Trainees design seed drill for Ethiopia

In the framework of a development aid Project four Amazone Trainees have designed a seed drill for operation in Ethiopia. The two mechatronic technicians Marius Bücker and Fabian Droste, the technical product designer Judith Hallmann and the mechanical engineering student Oliver Kubut immediately applied for this project. The project had been initiated by a fellow student of the Amazone director Dr. Justus Dreyer who is looking after an agricultural project of the OECD in Ethiopia and who had asked Dreyer for assistance.

The specification required a seed drill which is suited for the smaller sized structures of the Ehiopian agriculture and the often prevailing very dry and difficult to cultivate soils. Therefore the seed drill with a working width of 2.0 m should sow simultaneously seed and fertiliser in a direct sowing system and at the same time feature a simple, low-maintenance and repair friendly design. It is intended to sow with this seed drill Teff, a kind of lovegrass which is the main nutrient in Ethiopia. However, the seed is even finer than rape seed meaning an additional challenge for the design.

The trainees who come from different training  professions and years of training approached this task with much Engagement and successfully solved the technical challenges: "A great team performance. These four have developed and built a promising ptoto type", Dr. Justus Dreyer and Tim Schade, head of the technical training, praise the work of the interdisciplinary development team..

For the despatch to Addis Abeba the seed drill was disassembled in its individual components. Now, one trainee together with an Amazone service technician will travel to Ethiopia to re-assemble the machine and to test it in practice at the operation site. Then they will explain the machine in detail to the users and give them hints for the optimum exploitation of the sowing technology.