Looking back at Potato Europe 2023: Dewulf unveils Certa 40 Integral and MH 24x series with Scotts Evolution

The 2023 edition of Potato Europe took place in Kain (Doornik), Belgium, last week. There, the full-liner in potato cultivation machines unveiled innovations in its product lines for both planting and storage. 

Complete planting process in one machine

The evolution towards soil cultivation, planting and ridging in a single pass has been underway for some time. For the 2024 growing season, Dewulf has therefore developed a brand new, comprehensive planter, which was presented to the public for the first time at Potato Europe last week. The Certa 40 Integral is equipped with a number of groundbreaking features:

• The cultivator's nine large wheels carry the weight of the machine and provide the automatic working depth control. As a result, they guarantee sufficient carrying capacity even in light and/or loose soil.
• The cultivator is an evolution of the SC 300 Compact. Moreover, the new web is of the highest quality, and the rotor shaft is fitted with thicker flanges. The cultivator has an angle sensor on the rear board, which controls the cylinders for the nine depth wheels.
• The machine's superstructure, in this case, the 3.5-tonne bunker and the planting elements, form a single unit and are optionally equipped with weighing cells. The planting elements are an upgraded version of the long-established CP elements. Among other improvements, the planting tube is adjustable to accommodate the tuber size, and each planting element is individually hydraulically driven. As such, it is easy to create spray tracks and variable planting is possible.
• The opener beam is mounted in a parallelogram fitted with cylinders, allowing the planting depth to be easily adjusted from the cabin.
• The covering discs, measuring 410 mm in diameter, are each mounted on their own suspension arm. The discs for each pair of rows are attached to a central hollow section by means of a top link, with the pressure on those discs adjustable from the side.
• Every part of the control system – from the control box to the software – communicates via ISOBUS. This in-house designed system can be accompanied by a 12-inch Topcon touchscreen and joystick.

Unparalleled processing performance

The new MH 241, with Scotts Evolution and a second sorting unit, was demonstrated on the storage line in Kain. Below both units lies a ‘Full Width Trash’ (FWT) conveyor to catch everything that falls between the rollers. After the bunker floor, the machine is standard equipped with a presentation conveyor, which provides even better dosing and a safer system overall. The Scotts Evolution unit itself consists of eight rollers. The Scotts Evolution system has the greatest possible working range, as it demonstrates excellent processing in both dry and the most challenging, wet conditions.

Dewulf equipped the bunker at Potato Europe with seven PU rollers with Clean-Boost. These allow you to sort from 5 to 70 mm in addition to the usual cleaning. To this end, a small, extendable or pull-out conveyor below the sorting unit is available as an option, for situations in which the PU rollers are used for additional cleaning, with the excess waste falling onto the FWT conveyor. Moreover, the second sorting unit can also be implemented as an eight-roller steel spiral version, optionally with a Smart-Pin.

For the discharge section, one can choose between a standard troughed conveyor, a central discharge with standard variable belt speed, and the new ‘Full Width Discharge’ (FWD) conveyor, which can be fitted with a 240 cm wide smooth belt or a belt with flights, also with variable belt speed as standard. This makes the discharge height adjustable from approximately 125 to 180 cm. This FWD is modularly designed so that it can also be used on the standard MH line.

In addition, a separate control box is mounted near the unit so that each separate part of the unit can be adjusted individually. A further option with this is the platform from which it is possible to check the settings from above, allowing the best possible adjustment to suit local conditions.

This year, both machines were produced in limited editions. From 2024, these innovations will be available to all who want them.