Capello optimises maize harvesting with Diamant

Diamant is the main header for maize harvesting designed and built by Capello in its Cuneo factory and is the flagship equipment of the Piedmontese company at EIMA International. Diamant encapsulates the answers to the demands for efficiency, reliability, technology and safety in the field and on the road, posed by contractors and farmers all over the world. The high-strength polymer bodies mark another step forward in the history of Capello headers. The sinuous design accompanies the flow of the crop in all working conditions, making harvesting quick and easy. Cleaning the header is practical and fast thanks to the possibility of disassembling the entire body in just a few steps but, above all, without keys or other tools: all you need are your hands. To deal safely with the worst crop conditions, where it is necessary to keep the header as close to the ground as possible in order to advance, an Anti Shock System has been designed, i.e. an automatic release of the spray tips: after a shock, the system instantly releases the tip, thus safeguarding its integrity and that of the entire bodywork and avoiding annoying breakages and costly time wasted on replacement. Inspired by the levers that guide the tipping of the arms, which resemble a horseshoe in shape, Capello's designers christened the chassis the 'HS series', or Horse Shoe: a system of levers that minimises the demand for oil for tipping by the combine, regardless of the number of rows. Furthermore, having no exposed hydraulic cylinders facilitates header cleaning and increases visibility from the driver's seat. The beating heart of the Diamant is the harvesting unit, featuring the harvester plates that move in a synchronised and simultaneous manner, guaranteeing a feed that is always perpendicular to the cutting axis, which translated concretely means eliminating product loss and greater cleanliness during harvesting, thus increasing the combine's yield potential. In addition, it is important to emphasise that the cob plates can be adjusted directly from the driver's cab. Therefore it is the operator himself, with his experience, who adjusts the harvesting process by determining the correct opening of the take-off plates. Another distinguishing feature of the Diamant is the advanced horizontal flail mower, which has been further refined and guarantees a flush cut to the ground and optimum chopping quality (the rotor completely shreds the plant residue, facilitating the decomposition process), without forgetting the traditionally low power absorption, a characteristic feature of the Capello stalk shredder. In addition, its new position, to the left of the combine's advance, eliminates the annoying problems of ventilation and clogging of the radiator, due to the vortex of dust produced by the rotors. Of course, the stalk shredder can be switched off when not required. The latest innovation concerns the gear drive developed by Capello's in-house research and development department, designed for 10- and 12-row Diamant headers. In this respect, the engineers have applied special physical parameters on materials derived from aeronautics, i.e. materials specifically designed to be subjected to heavy stresses, with high mechanical performance and durability. The introduction of these materials into the harvesting machines has resulted in optimised mechanical performance as well as low noise.