24 EVERY SECOND YEAR, Agritechnica, the world’s largest trade fair for agricultural machinery and equipment, takes place in Hanover, Germany. After a four-year hiatus due to Covid-19, the German Agricultural Society (DLG), the trade fair’s organizer, is set to open its doors to 450,000 visitors. At a press preview event in September, the DLG unveiled the 18 Innovation Award winners and provided journalists with an opportunity to meet one-on-one with machinery and tech companies to learn about newly launched technology. Of the 18 innovations, only one was awarded a gold medal this year. The gold medal went to New Holland for its CR twin axial rotor combine harvester. New Holland was awarded for having developed a completely new drive technology that is said to maximize power, boost harvest capacity, and significantly reduce grain loss. European machinery technology AGRITECHNICA RETURNS AFTER FOUR-YEAR HIATUS Melanie Epp NEW HOLLAND NEW COMBINE HARVESTER. Traditionally, increasing harvest capacity has meant widening the combine. But as New Holland global product manager Geert Nerinckx points out, it’s not possible to widen next-generation combines as they have pretty much hit their limit in terms of size and weight. New Holland’s innovative design not only boosts productivity, but it does so without increasing the overall size of the equipment, he said. “It is still within the size limits and the weight limits to go on the road today or to go on the field to reduce the ground compaction,” said Nerinckx. New Holland achieved this by mounting the engine longitudinally according to the rotors’ angle of inclination. The split-power gearbox drives the rotors and harvesting headers using an intake chain mounted in a straight line via the propeller shaft located on the righthand side of the chassis above the level of the rotor housing. The left rotor now serves as a countershaft for the feed drum. As a result, no drives are situated on either side of the chassis between the chassis and the running gear, which means the overall chassis width is considerably increased. The extra space has made it possible to widen the threshing channel, which, in turn, has increased overall threshing capacity. The cleaning system has also been revamped. It is now fully automated and 13 per cent wider. The grain elevator loading system has been optimized with hardly any intervention from the drive. Pressure sensor-supported control technology measures harvested crop distribution separately on the front and rear upper sieve. Lateral shaking solves the problem of uneven distribution. The straw chopping and distribution system is equipped with camera technology, increasing the combine’s efficiency. Industry News
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