In the Lensli Academy we regularly inform you about practical situations that we encounter in the sector, we talk about insights gained in practice, we give you cultivation tips and we share our knowledge about other interesting substrate-related matters.

It has undoubtedly come up in conversations: Minimum production orders, or purchase quantities. No, this is not to upset what people sometimes think; there's a really good reason for this. Almost every delivery is made especially for you as a customer.

A substrate factory has a mixing line at its heart, with raw material dosing bunkers and, among other things, fertilizer bunkers connected to it. These “bunkers” are set up with calibration lines and automatic volume sensors to build up each substrate on the mixing line as a kind of layer cake. For optimal mixing, each running meter must be identical. This is important so that in the next phase the lime dosage and fertilizers can be incorporated with gram accuracy.

Uniformity is the key word for quality substrates! If each linear meter on the mixing line is constructed uniformly, the mixing process will also be much easier to control.

Adjust for moisture
During mixing, moisture is automatically adjusted using various sensors and dosing points. The great thing about this system is that the varying moisture values ​​of the raw materials are leveled out. The mixing line can itself detect whether the moisture requirement (our HWW value), as agreed with the end user, corresponds to what passes the sensors. This means that adjustments can be made several times during a production order. With smaller production orders we have fewer moments where we can make corrections.

The right proportions
In addition to moisture, the ratio of additives, such as fertilizers, also plays an important role in the use of minimum purchase quantities. For example, there are additives that are dosed in tens of grams per En-m3. Here too, a slightly larger production order provides better certainty of the correct mixing and exact volume determination. All this results in minimal deviations from the total product specifications.

For the reasons mentioned in this article, we use a minimum production order size of 15 EN-M3. A very important aspect to deliver uniform quality all year round!

Do you have questions or would you like to know more about this subject? Please contact your Lensli account manager or our Technical Product Manager Substrates, Nick Vollmer, by email n.vollmer@lensli.com or telephone +31 (6) 51269415.

We are happy to talk to you.