Claas mowing-threshing binder

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Claas Brothers Maschinenfabrik
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Mowing-threshing binder
Manufacturer: Claas
Sales designation:
M.DB mower-threshing binder
Production period: 1937-1943
Engines: no
Length: 7200 mm
Width: 5300 mm
Height: 2600 mm
Standard tires: Air or iron wheels
Separation system: Horde shaker
Threshing system: Tangential
Cutting width: 2.1 m
Threshed material unloading: in sacks
Dimensions: 2400 kg
Previous model: none
Successor: Claas great

The reaper-binder , also simply MDB or MDB called, is the first mass-produced combine harvesters from Claas . The first machine of this type was sold to Gutsbetrieb Zschernitz in the summer of 1936 ; series production began in 1937. Around 1400 MDBs had been built until the war-related cessation of production in 1943. The hourly output should be between 1.5  tons (1500 kg) and 2.5 tons (2500 kg) of grain.

history

Combines have been in use in North America since the late 1920s. These were not suitable for Central European conditions, as longer and more humid straw had to be processed here . The agricultural scientist Karl Vormfelde from the University of Bonn therefore promoted the development of a combine harvester suitable for Europe. After the large agricultural machinery and threshing machine manufacturers showed no interest, he sent his assistant Walter Brenner in 1930 to the then still small manufacturer Claas, whose owner August Claas had expressed interest. Brenner began to design a combine harvester, which he built around a Lanz Bulldog with 30 HP (22 kW), the front cutter .

The front cutter had a cutting unit with a width of 2.5 m that could be tilted to reach different stubble heights. From the cutting unit, the ears of grain were transported hanging into the vertical threshing drum using conveyor chains. It had a diameter of 350 mm and a height of 1,200 mm or 1,000 mm. The kernels fell onto a sieve and were cleaned with a pressure wind before they were bagged . This thresher did not have a residual grain separation system in the form of a shaker. The threshed straw was deposited in swaths on the field. A rye and a wheat model were developed which were to be offered for RM 2950 and RM 3150 respectively.

The plan was to convince other large agricultural machinery manufacturers to use the combine, but this did not succeed. Claas then decided to continue developing a combine harvester on its own. For this purpose Claas built three more front trimmers that were used in Mecklenburg, Berlin and Italy. Economically and technically, the front cutter was not a success; a farmer called it a “gnome machine”, which stands for “never works without a fitter”.

After visiting various agricultural engineering exhibitions in the USA and France, August Claas, unlike Vormfelde and Brenner, favored a trailed combine harvester in 1934, for which the threshing mechanism had to be completely redeveloped. The first machines with the new threshing mechanism, also still prototypes, combined the threshing mechanism with a sheaf binder. They were completed in 1935, but not satisfactory. One of these prototypes caught fire during tests due to flying sparks from the exhaust of the pulling Lanz Bulldog tractor. Despite this setback, the development was continued, the first machine to combine the mower, threshing unit and binder was first used in the summer of 1936 on the East German manor Zschernitz. The series production finally began in 1937. After the hundredth and 1941 the thousandth Mäh-Thresch-Binder was built, in 1943 production had to be switched to war material due to the war.

technology

The MDB is a trailed combine that works according to the cross-flow method: both threshing and residual grain separation run transversely to the direction of pull of the thresher. It is suitable for combine threshing, crouch threshing or standing threshing . With the crouch threshing, the cutting bar is replaced by an insert table. This type of threshing is primarily intended for rapeseed and turnip rape . All types of grain , seeds and beans can be harvested in a conventional combine harvester. The mower-thresher binder is driven by the PTO shaft of the pulling tractor . A PTO tractor with pneumatic tires or a PTO tractor with caterpillar drive with an engine output of at least 45 HP (approx. 33 kW) is required for operation. At the beginning of the 1940s, these were quite powerful tractors, especially by German standards at the time, such as the Deutz F3M 317, Hanomag AGR 50, MAN AS 250 or Lanz Bulldog D 9506 . In exceptional cases, a tractor with 35 HP (approx. 26 kW) can be used to operate the MDB, but the output is then reduced. A tractor driver, a machine operator at the bagging stand and a "boy to help" are sufficient operating personnel.

The cutting device with a width of 2100 mm is attached to the front right and is designed in such a way that it mows next to the pulling tractor and the tractor does not have to drive through the grain to be harvested. The cutting unit has a reel and a stalk divider. The mown grain is conveyed to the threshing device on a conveyor belt across the direction of travel. In order to bring the thresher into transport position, the cutting unit is dismantled and loaded onto a cutting unit carriage that is hung behind the thresher. In order to harvest on slopes, the MDB could be equipped with a slope adjustment. The wheels of the chassis are lowered either left or right by a ratchet gear. Slopes of up to 15% can be mastered.

The threshing drum is installed on the right side of the thresher and turns clockwise. It has six blow bars and a diameter of 450 mm. The threshing concave runs around the left of the drum, and above the drum is the straw pick-up, which transports the straw to the shakers installed at right angles to the direction of pull of the thresher to separate the residual grain . In the lower part of the MDB, the grain is cleaned with the short straw sieve and sucked from there to the deburrer. Downstream of the deburrer is a pneumatic pressure wind elevator, which conveys the grain to the exchangeable sieves, which can be exchanged for different types of fruit and which are installed above the short straw sieve. From the upper sieve, the grain goes to the bagging stand at the back of the thresher, where it is filled into sacks. The sacks are automatically tied. On request, a bag dropper was available, which drops 3–5 bags at a time, making it easier to collect the bags from the field.

The chaff is also conveyed upwards from the short straw sieve via the pneumatic elevator. However, due to its low mass and sensitivity to wind, it does not fall onto the second sieve like the grain to be cleaned, but is blown on and ends up in a large, flexible metal hose that ends outside the combine harvester. A chaff wagon can be attached to the MDB to collect the chaff from the metal hose. Such chaff wagons were available from Claas as accessories for the MDB. There were two reasons for collecting the chaff: on the one hand, chaff was important as animal fodder, and on the other hand there was a fear that the field would become very weed when the chaff was left behind. The straw is tied together into bundles by a straw tie, which the MDB places on the field. A straw bundle collector was available for an additional charge, which does not immediately deposit the straw bundles in the field, but collects 8–10 straw bundles and then places them in a row. It is released by the tractor driver with a pull line and automatically engages again.

source

literature

  • Jürgen Hummel, Alexander Oertle, Jan Sternberg, Peter Felser: Combine harvesters: history and technology . wk & f Kommunikation, Kempten 2008, ISBN 978-3-89880-417-2 , p. 32 .
  • Claas KGaA mbh: Harvest better for 100 years. Class . 1st edition. Delius Klasing Verlag, Harsewinkel 2013, ISBN 978-3-7688-3557-2 , p. 193-201 .
  • Manfred Baedecker, Ralf Lenge: The Claas combine harvester story . 2nd Edition. Landwirtschaftsverlag, Hiltrup 2003, ISBN 978-3-7843-3053-2 , p. 26-37 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ MDB to Matador - 1936 - MDB - the European grain harvest is being revolutionized ( Memento from September 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Manfred Baedecker, Ralf Lenge: The Claas combine harvester story . Landwirtschaftsverlag, Hiltrup 2001, 2nd edition 2003. ISBN 3-7843-3053-3 . page 12
  3. ↑ a b 100 years of better harvests, p. 197
  4. ↑ M. Baedecker, R. Lenge p. 26
  5. ↑ a b M. Baedecker, R. Lenge p. 27
  6. ↑ M. Baedecker, R. Lenge, p. 28
  7. ↑ a b M. Baedecker, R. Lenge p. 29
  8. ↑ M. Baedecker, R. Lenge p. 30
  9. ↑ a b M. Baedecker, R. Lenge p. 31
  10. ↑ 100 years of better harvests, p. 201
  11. ↑ Combine harvester: History and technology, p. 32
  12. ↑ M. Baedecker, R. Lenge, p. 32

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