Innovation prizes: great success for Made in Claas entries

Claas came away from the Agritechnica 2013 International Agriculture Exhibition in Hanover with a gold and six silver medals in recognition of the manufacturer's outstanding innovations. The prizes awarded came in the categories of product type and electronics for forage harvesting

Claas returned home from Agritechnica 2013 with a fistful of medals. The German manufacturer was awarded a gold and six silver medals, an unprecedented number assigned for innovations honoring Made in Claas research and development. The gold was given for the company's online simulator for operating harvesting machinery and tractors. This important new simulator allows the complete working behavior of a machine under a wide variety of conditions to be mapped dynamically on a PC interface for the first time. The simulator is controlled via a monitor, keyboard and a virtual joystick for the accurate reproduction on the PC monitor of the interactive mode. Machinery operators can thus be trained in operating a complex harvesting machine or tractor independently and outside operating times, online and interactively at the PC. With the aid of evaluated telemetric and process data, virtual control devices and operating elements, the software largely represents real operating conditions and procedures of a machine. This allows optimal training for the complex operation of harvesting machinery to be carried out already prior to harvesting work.
Claas was tapped for six silver medals in the harvesting sector. The first was for their Grain Quality Camera for combine harvesters Claas Lexion 770 and 780. The Grain Quality Camera from Claas is a high-resolution, color camera on the elevator head. It produces pictures of the threshed material in the crop flow. The images are evaluated with regard to non-grain components and broken grain and the results are shown on the operator terminal display as bar charts, including boundary level warnings. In addition, for the first time the driver is able to see the color images continuously and thus distinguish between loose and adherent non-grain components. This creates a new and more exact basis for assessing the grain quality and thus for optimizing the threshing and cleaning settings on combines.
The second silver for innovations in harvesting came for the Claas wind and slope incline sensor for the automatic change of throw direction on Claas Lexion combines. All the Lexion combines can mount the Wind and Slope Incline Sensor located at the two rear lighting arms of the combine. With its plate-shaped design, it records the side wind at this position and at the same time the slope incline by moving sideways or swinging vertically depending on the wind strength. The highest sensor deflection and its frequency are offset, so that influences due to slipstream and wind gusts are suppressed. The radial spreader throws the straw accordingly against the side wind or upslope. Another silver came in the electronics sector for the company's electronic system for optimizing process and performance of tractor-machine combinations.
Other innovations recognized are in various fields of production, from the electronic ITC, Implement Controls Tractors, to forage harvesting for the Aqua Non Stop Comfort and systems for optimizing electronic-hydraulic positive steering for trailer axles and for the automatic elimination of blockages in the crop flow of loaders and combination wagons. ITC is software which uses the assignment parameters of a mounted agricultural machine to control the pulling tractor with an ISOBUS interface. The system is used for the first time in a square baler/tractor combination and allows the baler to run permanently at optimal performance via the Cruise Pilot automatic speed control. It is possible to choose between the working modes maximum performance and maximum bale quality. In the case of faults or overloading of a unit, the PTO shaft is switched off automatically by the ITC's Auto Stop. Aqua Non Stop is the first automatic wet-grinding device for self-loading trailers and baler knives. The device processes up to 45 knives per cycle. Thanks to the exchangeable templates a wide range of knife types can be ground exactly to the right contour. Optimizing electronic-hydraulic positive steering for trailer axles involves two functions: the first is automatically adjusting the positive steering according to speed and driving stability and the second is the automatic recognition of the steering angle using electronics on the trailer drawbar which continuously calculates the articulation angle of the tractor and trailer. The final prizewinning devise is for the automatic elimination of blockages in the area of the crop intake on self-loading trailers and combinations. Up to the present, these blockages have required the manual intervention of the operator using the control terminal. The new system now performs all these operations automatically.