RootWave

For the technical team at CFT, there’s nothing better than getting involved in technology that supports advancements in sustainability. One area we have started to see gather pace is technological development within the agricultural industry, using innovative new solutions to age-old problems. CFT are therefore really proud to be working on one such product with the team at RootWave.

RootWave is selling and developing a wide variety of solutions using Electricide™ technology to kill weeds. Driven by their vision of reducing the amount of chemicals entering our ecosystem, RootWave has designed and produced equipment that, put simply, ‘Zaps Weeds’ with ‘Zero Chemicals’.
So where do composites come in?

CFT was engaged by the team at RootWave to manufacture, and machine, composite tubing for their product, the RootWave Pro. This is a great example of an application that not just benefits from the use of composites, but one in which all the characteristics of composites make this the optimum material to meet the demands of the product design.

The RootWave Pro is hand-held and therefore needs to be sufficiently lightweight but also strong. Crucial to the product design, the tube shaft needs to be non-conductive; given the high voltage electricity delivered by the product, this tube is an important part of how the end-user is insulated from this.

After engaging with the RootWave team and understanding the customer problem, the CFT production team worked to the customer provided technical drawings and manufactured the composite tubing to their exacting specifications. To ensure the tubing met these demands, CFT manufactured the tube using a woven e-glass epoxy laminate which is non-conductive, high strength and has high levels of environmental resistance. Once quality checked and reviewed, our in-house machinists then conducted the required post-machining on the tubing using our CNC 4th axis machines.

We were really proud of the result. Do take a look at the end product in use.