STiR coffee and tea magazine

12 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 1, 2018 (February / March) Equipment NEWS ENCOTECC Inc. USA +1 239 443 5074 Canada +1 514 800 2473 Europe +49 211 7311 5151 info@encotecc.com Tea Drone Technology The drone is becoming to agriculture what the smart phone is to the Internet. High payoff uses are increasingly self-evident, especially mapping, image and sensor health diagnostics, and spraying. Drones are the core of precision agriculture (PA), the term that captures the essence of their value. Bulk Bag Discharger Flexicon has developed a bulk bag discharger with an enclosure to contain errant dust. The new Bulk-Out model BFC discharger features white polymer panels that enclose the sides, rear, and top of the frame with clear panels on four hinged access doors to monitor coffee discharge. A port in the rear panel vents the enclosure to a centralized dust collection system. The enclosure works in concert with the discharg- er's dust-tight bag spout interface and expands the ability of the discharger to contain dust from all areas of the bag. To maintain dust control at the bag spout, a manual spout-lock clamp ring is positioned atop a pneumatically actuated telescoping tube that enables an operator to make a quick, dust-tight connection between the bag spout and hopper, and to automatically elongate the bag as it empties to promote flow and evacuation. Learn more: www.flexicon.com Eversys Opens New Factory Swiss coffee equipment manufacturer Eversys will produce up to 5,000 semi-automatic espresso machines annually at its new production facility in Ardon, Switzerland. The production line that opened in January will initially manufacture 2,500 units of the c'2 Cameo in a state-of-the-art plant that will serve as headquarters and showroom, beginning in March. The company's e-series equipment will be made at the existing production site and former headquarters. "The new factory is a real turning point for Eversys," according to Kamal Bengougam, c.c.o. He said increased capacity will make it possible "to service the global market and provide our customers with the increasing number of machines they need." Learn more: www.cameo-espresso.com DroneAG delivers The basic focus of PA is surveying crops and gathering data. Drones that meet this basic need start around $1,500. Most farmers are choosing fixed wing, rather than multi-rotary for improved battery life, higher payload and the ability to carry multiple sensors. Prices for full function systems cluster in the $15- 25,000 range. This is obviously unaffordable for very small growers, but low-end drones offer mapping and diagnostic capabilities for a low outlay. Drone services are rapidly emerging, averaging $1,000 a day. (Versus $10,000 for a helicopter.) Here is a fairly standard case example of "agdrones" in action, in Ji County, Shanxi, China apple tree pesticide spraying: 10 minutes per orchard versus 2 ½ hours using manual labor. Smallholder 60 years old, now runs farm by himself, saving of $145 per acre. Describes drones as a "Godsend." Here are representative reported benefits: Infra-red plant diagnostics: signs of plant stress are apparent through sensors ten days before the physical damage is visible. Satellite and aircraft imaging: halves the costs for farms smaller than 20 hectares. Satellites revisit areas every 1-3 days, affected by weather, image resolution in meters. Drones resolution in centimeters, oblique angle images, variable heights. Spraying: water savings of up to 90%, chemicals reduced 30-50%. Productivity: five times faster than tractor application of pesticides. Planting: decrease in costs of 85% Irrigation, health assessment: hyperspectral, thermal, and multispectral sensors identify field areas of dryness, heat signatures, vegetation index of density, and growth, bacterial and fungal infections. There are obviously barriers to the take up of PA licensing, regulation, subsidies, insurance, and pilot training/certification are examples. In general, though, governments are encouraging drone use. Japan is the leader, mainly because its labor costs and shortages are so high. US fruit farmers and vineyards are investing in large-scale drones. China is moving fast. India has been ham- pered by the lack of credit facilities for small farmers, but a study of impacts in Tamil Nadu state reported rice and fruit crop yield increases of 20-80%. Tea seems to be lagging and fragmented, but major projects are underway in Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and parts of Africa. Gruppo Gimoka Expands A second Neuhaus Neotec roaster is being added to Gruppo Gimoka's opera- tions as the company expands its capacity. Gruppo Gimoka has been operating its Neuhaus Neotec RFB 400 roaster non-stop over three shifts every day since 2014 at its factory in Andalo Valtel- lino, Italy. With continued growth and expansion, the company is adding a second RFB 400 – with its 5,000 kilo-per-hour capacity - to meet demand. "The innovative Neuhaus Neotec RFB roasting processes are the best solutions to meet these product requirements," Gruppo Gimoka's Ivan Padelli said in a statement announcing the purchase.

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