What's New At AGCO?

What's New At AGCO? ENGINES Engines 34-5-5 AGCO impressed reporters at a recent news conference where the company introduced new machines and talked about hot new products in development. Gary Ball, senior vice president of engineering, made the point that AGCO is now the only major ag equipment company that's solely focused on agriculture. No research and development money goes into construction equipment or trucking. Here are some new products the company recently introduced, and a few that are still in development: • A 7-cylinder, 462 hp engine from AGCO's Sisu Power division. Added to an existing 6-cylinder engine, the 7th cylinder offers 20 percent more displacement and a corresponding power increase. Uses the same gear train, flywheel housing and flywheel. • 12-cylinder, V-block engine that produces 700 hp. • The just-introduced Gleaner S7 Series transverse rotor combine with a newly enlarged 30-in. rotor for heavyweight capacity in row crops as well as grain. New fuel technology offers up to 15 percent greater fuel efficiency over conventional combines. • Prototype 6-wheel drive, triple axle tractor, shown two years ago in Europe (Vol. 32, No. 1). It has twin CVT tranmissions and is equipped with ABS brakes, which will soon start showing up on the company's other models. The innovative tractor also features on-the-go tire pressure control, which will also soon be integrated into other models. • Sunflower 1550 Series 5-section, 50-ft. disk harrow features duplex wing hinge designed to better follow terrain. The walking triple tandems offer 50 percent more weight-carrying capacity to slice through heavy residue. • Other technologies being evaluated by AGCO include new ag tires that stand up better to crop stubble, engines that can use ethanol-diesel mixes being developed in South America, and increased use of electric power on tractors and other equipment, such as the prototype electric drive wheel on the company's RoGator. (Jim Ruen, Contributing Editor

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