Standen-Pearson‘s (www.standen.co.uk 01353 661 111) new Uniweb soil separator is aimed at potato and root vegetable growers with stony soils.

It is based on the monocoque chassis of the existing Unistar separator, but has a revised intake, with a primary separation web replacing the roller and the first four rows of stars.

The company says the new machine offers the advantages of both star- and web-based designs, since it separates and cultivates in one pass using a combination of webs and stars to speed up the process.

Growers get a pre-determined maximum stone size in the bed, as all material must pass through a web. Moreover, the machine has a higher output, which is important at planting time.

Soil, stones and clods entering the front of the machine pass over multi-piece shares and straight on to the new web, where separation begins. Further processing and aggressive clod-crushing then takes place on six rows of large-diameter polymer stars.

Loose and crumbled soil returns to the bed, but stones and hard clods are caught by the under-web running beneath the stars and transferred to the rear cross conveyor.

Workrate in the field is about 0.61ha/hour (1.5 acres/hour)and output can be further improved by increasing the number of spacers between the six rows of stars which run above the under-web.

A conversion kit is also being developed to enable retrofitting of the Uniweb system and both Uniweb and Unistar machines will be on sale for the 2010 planting season.

Prices will be available at the Standen-Pearson stand at this year’s Cereals Event.