The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
New combine now ‘king of harvesters’
Machinery
New Holland has announced a number of improvements to its CR Revelation range of combine harvesters.
A c c o r d i n g t o t h e manufacturer, the new range takes automation to a new level, thanks to its award-winning IntelliSense system.
“The CR Revelation combine is once again setting the industry’s benchmark,” said New Holland’s head of harvesting product line, Lars Skjoldager Sorensen.
“The world record holder and most productive high-capacity combine in the world has taken efficiency to an entirely new level, significantly cutting harvesting costs through reduced losses and best-in-class grain sample.
“It has made a significant step forward in automation, taking over decision-making from the driver to optimise output, grain quality and operator comfort.”
He said all CR Revelation combines featured New Holland’s IntelliSense pro-active and automatic setting system.
The system, which won the Silver Medal at the Agritechnica Innovation Awards last year, is said to address a combine operator’s big challenge of maintaining maximum throughput while keeping losses and damaged grain to a minimum.
New Holland said advantages delivered by the system include increased daily output, reduced grain loss and improved grain quality.
And the advantages for the combine driver include fewer decisions to take, better comfort and driver confidence, less fatigue and a simple user interface..
The IntelliSense system gives combine drivers four strategies to choose from.
These are: limited loss; best grain quality; maximum capacity; and fixed throughput.
New Holland said the combines’ patented cleaning shoe sensors provided very precise measurements of the load, and based on this data the combine will proactively constantly adapt twin rotor speed and vane angle, fan speed and the opening of pre-sieve, upper and lower sieve to automatically deliver the desired result.
It said the patented automatic rotor vane adjustment improves the rotor’s power efficiency without impacting the threshing and separation settings, resulting in greater fuel savings and performance.
New Holland said customer clinics in France and Germany had generated extremely positive feedback on the system.
It added: “Participating customers found the system to be intuitive and easy to use, said it gave them great confidence, and indicated it would be a big help for new or less experienced drivers. They also remarked that it delivered a true increase in performance and grain quality.”
Meanwhile, the CR Revelation’s IntelliCruise crop feeding system, which automatically matches the forward speed to crop load, now features automated ground speed functions and offers a choice of three harvesting strategies.
The new maximum capacity strategy increases the combine’s ground speed to reach maximum engine load or maximum ground speed, while the fixed throughput strategy varies ground speed to maintain a pre-set load on the combine so that productivity remains constant in varying yields.
Lastly, the limited loss strategy varies ground speed to maintain a set flow, but if losses become excessive, throughput is reduced to limit losses.
In addition, three settings are available to adjust the boundaries of the IntelliCruise system – maximum engine load, maximum ground speed, and feed rate.
Another new feature of the CR Revelation range is a new twospeed gearbox, which is said to deliver more traction and faster reaction.
New Holland said the new Ground Drive with a two-speed gearbox featured integrated wet brakes, a bigger hydrostatic pump, and electrohydraulic differential lock operation.
The gearbox offers two speed ranges.
The first one, designed for field work, ranges from 0-17kph, and the second one, for road travel, ranges from zero to the maximum speed according to local regulations in each market.
New Holland said: “The new two-speed ground drive delivers more tractive effort, improved hill climbing and faster response due to the bigger hydrostatic pump.
“There is no need to stop to shift gears, in field operation or road travel, increasing the combine’s efficiency.”
It said the wet brakes and servo valve improved braking control and added to the machine’s existing safety features, which also include the new double acting parking brake.
The wet brakes are also said to ensure that braking performance is maintained for the entire life cycle of the machine,
This has taken efficiency to an entirely new level
with no brake pads replacement or calliper maintenance, resulting in lower operating costs.
The brakes are integrated and fully sealed off from dust and dirt, eliminating the risk of contamination.
In addition, a new remotely controlled electrohydraulic differential lock is available.
New Holland said: “It is effortlessly operated by a foot switch in the cab.
“It remains engaged under hydraulic pressure, and bevelled teeth on the lock jaw coupler ensure it is actively disengaged when the diff lock is switched off in the cab.”