Vertical farming with low-maintenance and durable cable guidance

Profile

• What was needed: plastic energy chain
• Requirements: a low-maintenance, durable and reliable cable solution was sought.
• Industry: agriculture
• Success for the customer: thanks to the irrigation system in combination with the energy chain, nozzles could be saved and maintenance costs minimised. The system is designed to be durable and low-maintenance.

Problem

Living Greens Farm is a start-up aeroponics farm. In recent years, the company has developed and patented important developments in the way cultivation could look like in future. One of the main patents is a spray system that supplies enriched water to the roots of the plant. The start-up is currently expanding its growing operations to include an empty warehouse in Minneapolis, MN, USA. In terms of output, this plant represents the equivalent of 100 hectares of cultivated land.
The facility will not only provide healthier, fresh local produce in a large metropolitan region, but will do so all year round using 95% less water. The space requirements and water consumption are two fundamental advantages of aeroponics cultivation compared to field and hydroponics cultivation. However, there is also the problem with aeroponics systems that they require a high number of nozzles for irrigation (typically one nozzle per square foot of growing area), which in turn entails high maintenance costs.

Solution

Living Greens Farm's patented spray mist system and the use of a polymer energy chain have enabled the company to minimise nozzle maintenance. In the start-up's current F&E cultivation area, 6,144m² of crops are grown with just 288 nozzles. This was only possible by introducing a well-thought-out system. The nozzles travel a distance of around 16m to precisely irrigate a large cultivation area. The process and thus the savings on nozzles are also enabled by the energy chain in the system. This guides the 2.5cm thick irrigation hose when the nozzles move. The specially developed materials of the polymer energy chains result in maximum service life in a wide variety of application situations.