Engineers keep designing harvest equipment to make it harder to do a poor job combining.
An automatic overload response system and improved slope compensation are two highlights for 2017 Lexion combines from Claas, explains product coordinator Jeff Gray in this video, filmed at the 2016 Farm Progress Show in Iowa.
Updating the 3D cleaning system that’s been a Claas feature for many years, the company has introduced the 4D cleaning system for improved distribution of material when threshing in rolling terrain.
“It’s a multi-dimensional slope compensation system that allows us to use the rotor cover plates that are already inside the combine to distribute material evenly across the rotary turn pan,” says Gray.
As the combine leans, the rotor cover plates angle away from the slope, preventing a build up of grain on the low side of the cleaning shoe, he explains. The cleaning fan and upper sieve also respond automatically to fore and aft tilt, to prevent material from building up in the front and back of the cleaning system.
They’ve also designed it to be harder to plug the combine when pushing it at high capacity, with automatic crop flow control.
“What this system does is it senses sudden loading on the drive train — of the feederhouse, the threshing/separation system, or the chopper,” says Gray.
If operating with Claas’ Cruise Pilot, the combine will respond to a sudden overload in the following order: 1) slow to 1.0 mph to counter and recover, 2) if unloading on the go, it will automatically disengage the unloading system to free up power to recover, and 3) if overloading continues or is sudden, the processor will automatically shut down, stopping the feederhouse and header, and disengaging the separator. Under manual operation, it will automatically stop the feederhouse and header, and disengage the separator when it senses a sudden overload.
Gray notes both the 4D system and the auto crop flow control are available on some late-2016 models as well.
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