Nice palaver! The STS didn't copy the CaseIH axail flow, it copied the Msssey design by basing its (Deere) design off of the expired White axial rotor system patent which uses an impeller to feed into a spiral flighted rotor intake. Deere hired away quite a few of the original White_Massey engineers during the 80's and 90's to realize the STS. As far as perfection goes, there really aren't any signs that Deere has gone leaps and bounds beyond any other rotor design's performance or capapcity! The 50 series STS left alot to be deisred and the 60 series has relieved some of the issues but not making it a leader of the pack. Deere has been working on a rotary combine since the late seventies when everyone else came out with theirs. It was inevitable that Deere was coming with a rotor combine, and they did long before the STS in the form of the CTS, which still remains a system with far more potential for capacity and performance than any axial type rotor (e.g. lexion). Deere's strength has never been in the combine harvester sector like CaseIH was or ClAAS is. The reason for monumental sales of STS combines is not because of their design, performance, quality, etc. It's because Deere is willing to do whatever it takes to get these marginal products in the hands of the public using creative finance tactics and alot of favoritisim to hedge off the sale of other brands. To be the "king of the hill" is a very dangerous thing. And, if you do not believe me, use the www and search back and see what happened to GM when they tryed to be the total consumer solution for automobiles. Being market leader with 60% + only means one thing! The rest of the mfg's aren't going to alow Deere much further progress (the are still that many consumers who prefer other brands). If I were Deere management, I would be worried. If anything, the word pension would scary enough.
