Tough cabling for agricultural equipment

HARDI is a supplier of agricultural spraying equipment, from compact 1.5-litre hand sprayers through to 10,000-litre trailer sprayers and 54-metre booms.

The Danish company has an Australian subsidiary based on a 10-hectare site in Adelaide, where it manufactures the majority of equipment in-house. This facility is HARDI’s largest outside its Danish headquarters.

When searching for tough cabling solutions to withstand the Australian climate, HARDI chose local manufacturer LAPP Australia.

“Australian conditions are often harsher than those typical in Europe, so our gear needs to be manufactured to withstand the elements,” said HARDI Australia Chief Commercial Officer Zac Harnett. “Having a local manufacturing facility allows us to tailor our equipment to Australian conditions.”

Agricultural spraying equipment must operate under particularly demanding conditions, placing significant stress on electrical systems. Using quality cable assemblies can minimise maintenance requirements and costly downtime.

“We chose LAPP’s harnessing solutions because their cables and components ticked all our boxes, including chemical resistance, UV resistance, overmolding of connectors, energy chain-rated cables capable of withstanding bending motions on booms, and an overall level of robust quality that we were seeking,” Harnett said.

LAPP said its Harnessing Solutions Division is able to provide pre-assembled, standards-compliant cable assemblies that are fully traceable and ready to install, helping reduce assembly time and complexity.

“Agricultural spraying equipment contains a significant number of cables and components,” said LAPP Harnessing Solutions’ General Manager, Stuart Fleming.

“We deliver these assembled, labelled and ready to go, which means the HARDI team can install them quickly, and deliver faster to their customers.”

With a large number of individual components going into each machine, traceability is important for serviceability and maintenance.

“Traceability is huge for us,” Harnett said. “We serialise every part for every customer, and we provide training on this for our dealers across Australia. If anything needs replacing or repair, we can find the exact component without delay.”

Another requirement for agricultural customers is for equipment to be delivered within tight seasonal timeframes.

“LAPP has helped us meet fast installation times and has worked with us to meet any challenges. They’ve been helpful and easy to work with, and I particularly appreciate that we can get on the phone and talk with a real person,” Harnett said.

“At the end of the day, quality product backed by quality service is what we’re looking for in our suppliers, and LAPP has always gone above and beyond. We’re already looking at some new projects that we can involve the Harnessing Solutions Division in.”

Images: Supplied