Hanover awards finest innovations
Agritechnica is awarding 4 gold medals and 33 silvers to the most innovative products and systems in the field of agricultural mechanics entered in the competition for the 2013 edition. Outstanding among the prize winning innovations is the Hybrid built by Merlo, a successful combination of energy savings, eco-compatibility and flexibility in operations
The Agrilevante exhibition, as is the case for all the most important exhibitions in the sector, is focusing great attention on technological innovations with a specific competition entered by exhibiting companies present in Hanover this year and has tapped 37 entries for prizes, 4 gold medals and 33 silvers.
The most important awards are going to the AirSep pneumatic impurities separator for potato harvesting from Landmaschinenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG (D); AXMAT, a solution featuring automatic online measuring of fertilizer distribution and automatic adjustment of a double disc fertilizer spreader from RAUCH Landmaschinenfabrik GmbH and MSO Messtechnik und Ortung GmbH (D); the Online-Simulator for operating harvesting machinery and tractors from Claas (D); the Hybrid telehandler - Turbofarmer 40.7 electric or diesel- electric hybrid from Merlo (I) for the vehicle's innovative features, versatility and eco-compatibility which has attracted special interest. An official statement reported that for the first time a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle will be offered for agricultural use with the option of switching the drive between electrical and diesel-electrical. In the electric mode the 30 kWh lithium battery supplies the machine with energy – it works quietly and emission-free and can thus also be used in closed buildings.
In the hybrid mode the diesel engine operating at constant speed supplies the power for traction drive and charges the battery at the same time. This drive architecture makes it possible to halve the rated output of the diesel engine without restricting the effective work of the loader. In addition, during the low-load or idling phases that frequently occur in telehandler use, the drive can in turn be powered purely electrically, as a result of which the fuel costs and CO2 emissions in conjunction with the downsized engine can be reduced by up to 30%.
A further reduction in costs results from charging the plug-in hybrids from the electricity grid or the PV system. On the energy issue, taking on increasing greater importance as shown by the award-winning technologies, a silver medal was given to New Holland Deutschland for the manufacturer's Cornrower system for the recovery of harvest residues after the grain-maize harvest allowing these residues to be used as biomass as renewable raw materials for energy generation or as litter or feed in livestock raising.
In this area of harvesting, another silver was picked up by New Holland Deutschland's Opti-Speed – variable straw-walker shaft rpm technology which alters the speed of the straw-walker shafts as a function of the slope inclination and the crop to be harvested to avoid high grain losses on hilly fields. Another high profile technology taken a silver medal in connection with harvesting is the foldable maize picker with narrow road width by Cressoni (I) for the picker equipped with a new turning mechanism that limits the transport width of ten-row and twelve-row maize pickers without chopper units following the pickers to 3.45 meters.
The side section widths are connected to the center section via a vertical thrust rotating shaft. For transport they are first lifted then turned 90 degrees lengthways to the direction of travel and fixed with the diver hoods against each other over the center section providing significant benefits in transport width and visibility.
