Our Wind Machines are available with an additional burner, that works on propane gas.

If you are looking for the most comfortable way to protect your crop, this is it! And if you want even more comfort, you can go for the Auto Start Option.

Wind machines are ideal to protect larger orchards and fields. However, a good inversion layer is essential and the protected area will between 4 and 7 hectares, depending on the kind of crop and the temperature. Protection up to – 5.5 °C.

When there is no inversion, or at very low temperatures, protection can be improved by installing an additional burner.

Our wind machines can also be powered with the tractor’s PTO. For this, we have a special gearbox available.

WHY ARE WE BETTER?

• Our propeller is the most powerful on the market and produces a lot more air. (see Fan Blades)
• Our tower can be set up and laid down by an electrical or hydraulic jack, which makes installation and maintenance a lot safer, easier, faster and cheaper. To put it up and down, the drivelines do not need to be disconnected (optional). (see Electrical Set Up)
• Our engines are completely covered and insulated.
• Our gear boxes are pressure lubricated.

MOBILE WIND MACHINES

Also new in our program are the Mobile Wind Machines.

Possibility to add several burners.

Advantages:

• Our propeller is the most powerful on the market and produces a lot more air. (see Fan Blades)
• The tower can be set up and laid down hydraulically. To put it up and down, the drivelines do not need to be disconnected.
• No permissions required.
• Auto Start available.
• Coverage up to 4 hectares.
• Also available for tractor’s PTO.

BURNERS

If we look at the excisting burners on the market, we notice several important disadvantages:

• there is only 1 burner that ejects hot air into the air at 1 point. This means that most of the time, the heated air is not in the center of the air stream of the fan. Therefore, more than 50 % of the energy is lost. So the efficiency is very poor.
• the burners run on diesel oil, so they are very environmentally unfriendly.
• The consumption is very high (up to 130 l/hour) so very expensive to run.

Our new burner is much more efficient, it’s consumption is much lower and it runs on propane gas. Instead of using one big burner, we use separate smaller burner units that our placed around the tower.

Our advantages:

• Propane burner, so environmentally friendly.
• The air is blown out by means of a powerful fan.
• You can install for each wind machine 1, 2, 3 or as many burners as you want. Each unit can be ignited separately. We recommend the use of 2 or 3 burners per wind machine.
• Fast set up and easy to use.
• Easy to transport and to install.

During a radiation frost, a wind machine is used to draw down the warmer air in the inversion layer and blow it into the orchard or vineyard. The wind machine needs to blow as much air as it can, to the greatest distance possible.

During the day, the sun heats the earth’s surface. The soil and trees become warmer than the air in contact with them, thus heating the air. At night, the colder air settles next to the ground and the warmer air rises forming the inversion.

Radiant frost occurs when a sudden drop in temperature due to irradiation of the trees and soil causes the surrounding air to cool rapidly. The chilled air settles into the lowest areas in the orchard or growing field causing frost damage.

The earth absorbs heat from the sun during the day and releases it into a colder atmosphere at night. The heat loss is greatest just before dawn and this is usually when the maximum danger of frosts and frost damage occurs.

This release of heat creates an ‘inversion layer’ of warmer air which can be found from 10-15 metres above the ground.

Wind machines use the warmer “inversion layer” air to protect a crop from frost damage. The wind machine is angled slightly downwards to pull this inversion layer down to ground level to protect the crop from frost damage.

The main principles involved are:

• The removal of heavy cold air to prevent stratification and retard frost formation.
• Allow warmer inversion layer air in to replace the colder air at crop level.
• Some friction generated heat as the air moves past foliage to replace the ‘skin’ of colder ambient air.