Exact Irrigation System: Saving > 60% Water through Energy Chains and Monitoring

Today on the IoT Use Case Podcast: high-tech in horticulture. We talk about an energy chain and smart plastics. And if that wasn’t exciting enough already: an exact irrigation system is truly impressive. You can picture it like a crane spanning an entire field. In other words: horticulture at an industrial scale. Our guests are Dercks Gartenbau with Peter Dercks, as well as igus GmbH with Richard Habering and Manuel Moussa. If you want to learn how to cut consumption to one third — in this case, water — and increase usable cultivation area by up to 10%, you’re in the right place. Enjoy the episode! Welcome to the IoT Use Case Podcast, the channel featuring the latest IoT projects from our implementation partners in the market.

Hello and a warm welcome to the IoT Use Case Podcast. I’m your podcast co-host, Dr. Peter Schopf. Gladly Peter — although today it’s a bit more difficult, because we have two Peters in the studio. Why don’t you briefly introduce yourself and tell us what you find most exciting about today’s topic?

Peter

I’m very happy to be here today, and I’d love to talk about our idea: saving water in open-field potted plant cultivation. For this, we use an exact irrigation system. Traditionally, plants are watered using irrigation booms or sprinkler systems. We called ours “exact” because it waters precisely into the center of the pot and achieves significant water savings. With this system, we save 60 to 70% of the water that would normally be applied — so we reduce it to roughly one third. Of course, we also save fertilizer along the way. Fertilizers are typically dissolved in the irrigation water and applied with it. That excess water naturally contains fertilizer, which then seeps into the soil and groundwater. We definitely want to avoid that. It also saves money, because less fertilizer needs to be purchased. Third, we also save on electricity costs; we reduce those by about half. So overall, it’s a very good thing.

The only problem today is that the irrigation system is still a bit too expensive. We need to find ways to achieve the same result more cost-effectively. But we’re working on it.

This will be an exciting conversation — because at first, it wasn’t clear to me at all what an irrigation boom, an “exact” irrigation system, actually is. When we talked in advance, I was picturing a big tractor with long arms driving across the field. But it’s really more like an industrial crane that irrigates at an industrial level, over a very large area, and with high precision. We can take a closer look at that. And we have two more colleagues from igus with us. Richard, why don’t you briefly tell us about igus and about yourself?

Richard

I got involved with the topic more indirectly. My name is Richard Habering, and at igus I usually handle the projects that are a bit more challenging. In this case, it’s condition monitoring, predictive maintenance, Industry 4.0, IoT — everything connected to that. igus is a family-owned company from Cologne. We mainly produce plastic injection-molded products. The best-known ones are plastic plain bearings and, in this case, energy chains — flexible cable carriers that hold lines and hoses to bring energy and media — in this case water and fertilizer — to moving parts of a system. We’ve been doing this for 60 years now. igus currently has just under 5,000 employees, and we generate two billion euros in annual revenue. Today, we’re looking at how to supply Mr. Dercks’ exact irrigation system with electricity, water, and data — and, at the same time, cost is always a huge topic: the device has to be affordable. That means you can’t install a “monster” energy chain. So in this case it may be more economical to design the energy chain as cost-efficiently as possible and then monitor the operation afterwards.

Manuel

My name is Manuel Moussa. I’ve been in sales at igus since 2019. Since 2021, I’ve been responsible for the smart plastics area. That means I’m responsible for sales — for all sensors and technologies, basically what Richard’s team develops. I support customers by advising them on which technology makes sense in the end and delivers real benefits.

Richard

You could also put it a bit differently: Manuel always has to deliver on what I promise.

Excellent. At least for you, Richard.

[05:13] Challenges, potentials, and the status quo — what the use case looks like in practice

Peter, back to you: tell us a bit about this journey at Dercks Gartenbau — where you’ve built a family business that’s very impressive and very innovative for horticulture. What was the journey like in the past? How did you handle irrigation before? And how did you end up with this exact irrigation system? Just the story behind it.

Peter

Very early on, irrigation booms could be used to water potted plants in open fields, because there was a horticulturist in this region who gave it a lot of thought and created the irrigation boom back then. On a leased field, we had the problem that there were several very wet areas. Every July and August, the waterlogging in those spots became so severe that you could barely walk through or across the field. That led to the question of how to supply the plants with enough water, but apply as little water as possible to the field — meaning not to apply excess water. We had various ideas, but they were either too complicated or too expensive. There was always something that led us to discard them again. This is how the idea for the exact irrigation system came about — essentially from a conversation with another horticulturist from the Allgäu region. I then asked an irrigation-boom manufacturer whether they would be interested in implementing this idea with us. They were willing. In addition, the local Chamber of Agriculture — represented via the Water Framework Directive — had to be brought on board, because it was also important to have a credible voice. When we as horticulturists publish what we can achieve with this irrigation system, it often doesn’t land as strongly, or the credibility isn’t perceived as high. So the Chamber of Agriculture, via the Water Framework Directive, was brought on board. They were immediately willing. We now have two prototypes of this exact irrigation system and achieve major savings in irrigation water application. You also have to consider that, in the near future, various authorities may consider limiting the amount of groundwater that farmers or horticulturists are allowed to extract. Maybe it will also be handled in a way that we might have to pay for it — which currently is not the case. If that happens, we would of course be on a better path with the exact irrigation system.

That really is impressive: only one third of the water is needed. Water is one thing — if groundwater is tapped and at some point becomes scarce, that’s a problem. But the fact that the water is mixed with fertilizer and can be applied so precisely that it goes only to the plants and not into groundwater and the surrounding environment — that’s great, great technology.

And on the technology side: Manuel, a question for you in the context of this energy chain. Can you explain how something like this works? How do you approach a project like this? What are the steps?

Manuel

From our perspective, especially regarding the energy chain, you have to describe the exact irrigation system in a way that highlights the challenge: the system has to be reliably supplied with water over a travel distance of well over 200 meters. Before the energy chain was installed, the hoses — two hoses, each 1 1/4 inches if I’m not mistaken — were basically just dragged behind the irrigation system. That means the hose lies more or less randomly on the field. And for Peter, that means the area where the hose — or the two hoses — ends up cannot be used for placing plant pots. This is where the energy chain provides a major advantage, because the hoses are guided within a very small installation space — maybe 30 to 40 centimeters — and the rest of the area can be used to place more pots.

At the same time — and this is where smart plastics comes into play — the energy chain must of course be protected. It runs around the clock, outdoors, where obstacles can occur at any time. The goal is to provide the best possible protection for the energy chain and the system, and we ensure the necessary safety with push/pull force monitoring.

The energy chain is also something you don’t intuitively picture that well. To me it was almost like tank tracks with hoses built in. How would you describe it, Manuel?

Manuel

An energy chain is essentially a moving cable and hose guidance system. You can guide cables, hoses, and all kinds of media within it. The media have a defined installation space, are always guided with the same bending radius, and are therefore protected. Some describe it as a moving cable duct. That sounds very simple, but there’s actually a lot of know-how behind it.

It also looks impressive. Richard, from your perspective: where else do you use something like this? What industries, areas, and use cases are typical for energy chains?

Richard

Anywhere electricity, water, data, and other media have to be routed to moving parts in a motion that isn’t endless. Many people know it from driving into a car wash: there’s a portal that moves above you, and the lines are guided to the moving part via an energy chain. A major area is container cranes: in ports, trolleys move back and forth on these large cranes. They have huge electric motors that lift the containers, and those are supplied with electricity. Also in automotive manufacturing, when parts — electric motors, batteries, sheet metal — are transported from one process step to the next, there are portals that do this. In most cases, these are linear movements on some kind of rail- or roller-guided system moving back and forth. There is the smallest energy chain with an inner size of three-and-a-half by three-and-a-half millimeters: it’s used in a sports car’s active aerodynamic wing. When that extends about 20 centimeters, the brake light still has to be supplied with power — that’s also an energy chain. The largest has an inner height of 350 millimeters and a travel distance of 300 meters. That’s used in a system that spreads pumped-out sludge from harbor basins over a large field so it can dry. And it goes all the way up to massive coal and fertilizer stockpiling systems — bulk material systems that build huge piles of bulk goods over 700, 800, 900 meters and then remove them again on the other side. These machines also have to be supplied with electricity and data and, in many cases, water.

[13:13] Solutions, offerings, and services — a look at the technologies used

Back to horticulture: I find this interplay of different technologies really interesting. You also have a placement robot that has to place everything precisely so the exact irrigation system can hit the right spot. In the direction of smart plastics: what are the next steps there — especially regarding monitoring — and what can actually happen in operation?

Peter

Before that, I’d like to take one step back and say something about the effectiveness of the energy chain. For us, it has to pay off. As Manuel said, the irrigation system used to drag the hoses across the field behind it. The hoses formed an arc — it was even up to 1.5 meters wide. Thanks to the energy chain, we achieve better land utilization of around 9 to 10%. If you look at one hectare, that’s 900 to 1,000 square meters. Across 10 hectares, you’re already gaining a full hectare. That’s very effective. What’s next for our irrigation system? We’re working on converting a conventional irrigation boom into a water-saving irrigation system. There are some ideas that are planned to be implemented in the first months of the new year. Let me go back to our two prototypes. We already achieve major water savings with them. With the older of the two exact irrigation systems — where larger pots are placed — functionality is absolutely proven. With exact irrigation system number two — this 45-meter-wide system that travels a little over 200 meters — smaller pots are placed. Positioning them exactly on point — the pots are only 10 centimeters in diameter — is a challenge. It can’t take long; it has to be fast. For this, we use a placement robot that can place around 5,000 to 5,500 pots per hour. They are almost perfectly positioned. But there are still small indicators that need refinement so that absolute accuracy is achieved.

Could you say something again about the application volume? If 5,000 pots per hour are being placed, that’s already a lot.

Peter

We produce around 1.2 to 1.3 million pots per year. In principle, our young plants are prepared for their later growth phase in the greenhouse — indoors. As small plants, they are more protected there and can grow. Potting happens partly in the greenhouse, but for the most part outdoors. The plants are basically sold directly from the open field. Thanks to our container bed areas, we achieve double utilization of our cultivation areas. What are container bed areas? Conventional fields are leveled — but very precisely and accurately — with a slight slope. Then drainage lines are installed in these “tabletop-like” fields. They run in shallow trenches, at intervals of three, four, or five meters depending on the soil, and are filled with lava. Across the entire area, a lava layer of 8 to 12 centimeters is applied, depending on the soil. After a Mypex film — a ribbon fabric — is laid, it is compacted. This makes the area drivable for so-called Space-O-Mats — forklifts with very wide tires.

Thanks to this drainage, the fields no longer become waterlogged which benefits plant health. In addition, the areas remain drivable even in wetter ground conditions. The pots always stay clean. To this day, we achieve double utilization on our areas — meaning they are used not just once per year, but twice, and in a small part even three times. This increases profitability and the amortization of the investments made into these areas and also into the exact irrigation system.

These really are industrial-scale volumes. And the savings of up to 10% in land utilization through an energy chain is a huge advantage. Manuel, in the smart plastics context: how does that fit in? What is smart plastics from your perspective, and which elements are relevant for the project?

Manuel

With smart plastics, we generally distinguish between two areas: condition monitoring and predictive maintenance. Condition monitoring is about detecting unusual events early — for example obstacles in the travel path that could block the energy chain — so you can react in time and prevent a failure of the energy chain. Predictive maintenance is about knowing early on: when should an inspection be performed, when maintenance is due, and when the energy chain should be replaced after many years. We want to give the customer the highest possible level of operational reliability, especially when the system runs around the clock without personnel. Ideally, we also support this after installation by informing the customer early when, for example, an inspection or maintenance is due.

Is smart plastics always tied to the energy chain, or do you also use it in other fields?

Richard

At the moment, the vast majority of applications are in the area of energy chains: protecting and monitoring operation — and if a plant pot, soil, or whatever is in the way, shutting down early enough to prevent a bigger crash or damage. We also use it to monitor plastic plain bearings, another major product area for us. In predictive maintenance, the customer can be informed early that maintenance or replacement is coming up. Every technical product has a finite service life. The point of predictive maintenance is to determine that point in time as precisely as possible — between maximum, risk-free utilization and minimum risk. That’s the combination enabled by our sensor technology. For predictive-maintenance functionalities, we mostly use the same sensors as for condition monitoring.

We define smart plastics like this: whenever an igus product communicates digitally with the customer in any way, we call it smart plastics. That also includes systems like our cable stock management systems: we also manufacture highly flexible cables for use in energy chains. They are delivered in boxes or cases, and with smart plastics technology, the fill level of these storage boxes can be monitored so that orders are automatically triggered and replenishment is shipped — similar to a copier or printer when supplies run low. That eliminates ordering effort. We’ve been running the predictive maintenance and condition monitoring business for eight years and have built expertise that can also be applied to other systems. The sensors, the hardware, the software — and, if the customer wants, cloud solutions as well — can be transferred to other applications. Whether that’s pumps, food-processing machines, or in the simplest case, measuring battery charge levels over time. The need for condition monitoring or data logging continues to grow. And because customers like Dercks Gartenbau always require us to think about how to do this very cost-effectively, it can be transferred to many other areas.

What are the main development directions for energy chains and smart plastics going forward?

Richard

The first direction is to inform the customer about the condition of their system. There will be many developments in transmission technology — 5G, LoRaWAN, Meshtastic, or others. Somehow, the information has to get from the customer application to the customer’s eyes and ears. The second is, like in many areas, artificial intelligence. We are also working on determining the recommended product replacement date as precisely as possible and with as little hardware as possible. AI is well-suited because it can evaluate many influencing factors at the same time. The third is moving beyond the small field of plastic products and transferring the whole approach to other applications — because our cost-efficient approach isn’t wrong.

And in the context of Dercks Gartenbau, and horticulture in general: what development steps do you see there?

Peter

Of course, one idea is to turn the irrigation booms into autonomously operating systems. For that, if they are equipped with energy chains, it is absolutely essential that they work reliably and without disruption. And if something does go wrong, the entire mechanism has to be stopped immediately — precisely via this push/pull safety system.

I think it’s impressive how innovative you’re operating. If you compete internationally, you probably have to be. With the savings you’re achieving, that’s really strong. We’re slowly reaching the end. I’d like to give all three of you a short chance to share a final message — if there’s anything you’d like to leave with the listeners. Manuel, I’ll start with you.

Manuel

The sensors we develop are being created for more and more application areas. Here we had the case of a very long travel distance. In the robotics field, we also monitor triflex chains. That opens up many possibilities to make systems more intelligent. I’m personally curious what the future will bring and what requirements customers will come up with next. It remains exciting.

Richard

I can only agree. For me, the topic of AI and the interface between AI and reality — meaning hard mechanical engineering — is the most exciting thing of all. I catch myself solving increasingly exotic things with AI and thinking: can AI do that? Going forward, I position smart plastics exactly at the interface where AI has to physically make something happen: switch something on, switch something off, measure something. I would even broaden the smart plastics concept here: where the network, where AI becomes tangible — that’s where we position ourselves. So much is happening right now. When we started, I would never have dreamed that we’d one day be involved in the industrial-scale production of potted plants. But that’s exactly what it is. That’s where products have to be implemented — where this whole internet topic becomes real in some way. That’s where I see us. In the future, that’s the point where everything comes together and merges.

With AI, you’re hitting exactly my key focus. I’d love to dive deeper into that. We’re nearing the end. Peter, from your perspective: you’re an innovation driver. Do you share this with others as well? And what else would you like to add?

Peter

We do share it with others — also because the Chamber of Agriculture is involved. We need them as a voice. We have not applied for any utility model or patent protection at any point for what we’re doing with the exact irrigation system. Everything is freely accessible. Also because it wasn’t only us investing — the state of North Rhine-Westphalia also contributed. NRW covered about two thirds of the costs. For the future: earlier I mentioned an autonomously operating irrigation system. Sensors for soil moisture could be installed and would only send the irrigation system off when it’s actually needed. If it isn’t needed, the plant doesn’t require water. The substrate would be sufficiently wet, and any additional water would simply run through. We don’t want that — that would be waste. AI can be used here. There’s also a shortage of skilled workers in horticulture. Information could flow into an AI system that makes it possible to manage operations from a desk — from a PC. In addition, as an experienced horticulturist, you recognize differences, respond to weather patterns, and try to proactively prevent fungal diseases from spreading through the plant stock. Here too: an AI system that continuously monitors plants, collects data, and detects infection hotspots. In the future, it would be good to create such systems so that people with less experience can still manage extremely well.

It’s good to hear that policymakers are investing in such innovative topics and co-investing with innovation drivers like you. And that this then also becomes available to other horticultural businesses operating at larger scale. If you know a horticultural business working on topics like this: there’s a lot of information and innovation available here, freely accessible. Feel free to share this episode and spread the word. Especially in terms of sustainability, this is a great topic. And if you need support around energy chains: igus is a full-service partner here. Thank you — and see you in the next episode.