- New Hollands CR twin axial rotor combine concept wins gold.
Combine outputs are restricted by their physical size and these limitations are due to road regulations regarding width and height. To get around this, New Holland have reconfigured the internal arrangement of the twin rotor threshing design with the engine now being mounted longitudinally in line with the incline of the threshing rotors.
The overall concept of the new CR twin axial rotor combine harvester from New Holland has therefore been designed for a maximum power density while complying with all restrictions. The core element of the new CR combine harvester is the drive technology with an engine that is mounted longitudinally according to the rotors’ angle of inclination. The centrally located split-power gearbox is used to drive rotors and harvesting headers with an intake chain in a straight line or via a propeller shaft. The left rotor serves as a counter shaft for the feed drum. The propeller shaft is located on the right-hand side of the chassis above the level of the rotor housing. Consequently, there are no drives on either side of the chassis between the chassis and the running gear, as a result of which the width of the chassis has increased considerably. The resulting space has been used to widen the threshing channel and therefore to increase the installed technical output of the combine harvester.
To eliminate any blockages, a software-controlled automatic system not only performs the otherwise usual back and forth movements to loosen the blockage, but also slews the belt tensioner to the respective tensioning side of the feed drum belt, which leads to particularly precise transfer of the rotary movement. The patented cleaning system has also been made 13 percent wider and grain elevator loading has been optimised, while pressure sensor-supported control technology measures the ram pressure and therefore harvested crop distribution separately on the front and rear upper sieve. Bare areas resulting from uneven distribution of the mix of grain and non-grain constituents are compensated through lateral shaking, as a result of which the system not only ensures consistent distribution of the material on the upper sieves on the flat and also on lateral slopes, but is also able for the first time to solve the basic lateral distribution problem typical of axial rotor combine harvesters. The straw chopping and distribution system is equipped with camera-based control technology, which increases the combine harvester’s energy efficiency while the machine’s weight has remained virtually unchanged at the same time thanks to weight-optimised designs.
With the new CR twin axial rotor combine harvester, New Holland is advancing into a new performance dimension in twin axial rotor combine harvesters using the longitudinal flow principle.
An Agritechnica Innovation Gold medal is conferred on an innovation demonstrating a new concept in which the functionality has changed decisively and gives rise to a new process or marks a substantial improvement to an existing process.
Key criteria:
- Practical significance at farm level
- Operating profitability and efficiency benefits
- Improvement on the environment and energy consumption.
- Work load reduction and improved health and safety
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