Independent Talk on Torque

Posted 26 June 2007

At this year’s Royal Show Harper Adams University College is taking a different approach. Students and staff from the Shropshire-based specialist University College will be taking centre-stage at the Tractor Village where they are show-casing some of the very best machinery and giving independent expert advice.

You can go to any old show, kick tyres and get pounced on by umpteen over-eager tractor salesmen. But this is not the best way to find out how to invest serious amounts of farm cash in new technology. That’s why the Tractor Village is so very special at the Royal Show, which takes place Sunday 1st to Wednesday 4th July at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire.

This year Harper Adams will be focusing on farming efficiency, with a particular emphasis on precision farming. Leading manufacturers of cutting-edge kit, such as SOYL, will be demonstrating how satellite guidance can help save time, money and wasted inputs.

Will Turner, Senior Lecturer at the University College, who is co-ordinating activities within the Tractor Village points out “We have kit from the leading manufacturers in the Tractor Village, but you will not be inundated with tractor salesmen. Instead visitors can glean the independent view and benefit from research findings of some of the top agricultural engineering brains in Britain.”

Engineering experts from Harper Adams will be giving independent views and will also be on hand to guide farmers through the Profi database that compares the specification of different tractors.

AN ARENA SPECTACULAR
However, it’s not just about business! Its Human-Powered Vehicles, Molton Rock’s newly designed Boma Off-Road Wheelchair and one of the biggest tractor-pullers in Britain!
Harper Adams students will be performing a varied programme of events within the Tractor Village Arena. Engineering students will exclusively reveal human-powered vehicles that have been designed as part of the BSc and BEng courses. They will be manoeuvring their own design and build machines around a challenging obstacle course. It’s almost like a man-powered equivalent to Landrover’s Terrapod!  If nothing else it will certainly be a great spectacular!

Next-up in the Arena is a very special off-road wheelchair. The Boma has been designed by former Harper Adams student Chris Swift. It is the solution for off-road mobility for individuals with mobility impairments such as paraplegia and tetraplegia. Chris will be show-casing this fantastic design over the demanding obstacle course to demonstrate its capabilities. It can give a new lease of life and enable hiking and mountain biking routes, camping, trekking, countryside sports and just escaping outdoors!

Finally we have a meaty machine – Britain’s biggest tractor-pullers. 1,000hp of pure pulling power will be parked at the entrance and is sure to make you salivate with machinery marvel. It forms the basis of a tractor simulation programme one of our students has developed and will be demonstrating. If ever you’ve wondered how to balance torque, revs and pulling power, imaging what it would be like to have 1,000hp at your disposal!

The University College will also be at the show in the Harper Adams Pavilion on Avenue E. So if you are interested in university access, undergraduate, postgraduate and short courses please feel free to drop in and see us!