At the Institute for Application Techniques in Plant Protection we offer various types of voluntary testing. We also coordinate the national control of plant protection equipment in use and contribute our experience to the EU-wide harmonisation of test guidelines.

Survey of Documents and technical inspection

With the survey of documents, we want to support manufacturers of plant protection equipment and assist them with the CE declaration of conformity. The JKI checks manufacturers' documents such as instruction manuals, technical specifications for sufficiency and plausibility. The technical inspection builds on the survey of documents and extends it to include an additional visual inspection of the equipment.

ENTAM

The aim of the European Network for Testing of Agricultural Machines(ENTAM 2.0) is to harmonise the testing of plant protection equipment and its mutual national recognition. Hence a "device that has been tested once - is recognised throughout Europe".

JKI approval procedure

The JKI seal of approval "officially tested and recognised" certifies, within the framework of the JKI recognition test, successfully tested plant protection equipment with special properties that go beyond the legally required minimum standard.

The voluntary test is carried out by the JKI in cooperation with the plant protection offices of the German federal states at the request of the manufacturer. The Institute carries out the technical tests on various test stands. The application test centres of the plant protection offices, on the other hand, test in practical use.

Drift reduction and savings potential

Manufacturers of plant protection equipment can apply to the Institute for Application Techniques in Plant Protection to have their equipment tested for its "drift-reducing properties". For this purpose, results on drift from field or wind tunnel measurements are used. We also test crop protection equipment for its potential to save plant protection products. In both cases, the device must have successfully passed  a voluntary test for JKI-approval beforehand.

Inspection of plant protection equipment in use

The inspection of plant protection equipment in use has the objective of identifying wear and age-related defects that would otherwise be detrimental to the dosing and distribution accuracy.

To ensure that the inspections are carried out uniformly in the German federal states, the federal-state working group "inspection of plant protection equipment" was set up, which our institute heads. However, the inspection is done by the officially approved inspection companies at the state level. The technical requirements for the inspection of plant protection equipment are published in JKI guidelines.