Hungary’s cab specialist Agrikon

hungary’s CaB sPeCialist

With its advanced manufacturing technology and capacity to expand production, Hungary’s Agrikon Kam is looking to rapid growth in its European markets

AGRIKON KAM Kft was established in Hungary in 1993 when its predecessor company, the state-owned Mezőgép, was privatised. Since the 1970s the factory has been producing cabs for Claas harvesters and this business has since been developed to include specialised cabs for a diverse range of applications and international customers.

Today AGRIKON KAM is focused on the complete or partial assembly of cabs for combine harvesters, forage harvesters, tractors as well as cabins for construction machines such as grapples, telescopic loaders, road rollers, wheel loaders. It also produces welded and partially mounted main units for these machines, such as inclined bearing structures, various ancillary structures and other welded assembled and painted components.

AGRIKON’s manufacturing site at Kiskunmajsa covers around 70,000 square metres, of which 36,000 square metres is built-on. In addition to this, AGRIKON has a 60,000 square metres of free

industrial area that can be used for any development purpose. The current operation produces some 25,000 units a year but the facility is capable of producing as many as 40-45,000 cabs or cab units a year, giving it a huge potential to expand production for new customers.

Today Agrikon’s international business has grown to include the supply of cabins and other components to Claas production operations in Hungary, Germany and France. It also supplies cabs to JLG in Belgium, Zetorand and Ammann in the Czech Republic, Zao Argrotechmash in Russia, Kramer, Hako, Multicar and Terex in Germany as well as to Liebherr in Austria.

Advanced manufacturing

With more than 50 years’ experience of specialised cab manufacturing, Agrikon Kam has developed an integrated manufacturing process that uses state-of-the-art technology to carry out almost every step of the cab manufacturing process in-house.

The production process today begins with the manufacturing of parts from steel base materials with laser machines for sheet and tube and profile cutting. The parts are then welded in various welding positions, welding lines, special welding machines and welding robots. The plant’s 14 welding robots range from flat pre-welded units to full cabinet welding. Surface treatment of welded components is provided by various painting equipment (e.g. cataphoretic primer-painting line (KTL), plastic powder coating, wet finish paint lines). The painted cabs are then assembled in strips in the state-ofthe-art 6,200 square metre assembly hall.

Agrikon Kam also operates a state-of-art range of measuring machines. A brand-new measuring room houses 3D measuring machines and scanners that enable complete cabin frames to be

measured with total accuracy. Other equipment includes a vibration testing meter, electric test equipment and a, water tightness test cabin. The paint quality of components is tested for its resistance to salt spray and many other environmental impacts.

After packaging, the complete products are shipped from the company site by truck or by direct rail transport from the factory’s own rail siding.

All Agrikon manufacturing processes employ the latest manufacturing technology to ensure the company’s competitiveness. A 10-million euros investment programme in recent years has seen the introduction of laser machines, program-controlled bending machines, advanced welding machines, welding robots, advanced painting lines, and advanced assembly plant and measuring technology, The investments have also included Pro Engineer, CREO 2 and CATIA V5 design software. All of this is complemented by the in-house logistics process, which guarantees the highest quality of customer service.

New measurement technology

A recent development in Agrikon’s critical metrology capabilities has been the introduction of the Creaform HandyPROBE optical measurement system.

“Throughout our production process we need to carry out measurements in a huge range, from small parts with mm dimensions

to the assembled cabs and complex welded structures,” explained an Agrikon Quality Controller. “For this purpose, we were searching for a solution that is easy and fast to operate and can be deployed directly on the shop floor without building a separate measurement room. Having considered all the possibilities, we chose the Creaform HandyPROBE optical measurement system.”

HandyPROBE is an innovative dual camera optical measurement system that eliminates the disadvantages of probes and their physical connections and is therefore able to carry out any measurement tasks quickly and easily. Thanks to the dynamic reference, both the camera and the workpiece can be moved without recalibration during the measurement process, which in turn shortens the measurement time considerably. This enables Agrikon engineers to move the system freely and walk around the long, welded structures without any of the restrictions associated with stationary devices.

In the last ten years Agrikon has become one of the most significant driver’s cabin manufacturers in Europe. It currently has the largest production capacities in its field in the whole of eastern and central Europe. The management believes that its proven capabilities and its installed capacity now offer the opportunity to expand annual production to meet the needs of new customers throughout Europe. n