Knight has come up with a nifty system that allows almost any sprayer to operate as a direct injection machine.

Traditionally, sprayers of this type have been custom built for specialist applications, meaning they are unable to operate conventionally.

However, Smart Inject requires no alterations to the primary spray line.

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Instead, concentrated or mildly diluted chemical from a separate vessel is carried along a secondary line and mixed with the contents of the main tank at the nozzle.

The result is that both broadacre and spot-spraying can be carried out simultaneously. And, with the second line switched off, the sprayer functions as normal.

All this is possible thanks to a “mixing” unit on each nozzle, which uses pulse width modulation to ensure products from each line are thoroughly blended before being dispensed.

By altering the frequency of the pulses, Knight is able to fine-tune this process to give an even application.

Another perk is less regular washing out, as chemicals that may damage certain crops are kept entirely separate.

Smart Inject is still a prototype, but Knight has patented the design and is considering licensing the technology to a larger manufacturer.