"We've been working on the idea for the past five years but we didn't fully realize what a tremendous demand there would be for our Impact Rotor until we went public with the idea this summer," says Trevor Jubenville of M&R Machines in Weyburn, Sask., about the company's rebuilt and converted rotors for Axial Flow combines.
Case-IH came out with the specialty rotor for Axial Flows in the 1980's. It does a much better job threshing than standard rotors thanks to the more aggressive spiral arrangement of rotor cylinder bars. They help move crop material through the threshing area of the combine much the same way auger flighting moves grain through an auger. Today, many Axial Flow combines come factory-equipped with the specialty rotor.
"It's far superior in any tough-to-thresh crop like peas, lentils,beans, flax, and other crops. Even where there's no need for more aggressive threshing, the combine runs much smoother with less fuel consumption and increased capacity because crop material flows through so much easier," says Jubenville.
What M&R Machines does is convert standard rotors into specialty rotors, or they rebuild damaged or worn specialty rotors to "better than new" condition. "Better because we re-skin the rotors with 3/16-in. steel -- heavier than O.E.M. -- and install the 40 rows of rasp bar clips. We take special care in indexing and truing the clips into place because we work on them one at a time and have the equipment and methods that make this truly a precision piece of equipment, right down to the balancing," says Jubenville.
M&R's Impact Rotor uses standard off-the-shelf Case-IH rub bars. They also offer high wearing chrome alloy rub bars, and the "Gordon Rotor Bar" for especially tough-to-thresh small grains.
"Farmers running the Impact Rotor say it works just like the original and lasts longer because of the heavier skin. What's more, we can sell them at less than half the price of new," says Jubenville.
M&R has been buying rotors from salvage yards so they have rebuilt units in stock. You send in your old rotor and they'll send you a new Impact Rotor.