Combines lexion design

Outside of not purchasing them, how exactly did Deere "close the door" on VersatileIJ As for the rest of your statement, apparently it was all Johnny come lately enough to outsell CAT Challengers 50 to 1 and do well enough to drive Cat into selling their new fangled Challengers off to Agco. Speaking of selling off, the undershot chevron impeller of a lexion, along with the rest of the Cebis enlightened, 3-D sieve sporting wonder has also gone back to Claas. Johnny come still in existence. What might have been is always intriguing. Kind of like your bi-rotor isn't it....

ouch, what got into you johnny get offendedIJ

Cebis, imo, 3d, auto steer were all ClAAS to start with never Cats anyway Buchshot!

I think the concept for self leveling sieves originated in the lavarda combine company not Claas. lavarda was bought out by Fiat back in the late 1980's or so. lavarda also made combines with multiple cylinders like Claas did.

It was my distant observation that JD spent time talking and negotiating with Versatile about 4WD tractors and combine technology acquisitions. JD learned what they wanted, then discontinued the negotiations back in the 1980's, ie sort of left Versatile abruptly, ie out in the cold, and closed the door. Perhaps this can be considered as typical business process. It seems to be common knowledge that John Deere does a good job of marketing to their customer base. And although JD has introduced a lot of good new technology, so have their competitors, such as the Claas _ Cat lexion. I think we should appreciate the benefits of competition. Now, six years later, you see JD introducing similar, and even some improved versions of the lexion features a 1) self-cleaning moisture sensor, 2)a multi-link header connector, 3)electric sieves and chaffer adjustments, 4) axial end discharge unloading augers, 5)faster unload rates, 6) auto reel positioning, and 7) Touch Set controls. John Deere will do a good job promoting these features as "new" innovations at this years JD Days video and show (wpka Farming Frontiers). On the otherhand, JD STS combines and customers are apparently still in second place to lexion customers in terms of sidehill performance (3D sieve) with less grain (shoe) losses, better header drives, tailings monitor, graintank extensions _ covers, fountain fill augers, yield monitor accuracy, electrical systems and displays, feederhouse and header drives, tracks, engine performance, all crop capability and grain quality. I still feel confident that the Bi-Rotor and its related technology will eventually be used to meet customer expectations and future market needs in these areas. I think history will eventually record the timeline with JD being about three years into development of the STS in 1995 when they bought the XBR2 rights. Besides gaining valuable technology, they were also able to keep it from becoming a formidable competitor to them in three or four different product lines and markets. This was another good marketing move on their part, but perhaps at the expense of curtailing some new threshing, separating and grain handling advancements. It will get there, it just might take time for the STS generation to run its course. It is fun to see how things evolve and get more interesting. !!

You may be right about laverda having a self leveling shoe, but the Claas 3D sieve option is not "self leveling". It provides sidehill compensation by inducing lateral motion to toss MOG uphill. This lateral motion is in addition to the fore-aft motion of a normal sieve and is simply attained by moving the pivot arm on the right side. The upper and lower sieve still tilt with combine similar to the ground contour. Hence the 3Dimensional name is very appropriate and a pretty simple and clever system. The lateral distributor concept on the Bi-Rotor prototype(s) provided some similar improvement in sidehill performance and enhanced cleaning shoe distribution and performance in a simple fashion. Deere probably would not risk hurting sales of the their Sidehill combines ($36K option) in lieu of such a simply system system. It should at least be added to levelland combines for better shoe performance.

laverda brought out a "revolutionary" combine principle, which was indeed rotary, but nothing like Claas rotary systems. The laverda MX 240 had a large transverse rotor _primary separator across the back of the head. The straw was ejected out the l_h end, by the steps, kinda interesting getting up steps when machine was at work!!. The half threshed material then entered the main cylinder where it was finally threshed and separated. There were no longdituninal rotors in these machines like a 480. They were fast machines in their time, but never caught on, and soon got scrapped.

The 116 and 228 cs machines in Europe were a very good high capacity machine for their time especially the 228cs comander with a 7.3 mtr header( you need a big header to keep it full )and bloody fast.... even now when they come up for sale they don't hang around very long and are snapped up very quickly very rare now !!!!! The 116 and 115 cs variants were alittle under powered and all models required high standard of maintenance.... many moving parts. The lexion and the CS machines are totally different in concept in the area of separation...for obvious reasons