How Center Pivot Irrigation System Functions

By Steven West


If you already have experienced being in a plane over an agricultural place, you may have a casual glance outside the window. You might have seen the weird circular shapes beneath. Those circular shapes are the fields. As a matter of fact, they are usually circular in shape.

When you get to see one for the very first time of your life, you might question yourself as to what those things are and how they came to be or what makes these circular figures circular. You might find them surprising. Well, welcome to the fascinating world of the so called center pivot irrigation system. Unlike the conventional method of irrigation, this method or shall they say, system does not need much of a manipulation of human after its initial set up.

As its name speaks, this machinery irrigates in a round motion just around a central point which is better known as a pivot point. Water, chemicals, or herbicides can actually be added that makes this machine amazingly versatile. Because of that, the process of irrigating in fields has become more efficient than ever. With just one machine or model, many functions can be performed.

For ten years or more, this had become widespread and mostly used by many people in their farming or agricultural activities. It minimized waste of water and at the same time, increased the harvest or yields. However, it can be seemingly complex because of its great dependence on both conventional and modern technologies which are said to embody the system itself.

This article will explain how this thing works with wonders. For it to work accordingly, its key components must be present. The turbine pump, pipes, and sprinklers are part of its older version. The inventor of the system took the mentioned components, assembled them, and raised the machine just above a ground.

As time went by, modifications had been made. New components were added to support and add functions to its older version. Furthermore, those changes made it rely much on technologies that develop different functions for new ones.

Most of its models are operated by electricity. Using a public electric source or generator, using this machinery is made possible. An alternating current with one hundred twenty or four hundred eighty volts is essential for it to operate. The one hundred twenty VAC is used to power up the movement of its LRDU, pivot, and safety circuits. For its drive unit to make a move, there is such thing as power circuits that gives these units the drive.

This system consists of a panel, or shall they call it a control panel, which is known to perform most of the basic but important functions. It is the central command of an entire machine, sending signals to the pivot point and LRDU. It may be varied from one model to the other but it does not matter after all because they all do the same thing, regardless of what type they may be.

LRDU moves forward or in its opposite direction. Whatever its movement was, a pivot which has been moving all along is lead by this component. It continues to move until an activation of the next tower box occurs. Such activation is caused by some kind of an arm that connects the last span and second to the last tower boxes or tower. In this case, a pivot point has to keep on going down until all its towers have been moved.




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