An easy solution for motorising a heavy farm gate. Making it self-closing and locking to keep unwanted trespassers out. A case study of one of our agriculture clients based in South Australia.
Our customer's cattle grid was performing as it should and keeping the cattle where they needed to be. Unfortunately, their heavy gate over the top of the grid wasn't performing as well at keeping unwanted two legged visitors out.
Our Customer's Brief
The need to open and close a 400kg heavy farm gate which was located over a cattle grid. It needed to be self-locking. Unable to be opened by unwanted trespassers to the property.
- Gate weight 400kg
- To open and close within 5 seconds
- Keep trespassers out
- Self-locking but without an actual lock
- No power available at the gate location
There were three key factors that we needed to consider for our client. Motorising a heavy gate, secure self-locking, and no power at the site.
Motorising a gate sounds pretty simple, and in the perfect world, it is. Not so simple when there isn't a power source at the site in question.
We needed to come up with a secure locking method. Obvious locking methods such as a chain and padlock were easily removed by bolt cutters.
Our Solution
We utilised two drive slew rings with hydraulic motors as the pivots for the gate.
Drive slew rings are used in the solar industry, are made of cast iron, and are extremely robust.
Think of an extremely robust gearbox that self-locks when not moving. Due to the speed, manual operation was not an option. The solution was to use the customer's tractor with onboard hydraulics to open and close the gate as needed.
Using the tractor as the power source meant the customer did not need to have solar, battery power, or a control system. This in turn would have made the solution more expensive and complex.
We engineered the sizing requirements and supplied them as a component. This made it very easy for the customer to fit themselves.
End Result
- The client was offered an affordable solution to motorise a 400kg cattle gate.
- Thinking outside the box for a power supply to motorise the heavy gates.
- Brief met with a self-locking gate that was quick to open and close, and was trespasser proof.