Combine Harvesters, Farm Machinery

Claas celebrates 50,000th Lexion harvester

Claas is celebrating the making of its 50,000th Lexion combine harvester, 21 years after the 400 series made its debut in 1995.


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The harvesting platform rolled off the Claas assembly line in Harsewinkel, Germany and will be exhibited at agricultural fairs and exhibitions across Europe during the coming months.

Released after almost a decade of development, the first Claas Lexion model, the 480, “completely rewrote the rulebooks for performance, delivering unheard-of output levels of 40 tonnes per hour”, product manager Jono Ham says.

The machine had a 375hp engine, 7.5 m cutterbar and unique APS HYRID threshing and separation technology.

“It was the first model to combine an accelerated pre-separation threshing system with twin longitudinal rotors,” Ham says, adding that “approximately 70 per cent of the separation occurs before the crop even reaches the rotors, which means the machine can operate more efficiently and longer in all conditions”.

Combined, he says, these two technologies achieved up 20 per cent more throughput with minimal grain loss and no increase in fuel consumption.

“Claas is still the only manufacturer to offer both systems in the one machine,” Ham adds.

The Lexion 500 series was released in 2003, followed by the 600 series two years later.

The current Lexion 700 series, which features third-generation Terrra Trac drive systems and a 12.3m Vario variable cutterbar, was released in 2010.

The flagship Lexion 780 harvester is a 625hp machine which was named 2016 Machine of the Year at the world’s largest agricultural technology fair, Agritechnica.

Features include Dynamic cooling, 4D cleaning system, automatic crop flow control system, automatic performance optimisation system, grain quality camera, remote monitoring systems and remote monitoring.

“The Lexion 780 contains more than 50,000 parts, 4000 m of electrical cable and 215 m of hydraulic lines,” Ham says.

“Every aspect of these machines is designed to allow operators to harvest more grain per hectare, more hectares per hour and more hours per day in all crops and all conditions.”

 

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