With an ever-evolving agricultural industry comes the need for increased productivity and efficiency. Looking at agricultural mechanisation, this orientation means developing increasingly powerful and heavy machinery, designed to support large loads.
A Solution to Limit Soil Compaction
If, on the one hand, the use of these machines makes work in the field more productive and quicker, on the other, the greater weight of the vehicles means huge damage to the land and crops, by compacting the agricultural soil. Recent estimates have shown that over the last ten years more than 20% of crops have been lost owing to this very problem.
Limiting soil compaction is therefore essential in order to maximise the yield per hectare, while preserving both the integrity and particular features of the soil.
Choosing the right tyre can significantly reduce this phenomenon. BKT’s VF technology has been developed to meet the needs dictated by modern agricultural trends.
VF, which stands for “Very High Flexion“ is a standard introduced by the ETRTO (European Tyre and Rim Technical Organisation) and the TRA (Tire and Rim Association) and it is an evolution of IF (Improved Flexion) technology.
A VF tyre is designed to carry 40% more load than standard tyres at the same pressure or, in other words, it can carry the same load at a lower tyre pressure than a standard product.
This is the feature which makes VF technology the optimal choice against soil compaction. The latter depends on a tyre’s pressure in the field, which in its turn is influenced not just by the load, but also by the product’s tyreprint.
It is worth noting that pressure is equal to the load divided by the tyreprint area. To reduce pressure on the soil, it is possible to act in two ways: by reducing the load, which is perhaps unrealistic, or by increasing the tyreprint area on the ground, an option which instead proves to be winning.
This is the solution underpinning VF technology, which then makes it possible to reduce the pressure by increasing the tyreprint on the soil and reducing compaction, albeit keeping the load applied constant.
