The winners of the new Systems & Components Trophy – Engineers’ Choice have been announced at Agritechnica in Hanover. The awards are an acknowledgment of the innovation of the supplier industry, and its importance to the agricultural machinery sector.
Winners
The awards went to Frank Walz- und Schmiedetechnik for its product “SafeKnives”, to Recalm for its acoustic device “Ancor” and lastly to Bondioli & Pavesi for its mechatronic continuously variable transmission unit. The trophies were handed out by DLG’s president Hubertus Paetow, who remarked, “the award-winning products and companies exemplify the know-how and extensive innovativeness of the supplier industry”.
In a preliminary decision round, a jury consisting of development engineers from agricultural machinery companies exhibiting at Agritechnica selected 20 products as ‘nominees’ from all of the submissions in the run-up to Agritechnica. The three winners were determined from this shortlist by the development engineers in an online voting process. The highlight of the premiere was the formal ceremony at which DLG President Hubertus Paetow presented the prizes on November 10th at Agritechnica.
Award criteria
With the ‘Systems & Components Trophy – Engineers’ Choice’, DLG honours components or systems with an innovative or considerably improved concept which can make a significant contribution to the development and production of agricultural machinery and other off-highway machines. Central evaluation criteria include practical importance to the industry, advantages in terms of profitability and processes, importance to the environment and energy consumption as well as improvements in terms of workload and safety.
Portraits of the winners
Frank Walz- und Schmiedetechnik GmbH – SafeKnivesÂ
Disc mower knives are used in mowers to cut forage. For quick-knife-changing they are often clamped to the disc and can thus easily become a projectile if a clamping bolt gets damaged. SafeKnives constantly measures the clamping force of the bolts. If clamping force decreases, the machine stops and prevents damage to humans or machinery.
Recalm GmbH – Ancor Â
To counteract the stress and danger factor of noise within vehicle cabins, recalm has developed ANCOR, an innovative acoustic device based on the principle of active noise reduction. By emitting an anti-sound signal, interfering signals are cancelled out. Ancor impresses with its innovative, user-friendly, machine-oriented technology and its customized and nuanced design.
Bondioli and Pavesi GmbH Germany –Â Continuously Variable Transmission Unit –Â
The proposed CVT unit is a compact and powerful mechatronic unit that combines the efficiency of a mechanic transmission with the ductility of hydraulic, controlled by electronic. The unit can be applied on drawbars and is extremely interesting for all applications where it’s required to continuously adapt the speed of the implement to different working conditions.
