Terrasem: he all-rounder for every situation

This newly designed seed drill with or without passive seedbed preparation delivers impressive performance with its precision universal metering and perfect colter system to guarantee exact seed placement. Flexible operation and being able to process up to three components simultaneously at a consistently high output translates into optimum drilling for the best seed emergence. The high-performance features of the Pottinger Terrasem increase yield capacity to boost the farmer’s profit. The new Terrasem will be available from November 2021.

The benefits are clear to see

• Highly flexible with injector metering or pressurized hopper metering system for successful sowing
• Robust construction with maximum output with working widths between 3 and 6 meters
• Coulter technology for large area output and a uniform, clean seed slot
• Suitable for mulch and direct mulch drilling as well as on plowed fields

Convenient operation without crabbing

A new configuration of the tillage tools ensures that the machine works 100 percent in a straight line. The disc harrow as well as the fertilizer colters (D Z-machine) and seed colters are mounted in an X configuration. Optimum seedbed preparation is ensured by the aggressive point angle of the lead tillage tools. There is no need to grease the tillage tools because they are mounted on sealed bearings.

Multiple sowing options

Single shoot, double shoot, and double shoot-mix are the key to perfect emergence. To match the site conditions and crop rotation of the customer, there is a wide choice between the application of seed, seed with fertilizer, and additional components such as micro-granulate, companion crop, or the second type of seed with the Terrasem D Z models. The different components can each be deposited at different depths.

Optimum plant density

The proven colter rail with a DUAL DISC colter system ensures an ideal plant density for the crop. With a row spacing of 12.5 cm as standard, or 16.7 cm as an option, optimum plant development is ensured and weeds are largely suppressed.

Two metering systems

Depending on the choice of machine, two different metering systems are available. The machines with a single hopper are equipped with injector metering – Terrasem 3000 D to V 6000 D as well as all Terrasem Classic models without tillage tools and without fertilizer application.

All Terrasem Z double seed hopper machines are equipped with a pressurized hopper system. The two-part hopper with a fixed 60:40 partition can also be filled with 100 percent seed. Integrated pressure differential sensors ensure the reliability of the system.

Source: Pottinger

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Responsibility for process technology and safety

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) ranks deficiencies in maintenance safety among the most common causes of accidents in plants. Above all where a number of people are working on one line, it is important to secure the area under maintenance against inadvertent intervention – for example, by means of seals – as the consequences for life and limb can be devastating.

“We hear about workplace accidents during maintenance all the time,”

explains Lisa Schmidt, Product Sales Manager for hygienic valve technology at GEA.

This is avoidable and can easily be prevented with a systematic LoTo approach. Since the solutions currently available were not convincing for GEA valves, the company decided to produce its own package of process technology and LoTo safety systems.

Says Schmidt:

“We consider it our responsibility to support our customers to the best of our ability when it comes to maintaining their duty of care toward their workforces.”

GEA’s customers – manufacturers in the food and pharmaceutical industries – operate complex plants with long lengths of piping where visibility is often an issue. If, for instance, machines are repaired during ongoing operation, it is important to specifically isolate these working areas from energy sources, i.e. sources of danger.

Schmidt reports:

“In our case, the danger lies in the media flowing through the pipelines. Specific valves or entire valve clusters can be secured using our LoTo solutions. One Canadian customer recently ordered 1,600 LoTo devices for all their plant’s butterfly valves, while other operators explicitly designate individual valves to eliminate specific potential hazards.”

Tailored LoTo devices for each valve

A GEA LoTo unit comprises a shut-off device that fixes the valve in the open or closed position and an optional lock that only authorized individuals can open. The type of fixing varies depending on the type of valve; they are available for all nominal diameters and actuator sizes and can easily be retrofitted:

• Butterfly valves can be shut off mechanically. The disk lock version uses a pin that is pushed into the valve stem and can also be used with an extension. This principle can similarly be applied to leakage butterfly valves.
• There are two ways of shutting off single-seat valves: Either the air supply can be shut off directly on the control top or actuator using the airlock principle, or the entire actuator can be locked via a disk lock which prevents the valve disks from moving. This is advisable where a higher level of safety is desired. In the event of a water hammer, the valve remains closed, ensuring an almost completely leak-proof system.
• GEA offers a bellow lock for VESTA valves in aseptic applications with manual actuators which is suitable for large and small nominal sizes.
• GEA LoTo solutions are generally designed for single-seat valves, but the main stroke in double-seat valves can also be locked. As VARIVENT and D-Tec valves with lift can still be actuated, the operator should consider using further safeguards here – for example, the air supply to the lifts.

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Available in TL mechanical version and in VRT electric version, both can be equipped with the ISOBUS system.

It will therefore be possible to communicate the electronic control system of the seeder with the Universal Terminals installed onboard the tractors, essentially the tractor ISOBUS terminal will drive the seeder to act as a virtual terminal of the seeder.

Electric drive and 4.0 benefits

The VRT system replaces the mechanical drive of the seeds distributors by transforming it into electricity and thus allowing the automatic control of the flow of the grain (kg/ha) to be distributed, both seed and fertilizer.

The main advantages are greater precision and sowing speed with the reduction of working times.

Prescription maps and management of overlaps

The tractor with a GPS system for auto-guidance can be connected to the seeder (if equipped with the VRT ISOBUS system).

Prescription maps are used to optimize field operations and minimize waste.

MONTANA is equipped with a distributor divided into four sections, each of which serves a sowing section: four grains exits with four exit heads on the seeding ramp to have the best distribution on all the seeding widths.

Furthermore, thanks to this feature, MASCAR MONTANA can be equipped with the optional “Sector sowing control”, combined with the use of prescription maps, which can automatically exclude, quarter by quarter, the sowing sections to minimize or even eliminate the overlapping of the seeds.

Source: Mascar

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