02.10.2018
It’s that time of year again when farmers are busy planting the seeds for their crops, using purpose-built machinery.
Since a successful crop production is dependant on the seeding process, ensuring your site is properly prepared, and you’re using the best possible hydraulic machinery for planting your seeds, is a must!
What’s the Seeding Process?
Seeding, as the name suggests, is when farmers plant the seeds that will ultimately grow their crops. This process could be completed by hand if you’re only working with a small space, but for farmers who are preparing and seeding acreage, you will need to complete this mammoth task with the proper machinery.
Airseeding equipment generally has multiple tines that will cut into the earth’s soil at specific depths, making room for the seeds to be dropped. How deep the tines cut will depend on your site’s conditions and the type of crops you’re planting.
The Role of a Phasing Cylinder
Gone are the days when you would have to get down on your hands and knees to determine how deep you need to sow to plant your seeds. Thanks to the advent of hydraulic equipment, a set of phasing cylinders will do this for you.
To create a visual of how phasing cylinders work, picture a long flat platform that needs to lift horizontally. Along its base, there are four cylinders that are equally spaced along the platform. When normal hydraulic cylinders are used, any slight variation in the extension speeds of each cylinder (if one is slightly slower than the others or vice versa), then the platform would not stay level as it lifts in the air. If someone was standing on the top of this platform, they would likely be tipped off. Phasing cylinders are needed for this application as they are designed to extend and retract their rods at identical speeds. They do this by having decreasing cylinder areas and a special internal groove or a valve that allows oil to bypass the piston when it’s at the end of the stroke and re-phase the cylinders downstream. The platform will stay level as it lifts as a result.
Farmers often use phasing cylinders for depth control on their seeding bars to keep all their tines synchronised at an optimal depth.
If you’re phasing cylinders aren’t functioning properly, resulting in the cylinders not staying at the correct depth/stroke, they can cut too deep or too shallow. If this happens you will need to replace them, or Gerrard Hydraulics can reseal them to get them functioning properly again.
Gerrard Hydraulics now stock a range of phasing cylinders. So, contact Gerrard Hydraulics today!