REGINA – Tracy Gardener worked with a man who was injured in a farm accident and decided to put his inventor’s mind to work creating a product that makes farming safer.
“I wanted to do something that might prevent farm amputations and injuries from happening to other folks,” said Gardener.
He and his partner Blaine Lynn have developed a new product for the farm market.
They call it the Body Guard and it lets farmers shut down their equipment remotely.
“There’s the reason we need this,” said Lynn as yet another farmer missing a limb browsed past his trade show booth at the Western Canada Farm Progress Show, in Regina, last week.
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Working on the same principal as the remote car starter, the Body Guard is a tiny radio remote control mounted in a key fob. With the press of a button a farmer can turn off an engine up to 75 metres away.
“We can make this work on any machine with a 12 volt electrical system. Mechanical, electrical, gas, diesel, fuel injected or carbureted, it doesn’t matter. We can stop it,” said Lynn.
While looking into statistics about farm accidents Gardener discovered farming was more dangerous than he had thought.
“Two farmers die every week in Canada in farm accidents. And kids and seniors make up like 23 percent of that.
“With this you can be halfway across the yard and see your toddler head for the hopper on the grain auger and you can shut the auger off long before you could ever get there,” said Gardener.
The Body Guard installs in line in machines with electrical shutoffs and with the addition of a solenoid on mechanically operated systems.
Multiple transmitters and receivers are available for a variety of applications including stationary equipment like mills and grain driers.
A 20-second delay is programmed into the software that will ensure the machine stays off even if shut down from a high throttle setting.
The pair operates a company based in Martensville, Sask., called Excel Innovations and it is their second year at the show’s New Inventions lineup.
Another product they manufacture is called CamTrak, a video camera and monitor system that can be mounted on farm equipment.
