.

“To absorb the shocks from the tines that hit rocks in the planting process, we used two 20 ℓ accumulators. As the pressure was within the 200 bar range, we selected hose to SAE 100 R2 AT specification to perform the various functions required of the planter, including the frame lift, wingfold, wing lock and the parkjack, as well as for driving the fan motor,” says Forlee.

The SAE 100 R2 AT specification relates to rubber hydraulic high-pressure hose.

The unit was tested and delivered on time.

There is potential for more orders of such implements to follow.

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