lundi 19 février 2018

How Center Pivot Irrigation System Functions

By Steven West


If you already have experienced being in a plane over an agricultural place, you may have a casual glance outside the window. You might have seen the weird circular shapes beneath. Those circular shapes are the fields. As a matter of fact, they are usually circular in shape.

There are lots of circular fields that they have been seen as a sort of practical jokes. Some could not help but express disbelief of such. As a first timer, you might have wondered what those are and why they are shaped just like that. A center pivot irrigation system is the answer. As its name suggested, it is an irrigation method which, unlike the traditional method, does not make use much of the touch of human hands after setting it up initially.

As its name speaks, this machinery irrigates in a round motion just around a central point which is better known as a pivot point. Water, chemicals, or herbicides can actually be added that makes this machine amazingly versatile. Because of that, the process of irrigating in fields has become more efficient than ever. With just one machine or model, many functions can be performed.

For ten years or more, this had become widespread and mostly used by many people in their farming or agricultural activities. It minimized waste of water and at the same time, increased the harvest or yields. However, it can be seemingly complex because of its great dependence on both conventional and modern technologies which are said to embody the system itself.

This article will explain how this thing works with wonders. For it to work accordingly, its key components must be present. The turbine pump, pipes, and sprinklers are part of its older version. The inventor of the system took the mentioned components, assembled them, and raised the machine just above a ground.

As time went by, modifications had been made. New components were added to support and add functions to its older version. Furthermore, those changes made it rely much on technologies that develop different functions for new ones.

Most of its models are operated by electricity. Using a public electric source or generator, using this machinery is made possible. An alternating current with one hundred twenty or four hundred eighty volts is essential for it to operate. The one hundred twenty VAC is used to power up the movement of its LRDU, pivot, and safety circuits. For its drive unit to make a move, there is such thing as power circuits that gives these units the drive.

Its main uses are performed by its panel. Although there are different types of a control panel in every model, the way how it is used and how it functioned are basically the same. As written earlier that it is operated by an electrical source of energy, a control panel contains a command that will send some sort of signals to the central point or pivot until such signal has reached the LRDU.

LRDU moves forward or in its opposite direction. Whatever its movement was, a pivot which has been moving all along is lead by this component. It continues to move until an activation of the next tower box occurs. Such activation is caused by some kind of an arm that connects the last span and second to the last tower boxes or tower. In this case, a pivot point has to keep on going down until all its towers have been moved.




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