Spray efficacy is our #1 goal.
Our number one goal has always been superior spray efficacy. That's what our electrostatic technology allows you to do — way better coverage, with less labor, fuel, and water.
25+ years focused on this goal.
OnTarget has been around for several decades. We focused solely on maximizing spray efficacy in that time - and achieved it through our electrostatic spray technology. We didn't deviate and try to do other things. We just worked to perfect it.
We've had the luxury of working with so many growers and so many companies over the years. It's bulletproof now — we don't have many surprises anymore.
Our approach to modern electrostatic spraying.
Electrostatic had a really rough start the first 10 or 12 years. People still bring that up. We stuck with it. We made improvements. We've overcome the challenges to deliver a highly effective, low maintenance, cost effective sprayer.
Historical electrostatic sprayers had individual nozzles, each with an airline, a liquid line, and a high-voltage line. Application rates were really low — 5 to 10 gallons per acre — hard to mix in and easy to plug. And they had high voltage all over the boom.
When it worked, it worked fine. But the reliability wasn't there. There are probably three or four hundred of those in California parked — or have been parked — for 30 years.
We figured out how to protect the system and fix the application rates
We keep all the electrostatic components and nozzles enclosed, clean, and dry. Only 12-volt wiring on the boom. And we use more air, so we can atomize more liquid. When you atomize more liquid per nozzle, gallons per acre go up — easier mixing, easier cleaning.
We charge all the drops for superior sprays.
Air atomized to the exact size and weight to hold a charge.
One 300-micron conventional drop = 216 OnTarget droplets.
Highly concentrated, potent drops. No dilution to runoff.
You have to form the right size drop to be able to charge it. You can't charge water and then spray drops. If the drop is too big or too small, it won't work — it's got to be the right size and weight.
The electrostatic is the most important part, because of the coverage. But it's also that our spray drops are so potent. We're using less water, and we have this highly concentrated drop that works a lot better.
That's the downside of dilute. You wouldn't paint your house with really cheap diluted paint and paint it five times.
We go on with a nearly uniform coating, rather than trying to spread a water drop.
The thing growers mention most: labor savings.
It's totally the refills. It's the tortoise and the hare.
We're just spraying and spraying and spraying — and they're stopping all the time to fill. In a lot of crops, half the time or a third of the time with conventional sprayers, they're not actually spraying.
You might have an eight-hour day and only four hours of spraying has taken place, because of refills.
How we unlock autonomous spraying.
You can't go out and spray 100 or 200 gallons of water from a little bitty robot.
Low water, low power
Easy to design around autonomy versus conventional systems. We've been in tons of crops with small units already — the autonomous equipment has caught up.
Self-contained
We provide the rate controller with sensors — standalone. It turns itself on and off. Ultrasonic sensors handle end-of-row. Nothing complicated.
Plug and play
Manifolds hook up to air and electricity — you're good to go. Mount them wherever you like, versus a bunch of individual nozzles.
There's a huge movement — the last 10 or 15 years — for a lot of crops to go indoors. You have to have machines that are very petite and very small to get through. Plantings are getting denser, rows tighter. You need units that fit these spaces and spray for long stretches without refilling, to make the autonomous vehicle economics work.
We're already an accepted spray technology — so we're not trying to do two new things at once.