CULTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY Packed Agritechnica full of innovations Exacta is not for turning Combining forces with Potato Suite Grimme has opted not to turn the planting elements. Like a red rag to a bull, Grimme’s red colour draws visitors to the stand in droves. Europeans, Americans, Russians, Chinese, Indians, communication manager Jürgen Feld has shown all of them round. Especially to demonstrate the many novelties. Colleague Piet de Jong takes the Dutch visitors in the stand round. He starts his presentation with the Exacta, the new, four-row, all-in-one Grimme potato planter. Cultivator and planter in one, but just that little bit different from the competition. For example, Grimme has opted not to turn the planting elements, but to mount them in the same position on the cultivator as usual. As a result the sloping position of the planting belt (with the direction of the flow) is maintained and consequently the accuracy of the planting distance, too. To be able to maintain this principle, a technical solution was required. In order to divide the weight properly, the hopper was placed above the cultivator. To get the seed from the hopper into the rear planting elements, two feed belts were mounted on the Exacta, which transport the seed to a small filler hopper from which the two planting elements are filled. Since the Exacta does not have any depth wheels, to gauge the exact depth, an adjustable support wheel has been mounted in the centre-front of the planter. Together with the three-point depth control of the tractor and the pressure control of the ridging hood, the planting depths can be correctly calculated. The support wheel is also used to compact the free space between the tractor wheels. Potato growers with a John Deere tractor from the new R series have the possibility of automatically determining the lifting capacity required for the planting machine. For the following innovation, the collaboration with John Deere is back again. This is about a combination called Potato Suite, whereby the drawn Grimme bunker lifters can automatically adjust the speed of the John Deere R tractors to the lifting conditions. The speed control is similar to the system with which new self-prOpelled harvesters such as the Varitron 470 are also equipped. If lifting is a bit more heavy-going, the speed of the lifter (or tractor) automatically decreases, and the speed of the belt automatically increases as much as required. Thanks to Potato Suite. the drawn Grimme bunker lifters can automatically adjust the speed of the John Deere R tractors. New elevator belts Another novelty is the new material from which the elevator belts of the Grimme harvesters are made. The barred webs have been replaced by distinctive yellow, light, strong, thin, flexible plastic parts. According to De Jong, one of their properties is that they easily release the sticky soil. They are provided with sufficient holes and have even more sieving capacity than the ‘old’ barred belts In addition, the various parts of the Optibag can be easily replaced when damaged. However, the buyer needs a fat purse for all that extra quality, because this new Optibag belt is 20 percent more expensive than the barred belts. The various parts of the Optibag can be easily replaced when damaged. 16 Potato World 2012 • number 1 Pagina 15
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