Driving force CLAAS Industrietechnik

DRIVING FORCE

CLAAS Industrietechnik is a global player in the development of advanced drive technology and hydraulic solutions. Philip Yorke takes a closer look at a remarkable company and its latest, groundbreaking innovative products and solutions.

CLAAS Industrietechnik is a wholly owned subsidiary of the world renowned CLAAS Group of Germany, one of the world’s leading providers of harvesters, tractors, sowing machinery and agricultural systems. The affiliate company was founded 56 years ago at its present site, located at Paderborn in western Germany where over 650 highly skilled staff maintain its reputation for quality and innovation. Today the company produces drive and hydraulic products and solutions that are used both within the Claas Group and also in a wide variety of other industrial sectors and applications. These range from agricultural and municipal equipment and complex construction machinery to offshore technology.

The company’s modern factory in Paderborn was recently upgraded and re-structured to offer a new, state-of-the-art testing centre, designed to provide its customers with the most advanced testing technology available today. This latest facility is also designed to optimise the quality and efficiency of the company’s drive technology and hydraulic systems products.

This latest investment allows the company to evaluate exhaustively its advanced components and drive systems during the final stages of production. In addition, it offers clients the opportunity to participate in the overall project management process.

Another € 3.5 million was invested in a new logistics centre which began operation in Summer 2013. This was part of the rearrangement of the facility site and marked a huge progress in the internal rationalisation and optimisation process.

World CLAAS driving technology

CLAAS Industrietechnik is a leading producer of drive technology and hydraulics. The company’s outstanding product is the TERRA TRAC system, the world leading rubber trac undercarriage system.

Due to its flexibility and characteristics it is used for a large variety of machines such as harvesters and dumpers. Thanks to its hydro-pneumatical suspension it provides high driving dynamics, amazing riding comfort and thereby a whole new level of control. With a maximum speed of 40 kph and an increased driving safety the Terra Trac system sets a new benchmark. Its unique construction reduces the soil pressure by up to 66% and avoids irreversible damage.

Besides the TERRA TRAC system CLAAS Industrietechnik offers a large variety of axles for all kinds of vehicle. The top products of this section are the drive axles for the worlds’ largest combine – the LEXION - with a net load between 22 an 30 metric tons. These axles are equipped with planetary gears and a transmission with 2 speeds based on electrohydraulic shifting. CLAAS Industrietechniks open-structured driving axles can be used with standard tires and posses easy maintenance tanks to assure fast and easy access to the modules. The close-structured driving axles are equipped with electrohydraulic transmission, integrated multidisc brakes and an optional tire pressure control system and differential lock. Vehicles with these axels have a load capacity of up to 14 tons and a speed limit of up to 40 kph.

CLAAS Industrietechnik also provides steering (drive) axles with a load capacity between 4.5 and 10 tons. These universal adjustable axles can be installed on any kind of harvester and are also available as swing axles. Due to the modular structure any customer specific configuration can be applied.

CLAAS Industrietechnik is also well known for its axles for municipal vehicles. The range of products includes numerous axle and chassis solutions. Steering, driving and steering drive axles are available as rigid axles and as axles with independent wheel suspension. Rigid drive axles with internally vented disk breaks are also available.

New hydraulic solutions

Ever since the company was founded 99 years ago, research and development has been a top priority at CLAAS, and gone hand-in-hand with innovation, quality and reliability. As a result, CLAAS Industrietechnik’s product range for hydraulic solutions is constantly being enhanced to meet the many diverse and demanding challenges of today’s hydraulic-electronics marketplace. Whether for intelligent control of complex motion sequences for mobile applications, or for industry in general, it is the company’s passion for precision and efficiency that drives it.

The company also leads the field in its core competences for switch and proportional valve technology. This is owing to its many years of system competence, which extends from the system design and simulation to integration and final application. Furthermore, the company’s advanced research and testing facilities provide the opportunity to validate the entire development process and offer a truly holistic approach to the project management process.

This is equally true of the complex solutions delivered by the company’s electronics division, which develops sophisticated sensors and actuators and their correspondingly powerful electronic control devices. CLAAS Industrietechnik’s electronic devices range from the CLAAS Hydraulic Controller (CHC), which can control up to four hydraulic valves of up to the CCU of 16plus, and high performance controllers for complex sequence control. These are all supported by corresponding operating terminals and efficient application software technology. All this in-depth expertise and innovative technology can be harnessed at CLAAS Industrietechnik at any time, in order to meet a customer’s tailor-made specifications and requirements.

To keep its top position in the world market CLAAS Industrietechnik is always inventing new technologies and products following the motto of its founder, Helmut Claas: “If you want to be the leader you must keep running.” n