Sustainable Spraying Starts Here

The new WinField^® United Innovation Center officially opened in late September, heralding a new era of product and technology development testing. This 55,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility is dedicated to evaluating the entire application process for more targeted crop protection product applications that help you be more proactive versus reactive on your fields and maximize your investment in these technologies.

A key component of the Innovation Center is the Infinity Group, a suite of spray application laboratories with unique capabilities that set WinField United apart as a global research leader. The new facility and wind tunnel completely replace the former structure that housed the old WinField Product Development Center and the Spray Analysis System.

The Infinity Group combines advanced technology with best laboratory practices to help us efficiently develop new products, evaluate the performance of different formulations and test new ways to optimize spray applications. By having these capabilities in-house, we can quickly identify product and application flaws and stay ahead of real world applications, evaluating large scale scenarios in a controlled lab setting.

The Infinity Group consists of three highly specialized technology suites:

• The wind tunnel is where we test multiple spray application variables to precisely measure droplet size and velocity. Because the wind tunnel can be used to test dozens of materials every day, we can rapidly evaluate a large number of products and techniques for reducing drift and enhancing efficacy.
• The spray application lab is where we dig deeper into how products and materials work on live plants, analyzing spray deposition within a controlled environment. Numerous techniques are used to measure droplet size and characterize spray velocity. We also use high-speed photography to visualize atomization and droplet deposit onto living plants.
• The materials characterization lab is a collaborative effort with our chemistry group, allows us to examine the chemical and physical components of a formulation. Using an array of technologies, we look at small-scale effects, such as the formation of a 5-micron particle emulsion, to macro-scale outcomes, including how a 1-millimeter droplet sticks and spreads on a leaf. By investigating this level of detail, we can determine how and why a product or component functions, allowing us to target our development efforts on exactly what works.

Our product research, development and enhancement efforts are aimed at increasing the number of bushels per acre produced while decreasing the amount of inputs used to grow them. Through the sustainable use of products, we’re committed to helping our retailers and farmers protect the land and adjacent waterways while also optimizing their investment on inputs.