Drive technology specialist Claas Group

DRIVE TECHNOLOGY SPECIALISTS

A member of the world-renowned Claas Group, Germany-based Claas Industrietechnik is a leading manufacturer of drive technology and hydraulics for a range of industry sectors including agriculture and construction. Victoria Hattersley talks to Thomas Spiering, the company’s sales director, to find out about some of its most innovative and unique products, and plans for future growth.

Claas Industrietechnik, unlike the majority of the Claas Group, is not in the business of combines and tractors. Instead, this autonomous member of the group has made a name for itself as a leading producer of unique drive technology systems and hydraulics. And whilst the company supplies its products internally within the Claas Group, ensuring them a steady supply of high-quality, great value drive systems, it also has a number of high profile clients in a surprisingly wide range of industry sectors. A large percentage of its clients are from eastern European countries, such as Russia and Belarus, although it also serves the rest of Europe and occasionally exports as far afield as Australia.

The company is based in Paderborn, Germany, where it currently employs about 600 people involved in the production of its system solutions. The production systems enable Claas Industrietechnik to achieve a highly developed production depth including all key process steps from raw material processing to precise final processing and tested products, thus ensuring high quality and flexibility. In the past few strained economic years, Claas Industrietechnik also invested in infrastructure and processes, such as an environmentally friendly paint shop using water-based painting systems. Last year a new testing bench was installed to further enlarge its testing skills and capacities. In various testing processes Claas Industrietechnik is checking the function and robustness of the various components and modules and their interaction.

“For the future and after the extensive restructuring of the last few years,” adds Mr Spiering, “we are running a 2015 internal factory programme which will further focus on improving operational excellence in different areas. There will be a particular focus on improving logistics systems.”

Markets and clients

Whilst it plans to expand its range of markets even more in the coming years, Claas Industrietechnik currently supplies its products to four key sectors: agriculture, municipal, construction equipment and industry

equipment. In the area of agriculture, the company’s key client is still the Claas group itself – although interestingly it is also serving some of the group’s key competitors such as Russia’s Rostelmash, Sampo Rosenlew in Finnland and the German leading producer of potato harvesters, Grimme.

In the area of municipal supply, the company offers hydraulic systems and axles, serving companies such as Multicar as well as the AEBI-Schmidt Group. Its construction equipment includes hydraulic systems and power take-off gearboxes (PTOs). “An interesting client for us in this area,” says Mr Spiering, “is the Putzmeister Group, which is producing concrete and material placing equipment, most notably in the Arabic states such as Dubai where you have many very high buildings which need strong concrete parts and therefore reliable gearboxes.”

Finally, in the industry equipment sector Claas Industrietechnik delivers hydraulic systems such as drive components for rail platforms or controllers for large winding drive mechanisms. Its significant clients in this area include such world-renowned players as Thales and Bosch Rexroth.

Terra Trac system

From the above, then, it can been seen that Claas Industritechnik’s constant striving to develop ever more innovative and unique products has enabled it to diversify and serve clients across the world in a number of key industry sectors. So what is it about the company’s core products that make them so unique?

One of the company’s biggest selling products today is the globally-known Terra Trac system. This is a rubber track system that runs on large machinery such as combine or potato harvesters. Currently in its third generation (generation two of the product has been successfully established in agricultural applications since the product’s introduction in the 1990s), this system is completely unique to the market.

Mr Spiering explains how this latest, third generation offers clients a level of quality and efficiency they will not get anywhere else: “Generation three of Terra

Trac includes the latest suspension and control technologies, therefore the combine is able to run in extremely wet conditions and, crucially, will be able to run at 40kph on the road – the fastest combine speed in the world today and a major advantage for our clients. We already have a huge order intake for this product in this business year which is very positive for us. Furthermore, we are looking to increase the volumes and we are very happy that this technology is seeing such success in the market.”

Innovation for the future

But whilst Terra Trac is the company’s most important product today, it is by no means the only unique innovation it can offer. The company also produces drive axles for combines, and for these it is focused on three main areas: efficiency, weight and the load of the axle. Because there is a strict vehicle weight limit that the vehicle manufacturer must adhere to, Claas is working on the use of different materials to improve the quality of gearboxes at a lighter weight. As Mr Spiering explains, “A lot of our clients are getting into difficulties regarding new engine regulations, which need more weight, so they will have to reduce the weight of the drive technology somehow. We already have a couple of gearboxes in aluminium, but we would like to expand its possibilities in different applications.”

For example, at the 2011 Agritechnica trade fair, Claas Industrietechnik (pavilion 25 stand H13) intends to show a number of other products – one of them is a hydraulic steer-by-wire system, which controls the hydraulic block by wire from the steer so there is no orbitrol needed in the steering mechanism. Mr Spiering explains why this is such an innovative design: “The driver of the relevant machine is just steering by electrical input so he can do drive management and consider some kinds of drive strategies at the same time. This is very important and also has connections with products like GPS. This will be another main product we are showing at the fair, aside from Terra Trac.”

The company has also created two new modular mobil-hydraulic families, CL04 (directional seat valve) and CL06 (proportional directional valve), which has been developed for the variable motion control of hydraulic motors and cylinders through an electrical activation cycle. The two products were created in order to further complete the product range and to be as flexible as possible so that clients could select a hydraulic system and build it up from scratch to their specifications. These products have been on the market for a year and, according to Mr Spiering, have already realised good volumes within and outside the Claas Group.

Lastly, looking forward to the next few years on a more general level, Claas Industrietechnik intends to further expand its Terra Trac business and enter the market for new applications, winning new clients in different business areas in order to increase volumes. Mr Spiering concludes: “We would like to develop new solutions in different applications from those used in the Claas Group and come up with some innovations to sell externally, which could then be re-integrated within the group at a later time. That’s why it will continue to be important to enlarge the business and work closely with our clients on innovations.” n