Interview

The QUADRANT 1200 established the 120x70 cm bale size in 1987. CLAAS then went on to create a fully new baling concept featuring a unique throughput capacity and legendary reliability with the QUADRANT 2200. With its extra throughput, the Generation 3200 delivers a new, addon pre-chamber control and the next FINE CUT generation.

Thierry Bonhomme played a major role in the development of the QUADRANT 3400 and 3200.

Mr Bonhomme: A new transmission and drives have been developed to produce higher throughput capacities. And to achieve even more effective machine usage, the new baler was given a pre-chamber system for small swaths. This is an add-on and adjustable hydraulic pre-chamber, as is already well known in the large QUADRANT 3400.

Mr Bonhomme: It is the only pre-chamber that can not only be adjusted from the cab, but can also be switched on and off from there. This means that different harvest conditions can be catered for quickly and easily when the surface type changes. The pre-chamber can be adjusted and adapted individually to the prevailing circumstances for small swaths. Optimum bales are therefore produced in all conditions.

However, it is not necessary to use the pre-chamber for large swaths. The pre-chamber is switched off in this case, and the channel is filled with every piston stroke. This keeps the bale package thickness as small as possible, and maximum compaction is achieved with a low power requirement. Heavy, consistently long bales are the results.

Mr Bonhomme: The new drives increase the crop flow speed at the POWER FEEDING SYSTEM and rotor by 30 %. The cut packets are made smaller, the throughput capacity increases. Advantages, that have a very great effect for the FINE CUT cutting system with 49 knives. With the new FINE CUT cutting system, the cutting frequency increases to over 35,000 cuts per minute. As compared to the front mounted harvester, broken straw can be produced for litter or forage rations directly on the field without creating large dust clouds and undesirable straw mats.

Mr Bonhomme: In addition to the high operating comfort of the CLAAS COMMUNICATOR control terminal, the transmission drive with automatic sequential switching is extremely important for me personally. The CLAAS patent for interactive overload protection features for the rotor and packer tines connects two independent clutches with one another – shear bolts and chains are a thing of the past. In an overload situation, it automatically switches off the feed and actively clears the blockage. This automatic system minimises loss times and is clearly measurable as extra baling outing at the end of the day.

Mr Bonhomme: The objective very clearly was to satisfy market requirements. Customers demanded balers that are variable to use, achieve perfectly compacted bales in all crops and therefore make high annual outputs possible. Simultaneously, they should optimally utilise the ever shortening harvesting windows with large throughputs, clear areas faster and set new standards for tonnage output per season. And the fact that we succeeded in this will be proven by the new QUADRANT in use.