All-in-one carrier vehicle wins innovation gold medal

While Agritechnica has announced the cancellation of its physical event in March 2022, the biennial world agricultural expo has proceeded to name its innovation award winners, which comprise one gold award winner and 16 silver award recipients.

According to Agritechnica, the key criteria for its gold award winner is “demonstration of a new concept in which the functionality has changed decisively and gives rise to a new process or marks a substantial improvement to an existing process.”

Some criteria Agritechnica looks for include practical significance at farm level; operating profitability and efficiency benefits; improvement on the environment and energy consumption; and work load reduction and improved health and safety.

The gold award for 2021 went to NEXAT for its innovative wide-span carrier vehicle that aims to replace machinery fleets with just one vehicle that is capable of carrying out multiple jobs around the farm.

The system, also named NEXAT, can perform all sorts of tasks from harvesting to sowing to spraying with a simple change of modular attachments which NEXAT says can be done by one person in under 10 minutes. The company hopes to fully automate the process in the future.

With that in mind, a farmer only needs one NEXAT vehicle with multiple modular attachments for their farm instead of multiple tractors, self-propelled sprayers and combine harvesters for different jobs.

One of the key benefits of this, according to NEXAT, is significantly reduced soil compaction as farmers will only be driving that one vehicle with a fixed width. Depending on configuration (six to 24m), operating the NEXAT will ensure 95 per cent of farm land will not be driven on, hence protecting the soil and increasing yield potential, the company says.

The system is therefore ideal for Controlled Traffic Farming (CTF) operations.

“Minimising the number of machines required through the modular concept enables a reduction in acquisition costs as well as energy savings potential of 20 to 40 per cent compared to conventional machines,” says NEXAT Managing Director, Felix Kalverkamp.

“On the yield side, increases of 10-20 per cent are possible, which can mean an increase in profitability of 20-50 per cent. In addition, there are significant savings in terms of time and manpower.”

The NEXAT is designed as an autonomous working machine and is equipped with a peripheral monitoring system. The cab can be rotated 270 degrees.

The integrated implements are mounted between the four large, electrically driven track running gear units, which can be rotated by 90 degrees for travelling by road. At present, power is supplied by two independent diesel engines, each offering an output of 545hp, with generators. However, NEXAT says the vehicle has been prepared to be powered by green hydrogen fuel cells.

With the integrated NexCo combine harvester module, the NEXAT achieves grain throughputs of 130 to 200 t/hr for the first time, NEXAT says. A 5.8-m-long axial rotor mounted transverse to the direction of travel is used in the innovative threshing concept.

The flow of harvested material is introduced centrally into the rotor and at a tangent to achieve energy efficiency. The rotor divides it into two material flows which enables roughly twice the threshing performance of conventional machines, NEXAT adds.

Harvested grain is stored in a 36 cubic-metre grain bunker, which means it does not require a transfer vehicle on normal-length fields. Transfer to the transport vehicle will take place at the headland, and can be done within one minute at an unloading capacity of 600 l/s.

“The NEXAT-NexCo combination therefore gives rise to a completely new dimension of threshing performance when the carrier vehicle is used throughout the year,” Agritechnica says.

“The concept heralds a paradigm shift in agriculture and is to be viewed positively in terms of resource economy and ecology.”

The NEXAT is not a concept vehicle, but has in fact been put through its paces in real world conditions for three years by selected farmers. It was officially released on to the market in December this year and was originally slated to make its official debut at Agritechnica in March 2022, before it was called off.

In addition to the gold award, 16 silver award recipients were also announced, spanning a wide range of brands and product categories.

Some of the silver award winners include Krone’s ExactUnload intelligent automatic unloading system for loader wagons, Fendt’s automatic dust extraction system for ag machinery, CLAAS CEMOS AUTO HEADER adjustment control technology for auger cutter bars and more.

Visit Agritechnica’s website for the full list of winners.