Case-IH 8790

After taking over the former "Fortschritt" harvesting machine factory in Neustadt/Saxony, Bidell/Mengele initiated the development of a completely new forage harvester, as the framework concept of the Mengele "Mammut" was no longer suitable for harvesting headers with eight or more rows.

The result was the Mengele "Profi" of which three machines were supposedly built in blue livery.

After Case-IH took over the Neustadt plant in November 1997, these machines were renamed "Case-IH 8790".

Approximately 66 of this 8790 were built in the A version. The first 20 units of this A series were equipped with a V8 Deutz, type BF8M 1015C, which had a nominal output of 544 hp. At the time, Case answered the question about maximum performance with “plenty”.

The remaining 46 units had the Daimer-Benz OM 502, which probably wasn't far away from the 600 hp mark in terms of maximum output.

A big problem with these machines was that they were far from fully developed and were sent onto the market far too early.

To give just one example: The durability of the power belt for the cracker roller drive was far too short.

Reason: The power belt used was not approved at all for the small radius of the pulleys on the cracker rollers!

Later, a "B prototype" was built, which already had the swiveling blower unit, which is now known on the New Holland "FR" under the name "Vari-Flow".

The Case 8790 has nothing in common with the Mengele "Mammut", apart from the identical ejection chute!

However, the first Krone choppers were very similar to the 8790, which meant a certain personnel transfer from Case-IH to Krone.

Deutz-Fahr Forage Harvesters

Deutz-Fahr was involved in the topic of “chopper construction” pretty much from the beginning.
The machine was divided into three assemblies: the vehicle itself, which was purchased from Mengele, the chopping unit and the grass and corn headers, which were self-constructed.
The corn header was also delivered to Pöttinger, where it was used on the heavy tractor propelled choppers.
This means that the Fahr and Pöttinger headers were identical, the only difference being a different pitch of the intake chains. The promise here is that there will be advantages in terms of durability. In practice, however, there was no difference.
All self propelles Fahr-harvesters were powered by Deutz engines and had a hydrostatic drive.
Cracker rollers were not available because, in the manufacturer's opinion, they were not necessary due to the segmental knife design of the chopping drum and the two shredder plates.
After at least 355 units had been built, the chopper construction was finished again in 1982, although the first prototypes of a successor machine were already in the field.
The plans for the corn header were sold to Pöttinger, where it was built for many years.

 

Deutz-Fahr Gigant 400

The Gigant 400 was actually based on the former "Fortschritt"-choppers, whose chopping-unit was combined with a 408 hp V6 Deutz engine, type BF6M 1015C.
The first "Gigant", just like the "Fortschritt", had no separate blower, but only a "cutting-throwing cylinder".
However, since customers sometimes complained about the overcharging performance, a small blower was later installed, which could also be retrofitted to older machines.
"The effect wasn't particularly big," said a former service technician, "then he just threw it three meters further."
At that time, a disc cracker was already being used to condition the grain, which was originally an invention of “Fortschritt”.
The “Gigant 400” was one of the first forage-harvesters to have its harvesting headers hydraulically driven.
There was already a work platform between the cracker and the engine, which was easily accessible from the right side of the machine. Approximately 150 “Giant 400” machines were built. A successor, the "Gigant 500", was already being built, but this prototype fell victim to "Same's" austerity measures.

 

Corn cracker in Fiat-Hesston

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The grain shredding in the Fiat-Hesston worked completely differently than with all other chopper manufacturers: An extremely high-speed knife rotor rotated in the blower's ejection chute, which damaged the grains flying past and at the same time further accelerated the feed stream. 

The rotation speed of this rotor was so high that its bearing was connected to a pressure lubrication system with a separate hydraulic pump.

Various patents from other manufacturers

The Chinese company "CHANGZHOU CHANGFA HEAVY INDUSTRY TECH CO LTD" has registered a re-cutting device for the following patent, which is arranged between the knife drum and the ejection fan:

 

https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search/family/088884342/publication/CN117136715A?q=CN117136715A

This is about a post-shredding device in the ejection chute, specifically "corrugated plates" along which the chopped corn flies and the kernels are damaged in the process:

 

https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search/family/006294283/publication/US4830288A?q=pn%3DUS4830288A

Below is a patent from the company "Fortschritt" from 1995, in which a cutting cylinder with a cutting length variation of 5mm to 100mm is described:

 

https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search/family/007764604/publication/DE19522056A1?q=pn%3DDE19522056A1