Prototype Air Reel

Prototype air reel COMBINES Accessories 14-6-27 A Canadian manufacturer who's dissatisfied with other air "reels" on the market unveiled a prototype system at the recent Inter-national Plowing Match near Brantford, Ontario that's got a new turbine blower that he says delivers more air with less horse-power. But Ron Thompson of Argis Ltd., is excited about the performance of his experimental reel and plans to work on it this winter, possibly taking it down to Brazil to for further testing on ready-to-harvest crops there. "The problem with air reels is that if there's too much air flow they won't work in a short crop. If there's not enough, they won't work in a tall or weedy crop. Every soybean farmer should be using air to harvest but existing systems are expensive. We think our reel will work better and we hope to sell it for just one-third as much," says Thompson. The prototype blower features a new-style turbine fan that Thompson says develops more than twice as much air flow with a minimum of horsepower. It's driven by a single drive belt. "Existing air systems require 3 or 4 drive belts and need lots of maintenance because of high operating speeds. This new turbine was invented by an engineer who does a lot of work with helicopters and adapted some of those principles in the design." Thompson says his air system is designed to mount ahead of any bat-type reel. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Argis Ltd., Box 154, Listowel, Ontario N4W 3G8 Canada (ph 519 291-4205).

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