WHILE boomsprayer manufacturer HARDI is a Danish company, its subsidiary HARDI Australia has a substantial manufacturing facility in Adelaide, South Australia.
In fact, the majority of HARDI sprayers sold in Australia and New Zealand are built locally, with the company's local production consuming more than 7200kg of welding wire and 8.4 tonnes of 'Hardi Red' powder coating a year.
Hardi International established Hardi Australia in 2002 and today the local business occupies more than 10,000m2 of production, testing, logistics and support space on a 10 hectare site.
Fluid systems are tested separately in a facility that can fit all HARDI sprayers, including the giant 9000 litre Rubicon self-propelled model with a 48.5m boom and HARDI is able to run spray tests for 24 hours and longer.
HARDI's Australian Product Development Centre (APDC) is a conduit for the latest sprayer technologies and innovations, with global expertise from HARDI Europe.
At the same time, Australian innovations are fed back into the network to benefit producers overseas.
The HARDI Rubicon is a perfect example.
It was developed locally to meet the unique needs of Australian broadacre farmers, but now it is HARDI's largest self-propelled model and is offered world-wide.
Building on the Australian template, HARDI's global network contributed class-leading engine, boom, fluid control and guidance technologies to the Rubicon.
Its 6500L and 9000L stainless steel tanks are manufactured by a South Australian supplier, which also manufactures 6200L tanks for the HARDI Saritor 62 Active model.
HARDI Australia's production commitment, with 100 local employees, has also helped develop local expertise.
Making sprayers here means HARDI can configure machines to meet the specific needs of its customers.
It also carries an inventory of more than 20,000 different back-up parts.
HARDI technicians are also experts in aluminium boom configuration, which requires lots of local knowledge.
The company began importing Pommier aluminium booms years before anyone else and worked hard to adjust their performance for local farmers.
The process involved a lot of testing and significant deviation from the settings recommended by Pommier engineers in Europe.
Now, HARDI Australia uses its unrivalled know-how to manufacture aluminium booms in Australia from imported Pommier extrusions, under the HARDI Paragon brand.
The booms are integrated with HARDI's advanced 'AutoHeight' and 'AutoTerrain' sprayer centres at the factory, to provide the best possible height control and smooth boom ride, that 'float' across melon holes, lumps and slope changes.
HARDI enhances its local boom expertise with leading international technology, such as the H-Select nozzle control, which is offered exclusively with the largest Rubicon aluminium booms.
H-Select uses compressed air switching to control different combinations of up to four different nozzles at each nozzle body.
It can provide constant fluid pressure, application rate and droplet size across the Rubicon's entire speed range.
Droplet size can even be adjusted on-the-go from an in-cab run screen, for better coverage and drift control.
HARDI installs and tests H-Select both at the Adelaide factory and again on delivery.
Mixing international technology with tailored production is called 'global made local', and it underpins every aspect of HARDI production and customer service.
It means the next Danish sprayer you see is a lot more Australian than it looks.
