CPI – Helping Irrigate a Drier World

 

With a summer of record temperatures and unprecedented drought, the thoughts of many turn to irrigation systems and how to deploy them in a changing environmental landscape.

Irrigation systems have evolved as key components of maintaining farm crops, preserving green spaces not to mention your lawn and commercial venue’s like your local country club or golf course.

Like everything else, these irrigation systems have become more and more computerized and complex. Today they include computerized control systems, pumping stations, 2 wire systems, automated sprinkler bypass capability and even weather stations.  The goal always being to provide the perfect amount of hydration, using the least amount of water. This is a problem computer systems were born to solve.

It’s also a problem CPI waterproof switches were born to help with.

CPI Switch use in Commercial Sprinkler Systems

Lets take the example of a Golf course, a place whose very existence relies on fareways and green’s being… well, green! Modern versions of these systems typically distribute water through multiple lines with the ability to shut off segments and bypass individual sprinkler heads automatically or manually at strategically placed underground junction stations. Because of their size and the need for maximum reliability under wet, outdoor conditions these systems demand a certain toughness and durability in their components

There could hardly be a better application for a completely water sealed, intensely reliable, and electronically versatile waterproof switch like CPI’s. In a recent design-in completed by a major golf course designer, our switches were chosen for exactly these reasons.

“Local sprinkler head bypass is just one of the functions our switches were selected for.” Notes Pete Gagliardi, CPI’s application engineer on this project. “Our K1005 maintained rocker switch was perfect for this.” You can think of the function of our switches here like those Christmas tree lights where the string keeps working even if one bulb burns out. By activating bypass the sprinkler system keeps all other heads going with out wasting water.

Belonging to a class of switches commonly called “pendant switches,” the CPI switches can be activated by hand or mechanically actuated by one of our many mounting brackets. Since the switch is in a box that is typically buried in the ground, it can be specified with sealed connectors and even a standard stainless steel mounting bracket (E1057) for mounting at the box. The K1005 can switch either DC to 28 volts or 120VAC and is specifically designed for long electromechanical endurance up to 100,000 cycles.

Another sprinkler system application involves cover closed detection. Whether it is an inground electrical box or an outdoor panel, a switch like our E1092 is a simulated roller assembly that fits any of our momentary or maintained closure series switches and can be mounted between the cover and the box to provide a warning lamp closure to alert a technician that the enclosure is not sealed.

Whatever the application, if the place might get wet, CPI is your best bet. Call an application engineer today.

This blog was originally published at https://www.cpi-nj.com/cpi-helping-irrigate-a-drier-world/