Fill time is frustration time during spraying season. Every gallon and every minute passes so slowly. Reducing fill time has put engineers on an endless “speed it up” treadmill quest.
Fill time is reduced from 30 minutes down to seven minutes with the two new high-capacity Spray Fill Xpress nurse tanks from Summers Manufacturing. Summers says this works out to an 82 percent improvement in sprayer productivity, thanks to the tanks’ uniquely designed chemical batching process.
“The biggest (improvement) is having your tender operator prepare your next batch for you in advance,” says Summers engineer Doug Lee.
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“You batch everything in the nurse tank in advance. Then, when your sprayer shows up, you turn all the valves on and it injects the chemicals into the water stream as you load your sprayer.…
“You don’t waste any fill time measuring things out. It’s all done for you in advance. You would plumb the nurse tank into the tender trailer. Custom applicators really like the system. They spend more time spraying.
“There are other manufacturers with similar machines, but I think we have the simplest and easiest to use nurse tank.”
He said to avoid undesirable reactions from premixing, chemicals are portioned into the individual tanks so that they remain separate until drawn into the sprayer. Precise flow meters and scales are available to help provide exact measurements when adding chemicals.
When the sprayer returns to the nurse trailer for filling, the pre-portioned chemicals are sucked into the sprayer through three-inch plumbing.
The stainless steel tanks have a deep sump design to help prevent splashing and to facilitate complete drainage. An integral rinse system has nozzles to thoroughly rinse the tanks and jugs. A rinse wand is also included for cleaning the tanks or for making a slurry during dry chemical induction.
The two Spray Express units are designed to accommodate a variety of nurse trailer setups. Both feature the same chemical batching process. The original SFX2430 can be fitted with three, four, five or six stainless steel tanks, bringing total chemical holding capacity to 240 gallons.
The new SFX1630 is smaller, at 78 inches, allowing it to fit crossways on a trailer. It can be customized with two, three or four tanks for a 160-gallon total capacity.
Other standard features include integral fork pockets for easily moving and positioning the unit.
