Agriculture
Agriculture presents the most variable and wide-ranging type of applications for the plastic piping industry. From on-board high speed seeding and fertilizing equipment, to timed pest control, water sourcing, irrigation, indoor fertigation, vertical farming systems, from cities to prairies, mountain sides to river valleys, agriculture serves up an endless array of unique situations.
While no two applications may ever be the same, the basic needs of liquid pressure and flow control remain the same: Proper pressure with optimal flow rates, precise on/off control to maximize efficiency and minimize waste, pump and piping system protection, prevention of vacuum, siphon, backflow…all of the same problems that any critical process system faces.
Here are a few examples:
- Chemical injection equipment is required to inject/dose precise amounts of specific nutrients into a system at required temperatures, pressures and flow rates.
- Backpressure valves are needed in deep water sourcing processes, such as in California’s Central Valley.
- Precisely controlled characterized ball valves provide exact, high volume flow in fertigation systems.
- Solenoid valves deliver precise chemical dosing to waste treatment ponds.
- Air actuated valves deliver sanitation chemicals in meat processing applications.
- Flow control valves assure continuous flow rates in weed control equipment.
In most of these applications, initial cost of Plast-O-Matic products tends to be higher than alternative solutions. But in every single case, product performance, high cycle life, overall longevity, serviceability, and lifetime cost of ownership clearly proves the advantages of Plast-O-Matic. When a cheap valve fails, it isn’t much of a loss. But when a cheap valve fails in a critical crop process, the loss can be catastrophic.