In this issue..

is currently working on a GPS-controlled unit
capable of variable rate drilling. The 6m
mounted machine apparently needs just
120hp to pull it and costs in the region of
€38,000.
On the precision-drilling front, following
its recent acquisition by John Deere,
Monosem had its first electrically driven
planter on display. Called the Meca V4E it
uses individual electric motors driving
through rubber belts to power each metering
unit. The key advantage of adopting this
approach is said to be greater accuracy in
seed placement –– slippage through
ground-wheel driven metering is eliminated
resulting in a uniform in-row spacing and a
precise number of seeds per ha.
For tramlines, with individual units shut off
for sprayer wheelings, seed rates in the rows
either side can be automatically increased to
make the most of the available light and
nutrients made available by the unplanted
strips. More critically, with it now possible to
switch separate units on and off at will, GPS
Header innovations show way forward
control makes auto sectioning possible on
the headlands, eliminating overlaps and
drill misses.
The electrical requirement is said to be
relatively light –– 50Amps per unit –– with the
implement taking its power direct from the
tractor battery. Pneumatic versions employ
a pto or hydraulically powered generator.
Prices aren’t yet finalized but the French firm
says the electrically powered Meca is likely
to cost €1000 more per row than standard
versions. ■
While news might have been fairly thin on the
ground in the harvester department, there
were plenty of developments from specialist
header makers.
Perhaps the most striking was a folding
telescopic header concept from Italian tech
start-up STW. Dubbed the Seagull because of
its wingspan, its main frame is divided into
three segments. This allows the bed sections
of the outer two to fold up and over the centre
for transport.
But of course there’s still the reel to deal
with. Its central spindle is made up of telescopic
box-section so that it can concertina down
to a 3.2m road width. In a move to limit
protuberances at the extremities, reel drive
comes from a pair of chains and sprockets
at the centre.
Nothing about the Seagull is conventional.
The cutterbar bed sections are split down into
free-floating modules supported on skids to
track ground contours. Each is driven by its
own hydraulic motor. And, rather than an
auger to draw crop to the centre (making a
telecopic version would be some challenge), a
chain-and-slat system is used.
Currently the Seagull is very much a design
concept but full-scale prototype units will go
into production for field evaluation next year.
Taking centre stage in Canada’s exhibition
area was the Honeybee AirFlex header. Available
in working widths from 7.6-15.2m, the unit’s
unique feature is a flexible contour-following
knife cushioned by air-suspension. With support
arms cantilevered on truck-type air-bags from
the header back-board, the cutterbar has up to
23cm of flex, allowing it to scoop up laid crops
on the most undulating terrain.
Sourced from Schumacher, the knife is split
in the centre into left and right sections with
drive coming up through the bed via cams
and pitman arms to power the knives from
the middle. In the style of other Draper-type
headers, rubber belts draw the crop inwards to
the intake elevator. Fitted with integrated Zurn
side-knives and an in-built air-compressor, a 9m
version costs approximately €85,000.
John Deere subsidiary Zurn was showing off
an electrically driven header that it’s developed
in collaboration with the University of Dresden
and knife supplier Schumacher. By replacing
belts, pulleys, chains and sprockets with
individual electric motors for auger, knife, reel
and belt drives, the whole driveline becomes less
mechanically complex but more importantly it
allows independent adjustment of all the various
elements, according to the firm.
That means knife speed can be varied
separately to the table auger and, with each of
the adapted Premium Flow table’s rubber belts
powered by its own motor, it’s now possible to
reverse them or speed them up independently to
clear blockages and maintain even crop flow.
But it’s cleverer than that –– every motor
incorporates sensors which can be used to monitor
torque loading. Zurn says it’s now working with
its partners on software and a controller that
can process that information and use it to
automatically adjust all the other parameters
to ensure the header is being used to the max.
A further development from the University of
Dresden came in the form of an intriguing-looking
harvester design-study model. Tagged as
‘Combine Concept 2025’, the initial brief was to
work up an idea of how harvesters of the future
might look and operate. It has two cabs –– one
front and rear –– three axles to spread the weight
and a monster folding cutterbar.
Clearly the students involved know a little
about the hassles of hitching and un-hitching
headers so they went for the radical option of a
folding 18m table. Once swung round into its
transport position on its castor support wheels,
the driver then jumps down from his normal
harvesting position, lowers the rearward-facing
cabin down from up over the straw hood and
climbs in ready for the road. With the whole rig
running in reverse, the folded header effectively
becomes a free-swinging trailed implement,
9m long.
Built in Canada, the Honeybee AirFlex header has
a flexible contour-hugging cutterbar supported by
truck-type air-bag suspension.
All the mechanical drives on Zurn’s iFlow header
have been replaced by individual electric motors
allowing all the different elements to be
controlled
The Dresden University concept has two cabs
– front and rear – and travels in reverse on
the road.
Although it might not appear in production
in exactly this form, the university says often
individual ideas are taken from projects such as
these and integrated into commercial production
machines. Watch this space…
crop production magazine december 2015 57