A watering system is really a chain of mountains with unlike parts : water ticker , organ pipe , and so on . A important part in that chain is the filter . " This part should actually not break down , and if it does break down , you need to be able-bodied to repair it very quickly . The SAF filter is so rich that it ca n’t really break , " says Stefan Bakker , product manager at Netafim . The originally Israeli company recently introduced a Modern , improved version of the SAF - XN filter .
The SAF - XN filter is a typical product for the Dutch market place : the country places gamy demand on water systems , which , like the nursery , they are part of , are often eminent - technical school . But Stefan now also sees a healthy market place for export . " Dutch greenhouse constructor often take the filter with them when they gestate out task abroad . In that respect , the SAF - XN filter is like the locomotive engine block of a car being export . "
From industriousness to horticultureThe SAF - XN filter is an industrial filter based on a filter that is also used in cooling towboat and in transport , among others - where processes absolutely can not die . When use in horticulture , Netafim work into specific challenge .
" We are the only sector to build the filter on PVC pipage instead of blade . If you put it on steel pipes , you do n’t take to hold up the filter . PVC is not strong enough to support the filter , so backup had to be place underneath . Amiad , the manufacturer of the filter , was not conversant with that principle of establish on PVC pipes , so that take some doing , but in the death , it work out perfectly . "
' Beyond expectations’We are now six month on since the presentation of the new filter . " Both the number of customers and the figure of units we put away is above expectations , " he says . The new filter ’s popularity is down to small thing . " It ’s not rocket salad scientific discipline , but it all works a lot better . For instance , we have build up a hachure into the unexampled poser to make maintenance much easier . "
Another significant update is that the series of SAF - XN filter no longer consists of four different model but now has one model , of which only the size is slightly different : there is one with 1500 cm2 , 3000 cm2 , and 4500 cm2 screenland arena . " you could also continue product while using the filter because those screens are mechanically cleaned by a variety of small hoover . "
Continuous learningIn the 26 years since the SAF filter first come out on the market , a lot has change . " And we are constantly learning . An object lesson : we latterly discover out that the filter can handle more water than we always thought . The advice was always to flush every 10 three-dimensional m , for illustration , but in shipping , they rush 40 cubic meters through it in no time , they scour it continuously - so apparently , the filter can handle that without immediately expose down . That may not be the intent , but it is good to know that overload situations do not immediately lead to major problems . "
Mashing the marble trackStefan then name the ' highlight ' of the mathematical product , which he believe is what it is all about in the ending . " Parts you do n’t need , you have to give out . You ca n’t off a filter to prevent drippers and nozzles from clogging up even a short flake . "
Stefan verbalise about two element here : the size of the contaminant and the ' marble course upshot . ' " A filter is nothing but the colander in your kitchen closet . When you drain your food , there ’s some that stay behind , and some that get through anyway - if you then romance it , more flummox through . "
Then come the marble track . There is a funnel shape at the bottom , and if the marble go in one by one , all is well . But if you throw a whole handful of marble in at once , the whole thing clog up . " You have the same affair with drippers : a few dirt atom slip by through , but if too many atom come in in at once , even if they are small enough , the dripper still clogs up . If you go wrong with your filter , you get going ' mashing ' the soft biological pollution , and so you get these clogging spot . "
In the SAF - XN filter , the screenland is ' wander ' in such a way that only a stern of a hair fits through the holes of , say , a 30 - micron screen . " Since the first SAF filter , those weaving techniques have also advanced another 30 age . So they trickle much better - we can make the screen more exact in term of passage , but we can also make the screen so that the pollution stays on them well , squash as little as possible . "
body of water footprintFinally , Stefan illustrates the footmark made in another way , using the H2O footprint of a tomato . " Only 1 per centum of the water system on land is refreshed and usable . So H2O economic consumption has to be looked at critically . In Italy , in growing tomatoes for nates of puree , you are lecture about a footmark of 600 liters per kilo . In the hydrofoil nursery in Almeria , you ’re talking about 150 liters per kilo . In the Netherlands , we make do with about 10 cubic decimetre of water per kilo . "
So the more high - technical school , the low the water footprint . " That ’s what we ’re doing in the Netherlands : the difference between open fields and nursery , peculiarly high - tech glasshouse . I do n’t know of any country where intellectual nourishment yield is at such a high-pitched level as the Netherlands , both in the greenhouse and outdoors . "
For more info : Stefan BakkerNetafimAartsdijkweg 22 , 2676 LEMaasdijk , the NetherlandsTel . : +31 174 525444Mob . : +31 6 13237160Email:[email protected]www.netafim.nl
