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A Gator light utility vehicle made from recyclable materials.
Following a four-year collaboration between global giants John Deere and Ford’s sustainable materials team, the duo set out with a goal of developing a prototype vehicle using waste streams converted into viable machine components.
The project brief was to build a Gator light utility vehicle using renewable, recycled, and recyclable materials. According to senior material engineer Keith Shanter, that was difficult because they had to work within the current framework of production tooling.
“We weren’t going to invest in new tooling for a product that won’t actually go to market, but we did everything we could to find sustainable materials that were suitable replacements.”
In the end, the wide variety of different materials used included soya beans for the roof and doors and seat foam. Flax and hemp fibre, wheat straw and maple wood were selected for interior panels and exterior door panels are made from sugar cane with maize cob filler. A rice hull filler was used for the dashboard and the grab handles are made from recycled fishing nets. Also water-sourced, the bonnet was made from plastic bottles pulled from the Mississippi river, while a storage compartment was made from ground coconut, adding to the list of surprising materials used to make this concept Gator.
JD has no plans to take the concept to the production stage, but one component from this project that is in Gators produced today is a defrost louvre made from recycled tyres.
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In the first of two articles focusing on electrification in New Zealand, Leo Argent talks with Mike Casey, operator of the 100% electric-operated Electric Cherries orchard and founder of advocacy group Rewiring Aotearoa.
A Foundation for Arable Research initiative which took a closer look at the efficiency of a key piece of machinery for arable farmers - their combine harvesters - has been recognised at the Primary Industry NZ Awards.
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