Best harvester

WHICH HARVESTER IS THE BEST

In the definition of what is the best harvester important there is, what to take as a basis: its equipment and average power or versatility and very strong power.

Comparative assessment of combine harvesters on two of them

Probably it will be quite objective to compare two combines of different models, but one manufacturer, as in this case, the results of one design team designed to solve a somewhat different problem are more revealing. Taking into account that both units work on corn harvesting on grain, that is, are in the same production conditions, experts decided to assess, comparing the indicators of combine models Lexion 770 and Tucano 580, both machines manufactured by Claas. As a result, their throughput capacities were clarified, loss levels were taken into account, and operational and technological labour and fuel consumption volumes were compared.

Why corn? Because it’s harvested at about half the total grain yield per year. And also because the high yield of this crop most clearly demonstrates the capabilities of combine harvesters during its harvesting.

And it is because of this importance of corn in the common shaft of almost any farm in the choice of a new unit, the readiness of the unit to effectively remove this crop is the determining factor. The criteria of preference in this case are: threshing system, separation unit - first of all, but also other parts of the combine can push the potential buyer to make a decision. A variety of models - on the contrary, make the process of selection difficult to implement.

For a long time there was a stereotype that for cereals (wheat, barley, etc.) better combines with tangential drum in the threshing system. and for corn, with rotors. In the end, Claas responded to the misconceptions of the agrarians and created «hybrid» machines, combining both threshing technologies, and achieved high efficiency with the entire list of crops. In other words, the applicant for the title «best» should not be with tangential drum or rotor. but with high efficiency.

The next stereotype in the presentation of practitioners was the judgment that a good aggregate is powerful. Now understanding the importance of maximizing each horsepower, not their potential placement under the hood. This concerns of course the power of the engine. but not only. The complexity of the threshing and separating system designs, the range of the mill cover, and the adequacy of electronics equipment in the process control systems are important. All these criteria are taken into account taking into account the structure of crop rotation. the size of fields and other features of the farm.

That is why combine harvesters with different capacities were taken for a comparative assessment, since harvesting of grain is not a boxing or struggle where equal body weights are important.The result was a universal economic valuation of combine harvesters.

Participants of the competition - Tucano 580

On the one hand - harvester hybrid type model Claas Lexion 770. Equipped with a reaper in 8-row brand Geringhoff Rota Disc.

On the other side - is also a combine harvester hybrid type model Claas Tucano 580. It also has 8-row Corio 870C.

First about the second.

In this case, the first participant belongs to the more powerful combine, and the second - to the middle. Accordingly, the second, the Tucano 580, has more demand among medium-sized agribusiness firms, as it is more in line with their wishes. Although it is also impossible to call it infirm - the engine - 378 HP, and the grain bunker holds up to 10 thousand liters. Technologically, Claas initially «adjusts» its technique to the maximum return in work and does it with the exclusive APS system - to accelerate the threshing process about 20 times, but without allowing overload in the threshing operation. But the system’s task is not just that. It provides automatic hydraulic adjustment of the sub-Arabian position in the threshing unit, which protects against overloads and downtime. The solution to this problem lies in the deviation of the sub-Arabization and increasing the gap..

Here, in this combine, there is a synchronization of the revolutions of the accelerating, threshing and jacking drums, which significantly reduces grain losses arising from its damage. In the separation department there are also interesting innovations: the additional deco increased the area of separation, and the lower sieves have changed configuration, which increases the intensity of work. In addition, the amplitude of oscillations (in horizontal and vertical planes) of the sieves was changed and only this increased the throughput of cleaning by 15%.

Rotor drive variator also increases efficiency and adds precision to settings.

Competition participants - Lexion 770 and the competition

The first of two competitors has a much more powerful 524 hp engine. and a larger bunker of 11.5 thousand liters. This model, like the Tucano 580, is equipped with electronic control systems for the processes and operating modes of the combine. Its hybrid wetting and separation system (APS+Roto Plus), although it has the same name, differs slightly from the systems in the second unit. If the APS includes an accelerator drum, a threshing drum and a jackhammer beater - here is the analogy, the Roto Plus is a two-rotor system for separating a grain pile.

We met, we exchanged pennants, and now we fight!

The conditions in which the measurements were carried out were generally good: grain humidity was 23-26%, the yield at the site of the competition is usually 124-163 centner per hectare, This amount of harvesting grain could provide the participants with a busy working schedule and allow them to determine their real possibilities, to see the losses they tolerate with intensive labor.

These are the results that have been demonstrated:

Harvester mark	Lexion 770	Tucano 580
Country (Production)	Germany	Germany
Year of release	2014	2016
Experience (moto/hour)	2000	30
Maximum power kW	385(524)	278(378)
Type of fan cleaning system	Turbine 8х	Turbine 6х
Threshing system	Hybrid	Hybrid
Threshing diameter drum, mm	600	450
Length of threshing drum, mm	1700	1580
Rough wool separator, type	Rotary	Rotary
Separator rotor diameter, mm	445 (2 шт.)	570 (1 шт.)
Separator rotor length, mm	4200 (2 шт.)	4200 (1 шт.)
Cleaning System Sieve Area	6,2 м2	5,65 м2
Grain bunker volume, m3	11,5	10,0
Projection capacity of grain discharge, l/s	130	105

Since the Claas Lexion combine harvester grinds 600-800 tons of corn per day, it fills its bunker 80 times and, respectively. time spent on grain unloading takes up a significant part of the work per day. At a discharge rate of 4-5 min. it will take 4 to 6 hours depending on the harvest. Therefore, this parameter - discharge rate - is very important-determining. The competition found that the Tucano 580 combine harvester, with lower power and lower cost, was only 10% slower than the other. but both have high speeds.

Determination of the best cleaning speed

The next round of competition was to check the harvesting speed of the crop, taking into account the losses at the threshing and harvesting.

This is what the technical characteristics of the reapers showed:

Indicator name	Harvester
	Geringhoff	CLAAS
Reaper mark	Geringhoff Rota Disc	Corio 870 C
Harvester mark	Lexion 770	Tucano 580
Number of rows	8	8
Coverage width, m	5,6	5,6
Harvest type	Gravity	Gravity
Row spacing, cm	70	70
Reaper drive, type	Mechanical, double sided	Mechanical, double sided
System of crushing and scattering of stem mass on a field	Rota Disc - rollers for crushing corn stalks	Horizontal knife crushing system (two hammer knives on the vertical axis)

To determine the indicators, each harvester worked in 4 speed modes (4. 6, 8 and more 8 km/h). As a result, it was found that the optimum speeds (loss no more than 0.5%) were all of the tested. but with a minimum of 4 km/h losses were only 0.1% - true - «quieter drive - further you will». And at the highest of the proposed speeds (more than 8 km/h) the loss index reached the permissible maximum. However, when considered separately by both parties, the results are still different: the Lexion 770 and at a speed of 11.2 km/h the loss is only 0.35%, while the Tucano 580 at a speed of 9.3 km/h the loss reached 0.42%.

Of course, the characteristics of both reapers are very good, because they are some of the best, but the difference in yield losses from Ha and the number of hectares cultivated per day is easy to calculate how much crop Lexion-om will be more Tucano and in how long - + 1.9 km/h will give the time difference.

Grain losses per combine harvester (over threshing mill) could be no more than 1.5%, so that together with losses after harvesting does not exceed 2%.

This is similar to the situation with the loss after harvest. At a low speed of 5 km/h Lexion-a 0.18%, Tucano - 0.25%. But at higher speeds, the two-rotor separation significantly reduced the loss of the first participant and at 11.2 km/h and 9.3 km/h respectively, they differed by 0.3% in favor of Lexion-a when meeting the standard for losses.

In summary, Lexion harvested 0.35% more corn than Tucano and did it faster.

The experts found. that the difference in velocity in the field depended primarily on the difference in engine power. Because moving faster, harvesters would also overfill their threshing and separating systems faster. But at these speeds. with whom they participated in the competition, their engines worked at a maximum level, close to 100%, when the losses were still available (0.47% and 0.12%). Or, in other words, their motors will simply prevent them from taking excessive losses.

However, another very important indicator remained - the speed of grain discharge from the bunker and here is what the results of the assessment of the rate of unloading:

Harvester model	Value
	Fixed grinding of grain, tons	Зафиксированное время на выгрузку зерна, мин.	Производительность выгружающего шнека, кг/с
Lexion 770	4,72	1,65	48,7
Tucano 580	5,94	2,17	45,7

As you can see here the advantage behind combine Lexion 770.

Evaluation of harvesters performance in general

To make this assessment objective, conditions were created for test harvesters to work for 1.5 hours on a field where the length of the race is about 376 m. Control measurements of the amount of fuel were made before and after the work. During the work, measurements were made of the percentage of grain mass in the total mass of the material and the percentage of grains covered from the total grain mass. For the first of these two, the Tucano 580 silo was either the same (at minimum speed) or 0.14; 0.25 and 0.11 percent higher than the grain at all speeds of 0.05%, 0.09% and 0.3%. The Tucano 580 had a capacity of 3.2 ha/h and the Lexion 770 had a capacity of 3.3 ha/h and the fuel consumption was the same for both cars.

Summing up, it can be noted that despite the different «weight» categories of combine with average power data (model Tucano 580) only slightly behind the more powerful and therefore more expensive «colleague». And this means that from an economic point of view, the exact choice of the best combine depends not only on its power..

Sample list of the best harvesters or their rating

Good harvesters able to perform voluminous work in a short term and in difficult field conditions, there are many weather. But there are among and some of the best with special advantages. Here are the most striking representatives of this rating:

The first is the John Deere S690. It is the largest model of this company, it is a homogeneous threshing system, the engine Powertech, at 13.9 liters of volume has 625 hp. power, which is enough to operate 12.2 m reaper.The bunker holds 14,1,000 litres and is unloaded at 135 l/s.

The next best is the Case IH9240 Axial. This is a very old series. But therefore still in business. that a successful solution has been achieved. The machine is also homogeneous, with the engine FPT Cursor 16 by 634 hp. Of the features - a foldable bunker of 14.4 thousand liters. Unloaded at a rate of 159 l/s. Equipped with a 12.5 m reaper.

There is another CLAAS here, the model Lexion 780. Unlike the one presented above, this is a more powerful combine. Like Johndir, this Lexion is also the largest in the company’s line of harvesters. It is a two-rotor machine, with the OM 473 LA engine from Mercedes in 625 HP. The combine harvester bunker can accommodate 13.5 thousand liters. Like the 770 m there is an APS system and thanks to it the throughput increased by 20%. The Cemos Automatic system is responsible for node management and control.

The German is followed by the Dutchman. Model New Holland CR1090. Considered one of the best harvesters in the world. Its 15.9 litre FPT Industrial Cursor 653 HP engine is also powered by a dual rotor threshing system. The bunker holds 14.5 thousand litres. Combine recorded in the Guinness Book of Records - for 8 hours of operation ground 797 tons of wheat. And on average, its performance is maintained at 90 tons per hour, with losses of 1%.

In the list of the best can be several models of the same brand, because it is not the name of the company. and as its products. The next member of the honor list harvester Claas Lexion 8900. Also from the category of the most powerful.Here are its distinctive qualities:

MAN D42 engine in 780 hp.

18,000 l bunker

drum width 1700 mm

roll width 13.8 m

APS Sunflower Primary Shearing System

power settings with scanner and load adaptation

And behind the German Dutchman again. Model New Holland TC530. Its exclusivity in versatility and multifunctionality. It can remove any crops. Moreover, the unit is economical, easy to maintain and environmentally friendly. Its motor is 5.9 l, 138 hp, and the bunker is 3500 l. There are computer equipment.

But it’s not just the Germans and the Dutchmen who are walking in pairs. Americans can, too. John Deere S700. This is a technologically proven reliable model that has been usefully improved by electronics. The Harvest Smart system controls the speed of the harvester in automatic mode. And the Active Field system helps to define the yield map and clearly establish the already harvested crops.

This is the first «magnificent» seven harvesters. Although the list of only the best could still be significantly continued. But at the same time, the concept of the best harvester would only be blurred.

Finally you need to add. that the choice of the best unit may not bring full joy, if in time it does not withstand its level in quality. This involves appropriate maintenance of combine harvester replacement of used spare parts. For this reason and some others, please contact the perennial supplier of details of the original quality company «Groeber Ukraine» and your «best» will remain so all the time.