Mr McWilliams, proprietor of agricultural spray manufacturer Interlink, in Benetook Avenue, believes the new hydraulically powered sprayer is a game-changer.

Highly efficient, it uses 60 per cent less spray, yet provides superior coverage, while cutting work times by being faster over the ground.

It is designed around six super-large fans, that generate a “soft”, turbulent spray that penetrates the full depth of the tree or vine, and from top to bottom. There is almost no damage to the branches or foliage.

Interlink has already dispatched one to a citrus grower in California, and its backlog of orders is growing rapidly.

It believes the sprayer has huge export potential in the US and Europe, and could become the basis of a major industry worth millions of dollars to Sunraysia’s economy.

A self-taught engineer, Mr Williams admits to being a practising member of the HAM (Hit and Miss) school of design.

“I just experiment with things until they work,” he said this week.

“If they don’t work, I move on and invent something else.”

While he may lack formal engineering qualifications, he does not lack ideas, and some of the best of them are embodied in the new sprayer.

For more of this story, purchase your copy of Saturday’s Sunraysia Daily 04/09/2010.