Eco-technological, the Kverneland site in the province of Ravenna

The production plant at Russi (Ravenna), where the new Baler Business Unit kicked off, has renewed its production systems and processes. The market has rewarded the initial innovations developed in the Romagna site after the acquisition of the historic Gallignani brand

After three years of intense work, the Baler Business Unit (specialized centre for the round balers of the Kverneland Group) is now fully operational. The new site of the Norwegian multinational corporation marks the rebirth of the factory in Russi (Ravenna), productive heart of one of the historical brands of Italian mechanization, Gallignani, acquired in 2012 by the Scandinavian firm. This concludes a deep industrial reorganization that involved the management team, the product range, and Gallignani’s very factory processes. As explained by Lorenzo Fornaciari, Kverneland Product Manager for the Italian market, this has strengthened the Research and Development area following an approach oriented towards on-demand production. “Precisely for this reason we redesigned the two production platforms for fixed chamber round balers and variable chamber round balers. With the changes we introduced - explains Fornaciari - we were able to renew already in 2014 our entire offering. In a market segment that is constantly evolving, we expect to further consolidate our position within the next five years, to create a revenue growth estimated at 20% per annum.” With its 170 employees, 20 of whom are engineers, the Russi production site is characterized not only by the latest generation machinery and equipment, but also by the use of maximum safety technologies and environmentally-friendly systems such as, for example, the new paint shop with low emissions and reduced energy consumption. The measures to streamline production implemented by the Scandinavian company particularly benefitted the Parts Department, which is now able to fulfil orders in a very short period of time (from the afternoon to the morning of the next day), and with a very high efficiency rate, since almost all the spare parts (97%) are shipped to customers in the planned timeframes. The first results of this profound industrial reorganization were seen in 2015, at the Sima in Paris, when the Vicon Fast Bale, a round baler developed at the plant in Russi and not yet marketed in Italy, won the “Machine of the Year” prize. Featuring a “non-stop” combination with the wrapper, the Fast Bale combines a pre-chamber with a main chamber and a rolling system, which eliminates downtime during the transition from pressing to wrapping. The Romagna industrial site also saw the development of the High Speed ​​Pack and Optispeed devices, designed to optimize the wrapping speed of the round bales in any working condition. These two systems are equipped with a sensor that continuously monitors the formation of the bales and the slope of the terrain, providing the necessary remedies without requiring any manual adjustment from the operator’s seat. The latest innovation signed by the new Kverneland Baler Business Unit is the Auto Feed Control device, presented last November at Agritechnica 2015. Designed for the new RV5000 variable chamber round balers, the Auto Feed Control is equipped with special sensors that enable filling the pressure chamber automatically moving the round baler - right and left - to adapt to the different configuration of the swaths; thanks to this technical solution, the user is not forced to constantly steer following the filling indicators on the monitor. In short, in the three years that we could define of “transition”, the Russi production site has shown the ability to make the difference, while the technicians of the “new Gallignani” are already gearing up ahead of EIMA International 2016