New for Scotts Precision Manufacturing in 2021

Trinity 6000 potato haulm topper

Having just completed major building work at their Lincolnshire factory which provides a new assembly workshop, stores and offices, the focus of Scotts Precision Manufacturing has now turned to increasing their range of products and services for 2021.

With the inclusion of a brand new laser cutter to compliment the previous £500K investment of plant and machinery, the factory is now a state of the art facility with the latest CNC machining, material pressing and automated polyurethane casting service. The company’s staff numbers have increased to 22 employees and they feel confident that Scotts now has all the tools in place to provide a competitive manufacturing service.

CNC lathe in action

3 new haulm toppers for 2021

Originally designed in 2006, the Trinity 22B 2 row haulm topper has over the years been joined by the Trinity 6000 6 row folding topper, Trinity 22Bulb Specific flower bulb version and the Trinity 30B, which can work on three 36″ rows of four 30″ rows.

Last month, Scotts unveiled the Trinity 36B four row topper and the Trinity 54B. They are also announcing plans for a rear mounted folding 6 row model, which will be available in limited numbers from June this year.

The Trinity 36B features dual drive and a split rotor with centre bearings and has been designed as an affordable high output machine for growers with less than 300 acres.

The second new machine – the Trinity 54B – features the same style of drive and rotor as the 36B but comes complete with road wheel and drawbar. Scotts introduced the 54B model to offer a high output, six row topper, at a lower price point of its flagship Trinity 6000 folding version.

The company believe that by launching these two models and announcing development work on the rear folding 6 row (avoiding the need of a front Linkage and PTO), they have the broadest range of toppers in the UK. Scotts Precision Manufacturing managing director, Derek Scott, says “We know just how challenging things are at the moment and with the banning of diquat, growers have had to adjust to a mechanical destruction method. The Trinity 36B has been designed to come in at a really affordable price point and is the answer to numerous enquiries from people looking for the best of British with the obvious savings of no importer margin.”

All Scotts’ toppers feature front and rear LED side lights and quick change flails for reduced downtime. The toppers offer a broad range of cutting heights and come with static shear plates that provide a “mulching” effect. Scotts has included a replaceable steel inner liner that offers excellent hood protection and the largest variation of flail lengths of any topper currently available. A brand new feature now available is that of hydraulic steering, available across the range and essential for hill side work.

The latest Trinity 54B at work

Video of Trinity 6000 at work

Evolution updates

Quietly behind the scenes the company have added a raft of updates for the market leading separator. The main focus has been the development of an improved spiral roller segment as featured last month in Farmers Guide. Further to this Scotts have concentrated on reliability with the addition of remote greasing, a greater choice of motor / gearbox drives which now includes the Rolls Royce standard of SEW Motors and gearboxes.

Their customers are constantly looking for higher outputs and machine capable of coping with the worst conditions, which seems more common place these days. With that in mind they have developed a new 8 and 10 row versions of the separator going as wide as 2.9m. Such machines are regularly coping with 80 tons per hour in the most extreme conditions. It’s been a tough couple of years with growing vegetables in the UK on top of everything else but Scotts believe they have produced the right tools to give growers the best chance of success.

Evolution Separator

Grimme GT 170 Windrowing kit

Designed in response to local growers where the Grimme GT170 is their preferred choice of harvester, Scotts’ GT170 Windrower conversion kit directly replaces the elevator module. As the kit is attached to the harvester through existing elevator fixing points, there is no need to modify the host machine and thus can be returned to its original set up quickly.

Scotts’ conversion kit features a 5.3m long cross conveyor that allows the lifted crop to be moved gently over the two rows next to the machine and deposited into the centre of the next pair of rows. The hydraulically powered conveyor can be positioned to discharge on the left or the right of the windrower. The conveyor has five sections and features self-cleaning and a soft low flighted 790mm wide sheeted PVC web.

A maximum of 8 x 36” rows can be lifted without moving the crop twice, which is beneficial to the user when making an opening for the harvester and the trailer. An additional benefit of the new kit is that the offside wheel can remain in its original position as there is no need to dispense the crop into the valley where the wheel runs.

Scott’s have ensured that the drop height is as low as possible as both ends of the conveyor feature a hydraulic ram, which allow the tip end to be lowered.

For easy transportation, the company has engineered the conveyor in such a way that it can fold up to 90 degrees on each end, bringing the overall width within legal highway limits, also ensuring that the conveyor cannot be folded by mistake by incorporating an electro-hydraulic safety system.

Derek Scott, managing director of Scotts Precision Manufacturing says “Traditional lifting with multiple 2 row trailed harvesters is becoming less and less attractive. Adverse weather patterns are driving the larger growers towards high cost self propelled tanker harvesters and on occasion chaser trailers to keep conventional trailers out of the rows. Our solution is far more cost effective and gives a second life of a previously expensive harvester by re-purposing it.”

The advantages of windrowing are well known, but in summary:

• Opening up field breaks to avoid “nipping of rows”
• Opening up the field and headlands create much needed space for following harvester and trailers where tyre choice is no longer an issue
• Elevator harvester able to load trailers in half the time, potentially reducing trailer numbers
• Windrower is self sufficient so can start sooner in the day and generally lifts more crop as there is no waiting for trailers
• Proven to reduce overall damage to the crop by filling the harvester and reducing roll back

Visit Scotts Precision Manufacturing website HERE.