EIMA Campus, lessons at the fair
Tailor-made projects, tailored to the specific needs of farms, and new technologies to improve safety more and more. At EIMA, a dozen universities met students, manufacturers of agricultural machinery and farmers with about twenty technical seminars mainly focused on machine safety and renewable energy
Today, agricultural machinery manufacturers are able to produce tailor-made tractors, tailored to the specific needs of a farm. However, while large industries can have internal research and development centres that are well equipped to innovate and customize production, the same cannot be said for small and medium-sized businesses, which are at the heart of the Italian production system. It is precisely with the latter that universities are actively collaborating to innovate the industry’s products. The link keeps getting stronger, as demonstrated by the technical seminars promoted by EIMA together with ten Italian universities of various Regions (from the University of Tuscia in Viterbo to those of Udine and Milan, from the University of Bologna to that of Bari), which represented the heart of the EIMA Campus initiative, hosted inside the Desk area. Coordinated by Italian Association of Agricultural Engineering (AIIA), professor of Agricultural Engineering in Milan, the set of meetings allowed industry operators and students to take stock of technological developments in the industry.” We find greater awareness among the operators of the importance of creating a system linking the research world and the production world”, says Danilo Monarca, professor of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Tuscia and host of the Campus initiative.
Among the topics at the centre of attention of the seminars is the issue of safety in the fields. This topic requires innovation to reduce the risk of accidents, which are often fatal, but also the need to design economically sustainable machines, so as not to burden the farmer with excessive costs. A project carried out by Inail in collaboration with the University of Tuscia and the universities of Udine, Milan and Bari addresses these requirements.
The project concerns a new system of fixed protection on the tractor, to protect the farmer in the event of the machine overturning.This system is conceived to be compact, i.e. low, and is a candidate to be an answer to safety problems, especially in orchards.
