BRANDON Ñ Conserva Pak has developed a new opener system that provides independent, adjustable force control for the fertilizer opener, seed opener and packer-gauge wheel.
The Platinum Independent Linked System, or ILS, uses individual hydraulic systems to achieve accurate yet independent control over the three main components on each seeding arm.
Each of the three components has its own trip-out action, so if one of the tools on an arm trips, it doesn’t affect the other two.
“The fertilizer opener is the one that breaks the ground, so there are a lot of seeding situations where you might want higher or lower force up front,” said Conserva Pak inventor Jim Halford.
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“Or you may need to adjust the force further back on the seed opener or the packer.”
All fertilizer shanks on the drill are adjusted with a single hydraulic valve while the packer-gauge wheels on the drill are adjusted with a different hydraulic valve. The seed openers are the only tools that are mechanically adjusted one at a time.
As the average farm becomes larger, many producers find they can no longer set up their seeding equipment for just one soil type. The ILS is designed to allow quick adjustments to meet a wide variety of soil types and conditions. This range of adjustments is also helpful as the seeding season progresses and soil moisture changes.
The ground-penetrating tool at the front of the drill is the fertilizer shank, which has a 30 centimetre trip clearance and hydraulic pressure adjustable from 100 to 800 psi. This gives the lead shank up to 400 pounds breakout force. It is capable of delivering all fertilizer in one pass to a depth of 15 cm.
The Conserva Pak layout puts the fertilizer shank at the front, where it does most of the hard work. It also carries a lot of carbide on the working edge, resulting in an easier job for the seed opener that follows.
Seed opener
It is mounted on the hydraulically controlled packer wheel arm and has an adjustable angle of attack and a spring trip that is independent of the packer wheel. Spring force is mechanically adjusted from 10 to 120 lb, which lets an operator dial in low resistance in sandy and light soils and then switch to higher pressures in clay and heavy soil.
“Most people will adjust the seed opener force for the predominant soil type on their farm and once they’re happy with it, they just leave it set,” Halford said.
“But if you have a wide variety of soil types, you might make the adjustment for those different fields.”
The opener angle is fully adjustable because Conserva Pak offers a dual-row, three-inch spread seed opener, which is configured much like a small shovel opener. It requires a different working angle in the soil than the hoe type opener. Both styles place the seed above and to the side of the fertilizer band.
Because the seed opener follows directly in the path already cleared by the fertilizer shank, switching to the dual-row seed opener only adds 15 percent draft.
The packer-gauge wheel has hydraulic pressure up to 1,000 psi, which allows a packing force that’s adjustable from 20 to 250 lb. This hydraulic circuit is independent of the front fertilizer circuit.
Each ILS arm assembly has two single-acting cylinders, one for the fertilizer shank and one for the packer-gauge arm, which also carries the seed opener. The cylinders are adjusted independently of each other and each has its own accumulator with pressurized nitrogen on one side, hydraulic oil on the other side, a pressure control valve and a pressure gauge.
The hydraulic oil is static rather than flowing, thus reducing power requirements and heat. If an operator chooses to simplify the drill and keep the ILS controls independent of the tractor, the accumulator pressure can be adjusted with a hand pump.
“For example, if you have stony land or really dry conditions, you want a low breakout pressure on the fertilizer shank, but at the same time you want high pressure on the packer,” Halford said.
“With separate hydraulic circuits, you dial in any combination of pressure you might desire.”
He said an adjustable system is particularly good in stony fields because it gives the operator the option of running lower pressures on the fertilizer and seed shanks so stones are not pulled out of the ground.
“Another typical situation where dual adjustment is a big help is wet seeding conditions. This lets you reduce your packer pressure so the seed trench doesn’t get packed so hard and the soil isn’t so tight. You can’t do that with a conventional air drill because the packers carry the weight of the whole frame.”
After 20 years in the air drill business, Halford said dual hydraulics were the next logical step for Conserva Pak.
“We had reached the point where the existing technology would not allow us to accomplish our next set of goals. We already had experience with a single hydraulic circuit for down force, but that system used only one cylinder on each arm. That idea was developed by an Australian. For the past six years, all the drills we built for Australia had adjustable hydraulic down force. We also sold some machines with that option here in Canada.”
He admitted that a common reaction to the machine is, “look at all that plumbing.”
However, he said the company has had virtually no problems with the hydraulic down force drills.
“We learned a lot from the Australian drills about where to route the hoses and exactly where the cylinders should be mounted. So we really weren’t too worried about expanding that idea into a dual hydraulic machine.”
When the ILS drill is used for corn, sunflowers or other crops requiring 24 inch spacing, the operator can hydraulically lift and then lock out every second arm. It is also possible to lift and lock out the seed opener and packer while keeping the fertilizer shank in the working position.
“It works fine as it is for corn and sunflowers, but our next step in that area is to improve the metering so we have better accuracy with those larger seeds.”
The new ILS is named Platinum because it marks 20 years of production for Conserva Pak.
“My daughter Beth tells people we named it Platinum because of my hair colour, but if that’s the case, I could have named the first one Platinum 20 years ago.”
For a small manufacturer, coming to market with a new opener system can be risky if the research, development and testing haven’t been rigorous. For the ILS, the first testing began in 2002. Testing and modification continued in Canada and Australia until last summer, when Conserva Pak engineers figured they finally had it working the way they wanted.
Their testing included more than one million cycles in the cycle machine, simulating field loading conditions. Individual ILS arms were subjected to as many as 5,500 hits on the test track, without failure. Normally, a weakness becomes apparent after about 100 hits.
ILS can be installed on all existing Conserva Pak drills with 12 inch spacing. As a retrofit kit, the list price is $1,350 for each arm, including openers, packer, cylinders and hoses. The accumulators list at $3,000 for the pair. As a factory option on a new Conserva Pak drill, the ILS adds $350 per arm to the list price.
