Drive system redefined
CLAAS POWER SYSTEMS (CPS) and the new emissions standards
A new emissions threshold came into force on 1 January 2011 applicable to all engines with output of 130 kW and above. The threshold will extend to encompass smaller engines in a year’s time. The challenge for agricultural machinery manufacturers worldwide is to treat exhaust emissions while at the same time improving efficiency. However, there is more to treating exhaust emissions and boosting efficiency than just the engine system. In its efforts to evaluate and optimise the drive train as a whole, some years ago CLAAS organised its specialists into a series of expert teams under the banner of CLAAS POWER SYSTEMS (CPS), making CPS a permanent component of the company’s corporate structure.
CPS serves to pool drive system expertise within the CLAAS Group. CLAAS seeks to perfect the interplay of individual drive train components to power the machine with the greatest possible efficiency for maximum output and operational yields. The objective of CPS is to consolidate the connection between the new emissions standards and the benefit to the customer. This applies not only to the engine system, but also to the full range of supporting electronic control components, whose contribution to boosting efficiency increases daily. Electronic control components and systems play a key role in optimising the interplay of all assemblies in the cab (on board) and in machine handling in the field (on field). CLAAS has centralised these electronics applications under the term Efficient Agriculture Systems (EASY), alongside other machine monitoring and farm management applications. With EASY and CPS, CLAAS customers are in safe hands.
Exhaust gas treatment and boosting the efficiency of entire drive trains is no easy matter, however, and doesn’t come for free. The new emissions standards will significantly increase the cost of engines and ancillary engine systems. In some cases, the costs of engines and engine systems may well double. This is why CLAAS is working tirelessly to add additional customer benefits to its new model series to improve overall cost effectiveness. CLAAS seeks to optimise the overall costs of operating its machines; price increases, however, are unavoidable.
Official emissions reduction specifications are set to follow a long-term schedule of implementation. All CLAAS products to which the new specifications apply will undergo revision to ensure customers will always be safe in the knowledge that the right decision has been made from an economic and technological point of view. Neither a run on machines with outdated emissions compliancy, nor the delay of an investment decision until a new emissions level comes into effect are warranted, given the complexity of the conversion process and the various levels, and the technology modifications this entails over a period of several years. CLAAS machines maintain their value, even in second-hand condition, regardless of with which emissions standard they comply.
It is for good reason that CLAAS uses a number of highly capable suppliers of drive assemblies, because it is essential for drive systems to gel perfectly with a working system. CLAAS has identified the very best assemblies on the market to configure its drive trains. With regard to the upcoming emissions standard, these include manufacturers using urea admixtures for nitrogen oxide reduction (SCR technology) and manufacturers employing cooled exhaust gas recirculation and particulate filter technology (EGR/DPF). CLAAS sees benefits in both systems, and in consideration of economic factors, too, both processes are very similar. However, there is always more to a machine than an engine, and so the working system as a whole must be considered.
