THE sheer scale of the European mechanisation industry was revealed at the world’s biggest indoor machinery event – Agritechnia - where exhibitors, keen to shrug the effects of the global financial crisis, showcased an avalanche of breathtaking technology.
It was former Prime Minister Paul Keating who famously remarked of Australia’s business community that “if you’re not in Sydney, you’re only camping”.
Similar parallels can be drawn with Germany’s premier farm show which no machinery player can afford to side-step if they’re serious about making sales headway.
While each exhibition shed rivals the size of the average footy pitch, leaving many visitors over-awed by the row-upon-row of shiny hardware, the expectation is of the biennial pilgrimage delivering machinery solutions in the aftermath of a visit to its huge Hanover home.
Putting the glitz aside, however, the underlying mood among some of the big continental machinery companies is of a nervous sales outlook for 2010, exacerbated by the collapse of the economies of Eastern Europe, plus sluggish prospects for cereal crops.
Nevertheless, leading German manufacturer Claas managed to steal much of the limelight with a bullish display of its burgeoning equipment line-up, centered on the launch of its powerful 4x4 flagship Xerion 5000 wheeled tractor.
But amidst a tsunami-sized tide of machinery news, other Agritechnica broadacre developments that caught the eye included:
- News that Case IH Puma tractors are on track to achieve 60km/h road speeds combined with ABS anti-lock braking technolgy
- First look at a Challenger Rogator self-propelled sprayer equipped with a fully independent suspension system on each wheel to enable 25km/h work speeds
- A John Deere/Pottinger tractor and forage wagon initiative that positions a swath scanner on the nose of the tractor to slow or accelerate the combination according to crop density
That aside, the significance of Claas’ range-topping Xerion which pushes out a whopping 385kW (524hp) – together with its slightly ‘smaller’ model 4500 brother that chips in with a handy 355kW (483hp) – lies in the company reinforcing its tractor credentials in the highly competitive broadacre segment.
Importer Landpower’s chief executive, Richard Wilson, remains upbeat about the group’s future, talking up the potential of the soon-to-be-announced lower power Arion tractors that shortly will debut in Australia and New Zealand where they will tempt farmers interested in the 66kW (100hp) to 92kW (130hp) power band.
The engineering department at Claas, meanwhile, elected to fit both the new Xerions with continuosly variable transmissions, offsetting their basic all-up weights of about 13 tonnes with four equal-sized tyres which are needed to transmit all that extra ‘grunt’ to the ground.
And there was just as much interest in the 24V on-board electrical system which in addition to its normal duties has enough capacity to power implements, leaving an additional 12V on-board system for overseeing the company’s Cebis controller.
This trend towards offering surplus electrical power to drive a whole range of farm equipment, courtesy of a plug-in facility first noticed on a European-built John Deere tractor last year, also surfaced on a Russian-made Belarus unit where its 225kW (300hp) model 3023 claims to develop nearly 200kW of DC electricity to help power the front PTO, thus minimising driveline losses.
Rival German tractor company Deutz-Fahr, meanwhile, took a leaf out of Fendt’s bold move to show a prototype six-wheeled tractor at the previous 2007 Agritechnica by flagging its own jaw-dropping prototype in the shape of its eight-wheeled and articulated AgroXXL 1630 unit.
Completing news from Germany’s top tractor trio had Fendt roll out new 800 Vario tractors for the first time at Agritechnica, including a 210kW (280hp) 828 Vario Profi that looks to be part of a drive to flesh out the noted Bavarian-based company’s middleweight stable, courtesy of more models.
Its new range-topper was attracting interest for its X5 cab that uses a pneumatic suspension able to compensate for both pitch and roll and, interestingly, also comes equipped with SCR/AdBlue emission reducing technology which is designed to convert harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx) into harmless nitrogen and water.
Also top of mind at Agritechnia was the humble tractor tyre with Continental keen to talk up its Speed Silent Tyre development, which reportedly can reduce in-cab noise levels generated by lugs turning at up to 73kph (43mph) by a remarkable 6dBA. The trick lies in stiffer tyre walls ironing out the oscillation effects associated with higher tractor road speeds.
And while on the subject of tyres, German company Grasdorf Wennekamp’s Soil Load Monitor positions an ultrasonic sensor within a tyre’s rim. The idea is to better inform tractor drivers as to what’s happening with respect to tyre deflation under varying loads and speeds, ready for any necessary adjustments to be made on-the-go.
One of the prime reasons the global farm machinery industry beats a path to the vast Agritechnica event lies in the mind-boggling 350,000 visitors who, every two years, vote with their feet to underscore Europe’s underlying interest in mechanisation developments.
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