German company NEXAT has won the Gold Medal at the Agritechnica Innovation Awards 2022 for its unique NEXAT-Systemtraktor –a carrier vehicle that can be used for all crop production work, from tillage and sowing to crop protection and harvesting.
Instead of conventional hauling, the implements for tillage and cultivation are carried. This leads to increased efficiency compared to tractor and towed implement combinations.
With the 14 meter version, the system is designed such that 95% of the total field area is never driven on in the envisaged bed mode, resulting in high yield potentials with good soil and environmental protection.
The NEXAT is designed as an autonomous working machine and is equipped with a peripheral monitoring system. A cab that can be rotated by 270° is available for process monitoring. This establishes the basis for fully automated machine operation and enables manual vehicle guidance during transport.
The integrated implements are mounted between the four large, electrically driven track running gear units, which can be rotated by 90° for travelling by road. At present, power is supplied by two independent diesel engines, each offering an output of 400 kW/545 hp, with generators. The vehicle is designed for alternative drive technologies such as fuel cells.
With the integrated NexCo combine harvester module, the NEXAT achieves grain throughputs of 130 to 200 t/h for the first time. 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. This enables roughly twice the threshing performance of conventional machines and establishes the prerequisite for uniform straw and chaff distribution with two choppers, even with a cutting width of 14 meters.
Grain delivery is ensured by a 36 m³ grain bunker, as a result of which the combine harvester unit does not require a transfer vehicle on normal-length fields. Transfer to the transport vehicle can take place on the headland; with an unloading capacity of 600 l/s, the process only takes around one minute.
The NEXAT-NexCo combination therefore gives rise to a completely new dimension of threshing performance when the carrier vehicle is used throughout the year. The concept heralds a paradigm shift in agriculture and is to be viewed positively in terms of resource economy and ecology.
