INVISIONit’s first product, the Pendulum Camera, would be useful when loading or unloading grain. Submitted photo.
PAGE, N.D. – Producers often have ag camera systems on their semi-trailers so they can check on their grain as it gravity feeds or the auger loads or unloads it from the bin. Trailer Cover
With grain prices on the rise, every bit that spills on the ground from overloading is expensive, and underloading can be costly and inefficient.
INVISIONit, LLC, has created a smart camera system mount, called the Pendulum Camera, for use with automatic tarp systems on semi-trailers. The camera mount is patent-pending and is the company’s first product.
“The Pendulum Camera will be able to be operated from the cab on the farmer’s phone or tablet using Wi-Fi,” said Clint Welch, an Oklahoma rancher and co-owner of the company with Steve Johnson, a fourth-generation farmer near Page, N.D. “We have just started working on manufacturing the camera system in North Dakota, so you can’t go out and buy it yet.”
Welch and Johnson worked together to create and design the camera system.
“Steve knows what farmers need to farm and he lends a lot of first-hand experience to our company that other North Dakota farmers can relate to,” he said.
In 2007, Johnson founded Talc USA, an agricultural-based company in Cass County that creates and markets new technologies in liquid and dry seed treatments and inoculants.
Talc USA markets in 26 states, Canada, Ukraine, Russia and South Africa.
Welch has been involved with manufacturing, CNC machining, root cause analysis, production efficiency and process streamlining for decades.
INVISIONit was recently awarded a small APUC grant to cover fees associated with developing a prototype, patenting, and licensing the Pendulum Camera system.
“We are still working out the final manufacturing details, but we plan to start manufacturing it soon,” Welch said.
The partners are steering the camera toward the grain industry, but it is also something that the construction industry could use when hauling rock or other materials.
“The Pendulum Camera system would typically be used either on a farm where a farmer is getting ready to haul his product to the elevator, ethanol plant, or other processing facility,” Welch said. “There are a lot of contract grain haulers that haul grain and unload it, as well, and the construction industry could also use it.”
The camera can easily be removed from one trailer and hooked on to another trailer.
“It is easy to mount it to another trailer. It takes about 15-20 seconds,” he said.
Welch said when they designed the Pendulum Camera, they wanted it to have certain safety features.
“Something that we scrutinized was the safety aspect of the camera because having the camera could prevent guys from crawling up and down the bulkhead five times or more to load his trailer out. With the camera, he doesn’t have to get out of the safety of the cab,” he said.
Welch presented some statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in North Dakota to the APUC panel.
In 2018, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the number of incidents in the transportation industry were 275 during that year. Farm and ranch employees were a large part of those numbers.
They also found that contact with equipment and objects, followed by slips, trips and falls, caused the largest number of days away from work.
“Farmers won’t have to worry about falling. If they are older and have bad knees, bad backs or other issues, it will be easier for them to load and unload their grain with the Pendulum Camera,” he said.
Welch said they have included some efficiency features for mounting the camera.
“We designed our camera to mount on the front tarp arm and stay vertical all the time as the tarp bar moves through a range of motions from the driver’s side of the vehicle to the passenger’s side of the vehicle,” he said.
When the tarp arm comes up and rolls back the tarp, it raises the camera up at the same time.
“The farmer can see whatever the camera sees on his phone or tablet,” Welch said.
The Pendulum Camera has two wires to hook to the power supply for the trailer and the rest of the system is wireless and allows the camera’s Wi-Fi to link to a phone or tablet in the truck.
“It is much better than waiting beside the trailer in the heat of summer or cold of winter to check on the grain as it is loading,” he added.
There are eight different indexing positions if a farmer wants to lock the camera.
“When you are travelling down the road, you can turn the camera horizontal to where the camera is in the middle of the void between the truck and the trailer. Then you can lock it in place,” he said.
The camera is moved to this area when it is finished monitoring the grain and the driver is ready to go.
“When going down the highway, the camera is kept from being damaged by flying debris, rock, sand, salt or other debris,” Welch said.
When the Pendulum Camera is on the market, Welch said it would help with the following:
“One of the things that drove us was quality. We wanted a quality camera that was robust. This camera will weigh about 20 pounds and be zinc-plated, as well as powder-coated. It is a tough piece of machinery,” he said.
The camera will be mounted in weather-proofed housing that is on top of a telescoping platform that can be raised and lowered for the best view when facing the trailer.
As they make plans to start manufacturing the camera system, Welch and Johnson believe farmers will find it to be the best tarp camera for trailers with automatic tarp systems to monitor their grain during loading and unloading.
Welch said he highly recommends small ag related businesses in North Dakota consider the APUC program funding opportunity.
“Steve and I are very excited about this opportunity to introduce farmers to our Pendulum Camera,” Welch said. “We are just nailing down some final details before we start manufacturing it.”
For more information contact Clint Welch at clintw@invisionit.co.
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INVISIONit’s first product, the Pendulum Camera, would be useful when loading or unloading grain. Submitted photo.
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