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A new evaluation centre opened by Claas at its headquarters at Harsewinkel, Germany will help maintain its front ranking in harvesting technology.
The centre will be pivotal in its development of new agricultural products.
The NZ$25 million centre will have NZ$5.4m of testing gear to speed development of the company’s headers, forage harvesters and tractors.
It was formally opened by Catherina Claas Muhlhauser, daughter of Helmut Claas, after 22 months construction. It has 13 test cells to replicate real world and extreme situations worldwide.
The electrically driven rigs can run unattended 24/7, doing lengthy tests over concise timelines.
The largest rigs can accommodate combine cutter-bars up to 12m working width and will test engineering specifications and durability.
The building itself incorporates several firsts, not least a 600-tonne foundation slab that was cast in a single piece and sits on an air suspension system.
The building has a 1200kW cooling system reckoned equivalent to the heating systems found in 120 family homes.
A purpose built electronics lab develops and tests electronic systems used in harvesting machines.
Complete machine systems are housed in cabinet size enclosures, allowing systems that interact throughout a machine to be tested and improved before upgrades are built into production machines.
Twin rotor swathers have become the ‘go-to’ for forming swaths to feed hungry harvesters and balers, however, the design layout often means that crop located between the two rotors is not picked up, turned over or incorporated into the swath formed for subsequent harvesting.
Fifty Eight years ago, on the 16th of August 1968, August Claas, the founder of the harvesting company and father of Helmut Claas, personally presented a Claas Senator combine harvester to Scottish farmer John Steven.
Scheduled to replace its Axion 800 series, Claas has released details of the new, three model, Axion 8 CMATIC range.
Following the €1.6 million investment in a prototype workshop in early 2025, Claas has invested an additional €3.3 million at its Metz-Woippy baler production plant to increase production capacity.
After its flagship 1200 model set a Guiness World Record in forage harvesting, mopping up 4096 tonnes of whole crop silage in 12 hours, Claas has picked up a brace of awards from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ASABE).
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