If you read this site, you know we’re fans of recirculating booms. We love them for three reasons:
- They save money and waste by recovering spray back to the tank during priming and rinsing
- They make boom cleaning easier by eliminating boom-ends
- They require individual nozzle shutoff, which makes for better sectional control
If you’re new to the concept of recirculating booms, read more here.
Until recently, these booms were only available on sprayers imported from outside North America, or via France’s Pommier booms that have been available as retrofits for many years. In 2018, Agco introduced their Liquid Logic system on the Rogator line, becoming the first North American manufacturer to offer a recirculating boom at the factory. Pattison Liquid also offers Recirculating booms as standard equipment on their Connect Sniper pull-type sprayer.
In the meantime, two boom retrofit kits and one sectional conversion kit have become available.
Arag Australia. The first was developed by Arag Australia, and is available there via Nozzles Online, and in Canada through Nozzle Ninja. Designed for John Deere R-Series and Case Patriot sprayers, the kit adds a line to feed liquid from the centre rack to the outermost boom end. On the way back, all the individual sections are connected together by removing the boom end cap (or “aspirator” for John Deere) and replacing the gap with a section of hose. Back at the centre rack, the liquid from both booms meet in the middle. At this point, a three-way valve gives the choice to return the spray to the tank, or to receive pressure from the pump. There is also a manual valve that allows the return to be dumped for safe disposal.
The system does not tie into the sprayer’s electronics. instead, it adds a switch in the cab that the operator uses to switch from spray mode to recirculation mode. The switch is not activated at the end of each swath, but instead to prime or flush the boom.
Raven: Raven offers a recirculation kit for 3000, 4000, and 5000 series Case Patriot sprayers with Aim Command HD and an ISOBUS terminal. The approach is slightly different, as they retain the pressure feed through individual sections but also tie the sections together so the spray is returned to the tank. By including a shutoff valve between each section, the system retains the option to use conventional sectional control for high flow situations, or to isolate a section should a leak occur. The system can be configured and controlled from the sprayer monitor, either a Viper 4+, CR7, or CR12.
John Deere: On March 2, 2021, John Deere announced a 2022 factory option called Pressure Recirculation and Product Reclaim. Not much is know about the system at this time, but it appears to operate on traditional principles, incorporating air purge to return product to the tank.
Drift Reduction Technology Corporation: This Wisconsin company has developed an innovative product that converts any existing plumbed section that contains boom ends into a recirculating section. It does this by incorporating a “Boom Recirculation Valve” (it calls it “SRV2″) into the original section feed line. Boom end caps are removed and replaced with sweeps and hoses that return flow to these boom valves. The flow from the boom ends is incorporated back into the sectional feed thanks to a venturi design in the recirculation valve.
Advantages of this design include simplicity. No moving parts are required, the valve simply recirculates the flow from the boom ends automatically whenever that section operates. Existing sectional control, whether it’s by plumbed section or individual nozzle bodies, is unaffected. Flushing the boom with water is done with normal spraying. It takes some extra time to incorporate and dilute the contents of the boom end return lines but results in a clean boom and no section end residue. We’ve seen the results of DRTs testing and agree that it works.
This product does not allow boom priming without spraying. However, a key advantage is that it can be used with direct injection since no product is returned to the tank. DRT Corporation says it will provide the necessary flow sensor and software to make this possible.
Read more about the Boom Recirculation Valve here.
All these recirculation options improve the status quo of plumbed boom sections with boom ends. They should be considered essential equipment on sprayers.