Category: News

We recently took some of our customers to Israel for an exclusive trip to see first-hand the production, quality control processes and innovative design that NaanDanJain and our other suppliers have to offer.

Day 1

The first day saw the group land at Ben Gurion Airport and travel to the hotel located in “The City That Never Sleeps” Tel Aviv, Israel’s leading city in finance & technology.

Day 2

The team travel one hour, to the Na’an region where NaanDanJain’s factory is based.
They were given a guided tour around the:

• Dripper & Dripline factory
• NDJ Laboratory
• NDJ  Quality Control
• NDJ Control Systems & Feed Rigs, inspecting the Award Winning Gavish Feed Rig

Day 3

The day was caped off with some sight seeing around the Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee.

Day 4

The rest of the day was spent touring around the historic city of Jerusalem.

Day 5

Who are they?

With over 40 years of industry experience, commitment to service, reliability and innovation, A.R.I. Flow control Accessories LTD are a leading manufacturer and provider of solutions for the protection of liquid transmission systems worldwide. The company manufactures and markets a complete line of air valves, check valves, control valves and unmeasured flow reducers (UFR) as well as providing software system analyses for surge and air valve sizing and placement.

A.R.I. markets its product and analysis solutions in the following markets:

• Water supply and wastewater disposal systems (urban and rural).
• Industrial applications (desalination plants, mining and gas industries, hot water systems).
• Agriculture and landscape.

Why use A.R.I?

 Air in an irrigation system must be controlled because the presence of air bubbles and air pockets, or their absence (vacuum), can cause problems and damage to the system. A.R.I. air valves, correctly sized and placed, will control the air and alleviate these disturbances. The system will be more efficient and effective which will result in significant energy savings.

The Story

 Ripple Aquaplast had our 10 minutes of fame on the television last night, our system design and products where shown on the BBC’s “Supermarket Secrets”. Discussing the importance of creating a Blueberry native to Britain.

Due to the serge in demand over the past years for blueberries, supermarkets are starting to try and source this “super food” locally. However, at the moment roughly 90% of the UK’s blueberries are imported from abroad.

With over £3 million being invested into the research of a native British blueberry, Dr Susan McCallum from The Jame Hutton Institute in Scotland, hopes to bring this vision into reality over the next eight years.

The James Hutton Institute has chosen the Bilberry, native to Europe and the UK, for its primary focus. Rich in anthocyanin, which helps reduce cardiovascular disease, and vibrant in colour, the Bilberry has it all. Well at least in small quantities, the lack of size and yield the crop creates means that Dr Sarah McCallum has to turn to crossbreeding, to create a more substantial fruit. Using DNA profiling to gather the best traits from US blueberries, which our larger in both size and yield, mixed with the colour and health benefits of the Bilberry, to create a Blueberry perfect for the British climate and consumer.

Where do we come in!

Peter Robinson, our technical expert, was tasked with creating a drip system that would provide perfect fertigation to each and every pot. With over 6,000 seeds being used in this project, with most seeds being a different variety to the next, this caused some variability in the design set up.

We provided the following:

• 2 L/h 50cm NDJ Click Tif dripper sets
• Automated irrigation control
• Fertiliser Injection Unit

Please click here to see our wide range of drip products.

Getting your drilled pipe specifications right is important. This is why we give this topic a lot of thought at Ripple Aquaplast. After various meetings and discussions, we have managed to come up with a original formula for the raw material and hence the extruded pipe, which we are very satisfied with for the UK market. Manufactured by NaanDanJain Spain, we have made sure that not only does the pipe last the course of the dripper, but also, that the drip holes are precisely measured for leak proof operation.

Effectively, we have asked NaanDanJain to slow down the production speed, to minimise the risk of oval or mispunched holes.

Not only this, as the image shows, we have date stamped with the production date each meter of the pipe alongside a production code so each piece of pipe is fully traceable in the unlikely event of any issues during its lifespan.

Another one of the key elements to be aware of with the production of the pipe is the quality of the coiling machine. The pipe is effectively under very little torsion once coiled. This is a balance of the actual coiling process and the quality of the material being produced. This results in effectively zero oval or strained holes which allows the pipe to be sensibly stored waiting to be used in the field.

It is often underestimated the detrimental effect of coiling the pipe and the effect it can have on the integrity of the drilling. The resulting leaks, even if small, completely negate the CNL operation of the system with the resulting detrimental effect on the crop.

The product is available to order now! Our standard lengths are 20cm and 25cm in 300m coils. Of course all spacings are available to order. Both 20mm and 25mm diameter LPDE is available. So either call the team on 01925 818499 or follow this link: https://goo.gl/5GwS5T

Remember to specifically ask for NaanDanJain drilled pipe from Ripple Aquaplast and be assured of a quality product for prolonged, trouble free life.

New Products and New Designs

Earlier in May, NaanDanJain France invited Stewart Penny and Simon Taylor of NDJ UK to hold commercial and technical discussions regarding the growing use of sprinklers in orchards in France and in what applications they are used.

Here we see a large frost protection system in Meauzac near Toulouse in the South of France. They take frost protection seriously here as they can have frosts of around -7’c and as we were driving around you can see quite clearly the farmers who took the risk and this year have lost the gamble.

This particular grower has 150 acres of apples and 50 acres of cherries. All the areas can be frost protected at once and this year he will see the benefit of the investment as they have seen -6’c when the system, was called into action. The system is actually triggered by a simple “wet sock” frost stat. The sprinklers are of course NDJ, from the 200 series the robust brass sprinkler with the red protective cover.

Simon Taylor of NaanDanJain ensuring long term customer satisfaction!

It’s that time of the year when Simon Taylor of NDJ visits the rigs supplied and installed via Aquaplast and runs some diagnostics and checks.

This rig on the south coast is feeding a large area of blueberries and has 8 feed legs ( 4 sets of 2 ) and two pH probes to ensure super accuracy of the pH, as blueberries are very sensitive.

The job is made more interesting by the use of sulphuric acid instead of nitric on the request of the agronomist and the fact that the valve sections are over 100m3 in size!

With NDJ feed rigs up and down the country, Simon is always busy, however with remote internet connectivity, many queries are answered remotely, but it is always nice to get “hands on” from time to time.

Ryan attended Myerscough College, where he achieved a national diploma in horticulture, plant science and sports turf. From there Ryan moved into green keeping and further into garden care and maintenance. By showing his skills and professionalism, he was entrusted with a team of six to provide garden care and maintenance to high quality gardens across the North West.

More recently and with over five years of commercial irrigation knowledge, Ryan has developed a strong understanding of drip and micro, problem solving, implementation and commissioning of fertigation rigs and controllers, irrigation design and open field system sales through to installation and support.

His new role, here at Ripple Aquaplast, is to be working closely with growers across all sectors and help solve their irrigation frustrations, reduce cost and achieve improved yield. He will be working, together with the customer, to develop systems to become worry free and reliable.

He will also be exploring and implementing new innovative products and ideas that NaanDanJain have administered globally. All of which are developed to increase profitability for the grower.

Ryan will be travelling the country over the coming weeks, meeting growers and to initiate his new and exciting concepts.

If you wish to contact Ryan, call him on his mobile: 07771 615265

When you are selecting which dripper to use what are the criteria that you use? Price? Who the salesman is? Historical practice? Well consider the NDJ Click Tif dripper. As the advertisement states the Click Tif gives up to 40% better irrigation performance! Often in the UK the closing pressure of a dripper can determine whether a system works or not. Fortunately the NDJ Click dripper offers the 40% advantage over other popular drippers. Not many growers use this measure but it works out as probably one of the most important and influential measures UK growers show use.

You know when you have an issue. The drippers instead of being CNL – non leakage – they just keep on dripping, emptying the lateral line so that when it comes to the next sequence, the line has to fill again. Of course the dripping drippers drip on every on/off of the valve. How many hundreds of times is that a season? Either way you end up with non uniform irrigation.

Next time you are buying drippers, think about this NDJ 40% advantage.