Top-spec sprayer showcased at Cereals

Sprayer manufacturer

Maschio Gaspardo show cased its range of mount ed sprayers at last month’s Ce reals event.

The company had a full lineup of trailed and mounted ma chines at the two-day show. But it was the Tempo Ultra Isotron ic that took centre stage at the Thoresby Estate site in Notting hamshire.

While there are options for more basic levels of specifica tion, the flagship mounted mod el is fully loaded with every fea ture growers and contractors have come to expect from a top line machine.

ISObus controls connect the sprayer directly to the tractor terminal or to a separate com patible control box. Having this on-board technology as standard provides a host of benefits.

It makes it possible to have GPS-managed section control down to individual nozzles, variable rate control and an au tomated boom recirculation sys tem that avoids delays in spray line purging to maintain even coverage when coming into work.

Hydraulic functions

The control computer also manages all the Tempo Ultra’s hydraulic functions.

A single tractor spool-valve supplies oil to the sprayer’s centralised electro-hydraulic valve block which handles everything including boom fold, variable geometry tilt control as well as the pendulum frame’s height.

Optional electronic boom height control has up to four ul- trasonic sensors providing automatic management of crop-tonozzle clearance and boom tilt. Boom widths from 15m to 30m have a steel lattice construction with aluminium outside sections on larger versions.

Two sizes of tank are available for the Temp Ultra Isotronic rated at 1600-litres and 2000-litres (1820-litres and 2180-litres actual) with an additional 300-litre clean water tank and 30-litre induction hopper.

For additional volume, there is the option of 1100-litre or 1500-litre front tanks, potentially taking total capacity in excess of 3500-litres.

Equipped with independent twin pumps and recirculation systems, these can be set to empty at the same rate as the rear unit to ensure even weight distribution across front and rear axles.

While the standard main spray pump is rated at 199-liltres/min, higher output 249-li- tres/min and 277-litres/min versions are available, all of which operate at 20bar.

Two options are available for the main sprayer fill/washout control panel – one with manual valves, the other with an electronic terminal that provides control the filling cycle with automatic shutoff when the preset volume is reached.

It also oversees automated rinsing and washout cycles as well as spray mix agitation.