An esteemed panel of judges chose eight products from the World Pork Expo New Product Tour as finalists.

June 26, 2018

2 Min Read
Filtration monitoring piques interest of judges
Michael Osborne, AAF Flanders vice president of global research and development (far left) explains the intricacies of the Sensor 360 filtration monitoring system to the New Product Tour judges (left to right) Gary Anderson, Brad Leuwerke and Pat Thome.National Hog Farmer/Kevin Schulz

World Pork Expo is a highlight on the calendar for the pork industry. In addition to the global meeting of the minds, the world’s largest annual pork-only trade show offers producers a chance to see the best that porcine-related companies have to offer.

The highlight of the trade show are the new products that help make farms better, more efficient and more productive. National Hog Farmer showcases these new offerings in the annual New Product Tour. This year, 30 products were nominated — appropriate since this was the 30th year of World Pork Expo.

Tasked with choosing the finalists were Judges Pat Thome, hog producer from Adams, Minn.; Brad Leuwerke, veterinarian from the Swine Vet Center in St. Peter, Minn., and Gary Anderson, ag engineering professor at the South Dakota State University in Brookings. This trio of judges chose eight finalists, but do not rank the finalists.

The first finalist featured is the Sensor 360 from AAF Flanders.

Poor indoor air quality ranks as one of the top five environmental risks to public health. The Sensor360 tool helps facility managers solve this problem by monitoring their building’s indoor air, offering instantaneous monitoring of a filter system’s performance and automatically tracking pressure drop and micron levels of 1, 2.5 and 10 particulate matter.

Related:Who are the New Product Tour finalists for 2018?

This is the first filtration monitoring technology for the swine industry, which lets the user optimize air filter performance and maintenance in a new way. Sensor360 demonstrates the effectiveness of a barn’s filtration system by monitoring particulate levels to help reduce the impact of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus, Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, influenza and other viruses.

“I like that it’s a provided service for their filter; it’s a value-added part of their service,” says Leuwerke. The Sensor 360 is provided to hog producers who have an AAF Flanders filtration system.

By monitoring pressure drop, the user can determine the changeout point for the barn’s filters that offers the best value: filter cost, labor cost, disposal cost and energy efficiency. Battery-powered sensors measure both particulate concentration before the air is filtered and filtered air quality. Pressure monitors are integrated into the barn’s current filter banks to record data and offer a convenient way to monitor air filter performance, including when the optimal filter changeout point is approaching.

The sensors connect to a network gateway, which communicates (via the cloud) to an app installed on the user’s phone, tablet or computer.

An air quality monitoring display can also be placed in the barn or another location within the building.

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