ADVERTORIAL SETTING A NEW DRESS COAT Special air cushion technology enables gentle treating, encrusting and pelleting through simultaneous treating and drying In the era of Heubach analyses, securing seed quality by means of treating technologies has become ever more important. Environmental aspects, legal guidelines and treatment recipes require technologies that minimize dust and grain abrasion. Customary continuous and batch treaters regularly lead to increased abrasion and Heubach values that exceed the legal limits. Furthermore, treating and mixing cause stress and grain abrasions reducing germabilities by up to 2 percent. To date, complex treating recipes with high dilution ratios for encrusting and pelleting have required separate process steps for treating and drying. With the CM100 MultiCoater, the German technology manufacturer PETKUS / ROEBER has developed a system where the treated seeds are already dried in the mixing chamber. This is facilitated by a special air cushion technology in combination with metal-free deflectors. The PETKUS / ROEBER MultiCoater “CM” simultaneously treats and dries, improves flow behaviour and guarantees a gentle treatment of seeds with a homogeneous and optimal surface coverage. Dr. Raed, the rotor-stator principle is usually applied in the case of conventional treaters. Which advantages does this principle offer and which disadvantages does it have? “In the case of treaters that function according to the rotor-stator principle, seed is loaded into the mixer – i.e. the stator – batchwise, moved by a rotating turntable and simultaneously sprayed with a chemical agent. This has the advantage that the mixing intensity and consequently the speed are high. The disadvantage is that the grains rub against the stator, are thus subject to stress and become partly damaged. This can lead to the fact that the germination capacity which was 97 % before treating is 94 - 95% afterwards. Furthermore, the grains do not only hit the stator: The movement of the rotary plate causes the seed to move evenly in a circle around the stator wall. In order to interrupt this regular flow and to prevent the spray of the chemical agents from reaching only one side of the grain, metal deflectors were installed in all previous treaters to ensure radial mixing. The rotation causes the seed to hit the so-called deflectors. This results in significant dust abrasions containing active substances. Using this common technology in practical everyday life often leads to statutory Heubach values being exceeded.” How were you able to solve these problems with the MultiCoater “CM”? “We have developed a new system which builds on the rotor-stator principle. However, we have supplemented it with a sophisticated airflow technology. Air is led via nozzles and an adjustable gap DR. KHALED RAED Innovation Manager at PETKUS Technologie GmbH and design engineer of the PETKUS / ROEBER MultiCoater