News Letter
The Agronomy Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana in November and the American Seed Trade Corn and Soybean Research Conference in Chicago, Illinois in December provided an opportunity to introduce a number of new developments in Seed Counting, Seed Weighing, and Seed Packeting.
One of the most important of these new developments is the introduction of the NEW Model U Seed Counting System.
Features added to the normal total counting and lot size counting (batching or packeting operation) features are (1) Bar Code Reading and Control, (2) Label Printing using an external printer, (3)Packet Programming by downloading a spreadsheet program into the counter, and (4) Incorporation of a C-Flash Memory Card and Reader in the unit to simplify program loading or data recording.
Bar Codes may be either the linear 1D format or the 2D format which vastly increases the data that may be encoded and read.
Self Adhesive Labels may be printed at the same time seeds are being packeted so the operator may label the packets as soon as they are removed and closed. Printing may include both text and bar codes.
Personnel Safety is of increasing importance as more and more seed being handled is treated for improved performance.
The Treated Seed Vacuum Accessory, which aids in protecting the operator from airborn seed treatment dust as counting continues uses a vacuum pick-up head mounted on the feeder assembly which completely covers the feeder as the seed is being counted.
This unit conveniently pivots away from the feeder to allow normal operation of the quick empty feeder stand yet instantly returns to precisely the proper position for optimum operation following addition of the next counting sample.
The second part of this unit, The Vacuum Filter portion, connects to the Vacuum Pick-Up Head with a flexible hose so that it may located under the table or in some other remote location.
The unique and convenient design of this vacuum accessory attracted a lot of attention as did ESRA, the Excess Seed Repack Accesssory
Increasing operator efficiency is everyone's goal and ESRA saves valuable minutes for each sample.
This simple accessory may be used with any of the Old Mill Counter Models, collecting the seed emptied from the feeder as it is pivoted to empty any remaining seed at the conclusing of packeting, and conveying it automatically to the original sample envelope which had been placed on the ESRA discharge chute.
Errors are further reduced since ESRA also collects seed discharged from the counting head diverter discharge so that the operator need not carry out the additional step of emptying the diverted material container.
Other newly introduced units, The Seed Weight Sorter and the Seed Count-Weight Analyser were also displayed and provided new ideas for the rapidly growing and varied research activities in plant breeding, yield testing, seed processing, and quality control.
Lastly, but not of lesser importance, great interest was also shown in development of the automatic packeting maching which now has the added capability of 100% bar code verification of field packets with the supply packet for those applications using bar code controls.
Bob Decker |
