« Does the equipment answer to the international standards ? »
Yes. The equipment proposed by ITEQ answers to the technical requirements and the precision specified in the standard EN 13 790, parts 1 and 2. The whole European protocol can be realized with the equipments proposed by ITEQ and the precision of our measurement systems is higher than required.
« Why to propose a so high precision on the bench for the nozzle output measurement – electronic versus ? »
The precision of the electronic versus of the ITEQ’s benches is higher than the 0.5 % of the measured value. The standard requests to replace the nozzles presenting an output deviation higher than 10 % of the nominal flow rate.
It is essential to minimize the error of the flow rate measurement. Moreover, high precision guaranties also a high level of repeatability which is essential in case of contestation of the measurement.
« How to depreciate such an investment which can be more than 25 000 € ? »
The initial investment should be differentiated to the depreciation which is distributed on several years. Considering also the other costs linked to the sprayer inspection (personal, functioning costs…), the part of the investment constitutes between 5 and 10 % of the annual costs.
To reach the a well balanced budget, it is essential to realise at least 250 to 300 inspection per year.
“Is this necessary to have top-of-the-range material as proposed by ITEQ to make measurements on site where one does not ask for necessarily such a detail? ”
Yes. To carry out control/diagnosis in a compulsory system (and in the long term with a legislative aspect) is completely different to make demonstration where there is little consequence for the user and the operator of the advices given at the end of the test.
In this case, the result of the test is important and the advices of repair indicated on the report must be precise, right, without interpretation and the user must be able to repair his sprayer.
Only a measurement equipment of hight quality can achieve this goal and give credibility at this activity with respect to the farmer and of the external world.
“Is equipment ITEQ designed to go outside, in mobile installations? ”
Yes. The whole of the equipment was specifically developed to be placed in an itinerant vehicle (van, trailer).
The experiment of compulsory inspection in Belgium using exactly the same material installed in vans confirms this fact since 1995. Each Belgian team/unit already controlled more than 15.000 sprayers
“How much sprayers can be inspected in one day? ”
That depends on the type and size of sprayers to check. An carried sprayers of 12 m takes obviously less trailed time than one of 27 m with electronic regulation! On average, the output is included 8 and 14 sprayers/day.
